Crystal hack: Pokémon Polished Crystal (update 2.2.0)

[Zeta Sukuna]

Mostly curious, but if you are going to try and bring yourself more in parity with Mateo's hack universe, will the South Island be a part of this eventually? Or whatever it was called. The Island from Pokemon Christmas.

 

[Ruvaldak]

I don't know just how long 3.0 will be, but if you play 2.2.0, I think 3.0 will feel like a whole new game. :)

I tried instant text originally, but it made some lines not appear at all—text that auto-scrolls, like certain important messages in battle, would just be overwritten. I'll reconsider it, though; maybe that's fixable, or I can just warn players about it.

Still playing around with which tiles to change. I think Pokémon Centers will have the same layout in both regions, since they did in GSC and HGSS.

Edit:



Yes it would. I'm not prepared to invent a whole region worth of content, but Mateo's planning to eventually include the Orange Islands in Red++ (I think), so since that's in the same universe as Polished Crystal we could probably cooperate on that. But that's a long way away; both Red++ and Polished Crystal have 3.0 versions in development focusing more on implementation changes than on new content.

Based on what I've seen from your screenshots, I'm rather excited to have a lot more tile sets and stuff added. Bring a lot more color to the game :D

That's interesting, the instant text bugs. If you were to implement it, would it be a 4th option, would it replace Fast, or what? Just curious. I'm no hack developer, so I don't know how this stuff works.

Based on the recent screenshot of your new PC, I'm rather excited to have the new one's implemented.

From what Mateo said, an entirely new game would be awesome as a hack.

All in all, these are quality hacks, and I'm rather impressed on how much can be put into the old systems. It's amazing.

 

[FIQ]

Anniversary Crystal (as in the TwitchPlaysPokémon romhack) has instant text speed. Perhaps they did something about those bugs?

 

[Rangi]

Hey, can you add this narrow-style font? It's based on the ones from FRLG/HGSS ^^

Not bad. I'll add it if there's space. Edit: There is.

Mostly curious, but if you are going to try and bring yourself more in parity with Mateo's hack universe, will the South Island be a part of this eventually? Or whatever it was called. The Island from Pokemon Christmas.

...Maybe. The legendary birds and Lugia all have their own locations, but if I can justify it plot-wise it would be a nice connection. It could be the one place the Seagallop Ferry will take you for free, as soon as you get to Vermilion.

Mateo, any event suggestions? Maybe visiting the Fire/Ice/Lightning islands with their respective birds will get you an item (held type boosters or evolution stones?), and visiting the shrine with Lugia plays its song. Not sure what to do with the forest and cave; not another Team Rocket event.

(Maybe something involving Darach and Caitlin. Most of the Frontier Brains are unremarkable, but Palmer is Barry's father in Platinum (and runs the Battle Tower, the only Frontier facility in Crystal), and Caitlin is in the B/W Elite 4. Also her butler Darach initially battles in her place because her psychic powers go out of control with anger if she loses. I want to add them somewhere, so Shamouti Island might work.)

Edit: By the way, in that map I tried editing Kanto to more accurately show how Routes 12+13 are seaside. It looks weird compared to the usual Town Maps, but actually matches the overworld maps. HGSS did a better job with this correspondence, which is why most of its cities are larger than one tile. If I had enough screen space it would look like this (made by overlaying Town Map tiles on the shrunken overworld):

Anniversary Crystal (as in the TwitchPlaysPokémon romhack) has instant text speed. Perhaps they did something about those bugs?

Just tried adding instant text and nothing seems missing. Don't know what I did wrong before. So that's an option now.

 

[Rangi]

Question: Okay, before I go to the trouble of implementing this, I'd like some feedback. Approval, criticism, etc.

Upgrading the indoor tilesets is simple (replace GSC bookshelves, chairs, tables, etc with their FRLG and HGSS counterparts) and doesn't seriously affect the aesthetic of the game. Outdoor tilesets, on the other hand, have larger features (16x16 or more instead of 8x8) and the player spends a lot of time outside.

Here's an example:

Grass, dirt, ledges, rocks, flowers, and houses are all changed. These changes all stand out, but I'm not sure if they're improvements. Comments? Does it still clearly look like Pokémon? Do any of the tiles not go together?

(I expect to have different kinds of houses in each town, loading the individual ones the same way as roofs. They'll all have to be the same color, either gray or brown.)

 

[Zeta Sukuna]

Hmm. To me, the walls of the houses seem too dark to me. It looks kind of awkward compared to the colors around it.

And the cliffs honestly kind of remind me of the Chinese Bootleg Pokemon Yellow, and it just looks a bit off in comparison to everything else. Like it's trying to be more detailed than everything else around it.

The grass also seems a little bit too busy, too, but honestly it's mostly fine. The white path and the water borders look pretty good to me, though.

 

[Rangi]

Hmm. To me, the walls of the houses seem too dark to me. It looks kind of awkward compared to the colors around it.

And the cliffs honestly kind of remind me of the Chinese Bootleg Pokemon Yellow, and it just looks a bit off in comparison to everything else. Like it's trying to be more detailed than everything else around it.

The grass also seems a little bit too busy, too, but honestly it's mostly fine. The white path and the water borders look pretty good to me, though.

Thanks. I agree about the houses; it's clear why Nintendo used white ones.

Here's one with revised houses and ledges for cliffs (still needs work):

 

[Rangi]

New battle interface resembling the later gens:

 

[davedffa]

Looking amazing :D

Question, I've been using thief on millions of bellsprout and they haven't yielded any golden leaves... am I missing something?

 

[Rangi]

Looking amazing :D

Question, I've been using thief on millions of bellsprout and they haven't yielded any golden leaves... am I missing something?

It ought to work. Do they hold Gold Leaves when you capture them?

At least in 3.0 you'll be able to Headbutt trees for leaves.

 

[Deokishisu]

Please don't update the core OW tileset. That New Bark Town doesn't look good and is going to make the entirety of both regions not feel like Johto and Kanto. There just isn't enough detail available on the GBC to make devamps for everything viable. Pick and choose the little things that can be updated (the Ruins of Alph was a good choice, as were the indoor tilesets) but this whole OW redo just isn't great.

 

[Banksia]

Please don't update the core OW tileset. That New Bark Town doesn't look good and is going to make the entirety of both regions not feel like Johto and Kanto. There just isn't enough detail available on the GBC to make devamps for everything viable. Pick and choose the little things that can be updated (the Ruins of Alph was a good choice, as were the indoor tilesets) but this whole OW redo just isn't great.

Yep, I agee. Updating some models are nice but at the cost of the nostalgiafactor (which makes most people still play these hacks)!

 

[Rangi]

Please don't update the core OW tileset. That New Bark Town doesn't look good and is going to make the entirety of both regions not feel like Johto and Kanto. There just isn't enough detail available on the GBC to make devamps for everything viable. Pick and choose the little things that can be updated (the Ruins of Alph was a good choice, as were the indoor tilesets) but this whole OW redo just isn't great.

Yep, I agee. Updating some models are nice but at the cost of the nostalgiafactor (which makes most people still play these hacks)!

Thanks, that's what I expected, but knowing when to quit is sometimes tricky. I'll stick with targeted improvements, like fixing the brick roads that were just reusing a wall tile:

By the way, does the battle interface look better with the GSC-style connection between the HP and exp bars?

 

[FIQ]

I personally prefer it being nonconnected, which is also consistent with how it looks like for enemies.
If you are going to go for that format (noneconnected), I suggest reversing the EXP bar direction.

Also, I'm still not a fan of showing power/% of moves in that move list, but until I can come up with something better, I'll not stress this.

EDIT: Also, I'm not sure how the graphics are constructed (a tileset?), but if feasible, I'd reverse the direction of the "notch" for the enemy HP bar (but not the "HP" part), because it looks wrong to me for both to be in the same direction.

 

[Rangi]

I personally prefer it being nonconnected, which is also consistent with how it looks like for enemies.
If you are going to go for that format (noneconnected), I suggest reversing the EXP bar direction.

Also, I'm still not a fan of showing power/% of moves in that move list, but until I can come up with something better, I'll not stress this.

EDIT: Also, I'm not sure how the graphics are constructed (a tileset?), but if feasible, I'd reverse the direction of the "notch" for the enemy HP bar (but not the "HP" part), because it looks wrong to me for both to be in the same direction.

You mean something like this?

I'll think about it. It is more similar to the B/W interface, but it looks less consistent.

 

[Banksia]

I think the non connected interface looks better!

 

[FIQ]

Platinum also has these notches :p (allthough I always liked Generation V's battle UI the most, particurly B2. This might introduce bias here, but meh, it's all subjective either way)
It looks more symmetrical and better IMO. I prefer your last screenshot!

 

[Rangi]

I could go ahead and really imitate Platinum:

Or stop making it so complicated and imitate XY/ORAS:

I'm leaning towards the simple one, although I might reconnect the "HP" label with its bar.

 

[Banksia]

Last one looks best, I think. Although connecting the hpbar to the exp bar still looks fine!

 

[Rangi]

Last one looks best, I think. Although connecting the hpbar to the exp bar still looks fine!

Yeah, the more I look at those Gen 4/5 demakes the more their black lines and shapes just look like clutter. Gen 6 style it is.