What do you look for in a Pokémon Hack??

It has to be complete..

I want the hack have side quest, mission and New Pokemon as well old Pokemon.
I want hack have mega evoultion as well, like Mega Richu, Mega Lopunny and so on.
Of course I want the hack have 10 gyms With Puzzle, I want gym leaders to be little bit hard to beat.
Of course it have to be Complete and in English.
I want the Hero/Heroine to Choice too join Team Rocket or other evil team, for to change the story litte bit.
I want Hero/Heroine get random starter Pokemon With differnt type Pokemon, throught quiz or the game can start same as Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games.
Of course the game must have rival.

I think even the most basic ROM Hacks these days have to have updated mechanics; P/S Split, Fairy Type, Mega Evolution etc. I'd want a ROM Hack to have all those features before I even think about playing it.

I have been trying to find a hack for Pokemon Blue for a while. I have probably made 3 posts here but nobody has responded. What I'm looking for is a clean Pokemon blue where the map is the same as the original. I want to be able to catch all Pokemons without glitching or trading. I don't want Pokemon spam in the grass like the kaizo version. That was just annoying. I don't mind a challenge but there was so many things that annoying me with Kaizo version. Garry starts with Mew, low level Pokemons fully evolved, low level Pokemon knows how to use moves that they shouldn't know until later.

The Kaizo version is a good idea, but way to many annoying things that I just don't find right. I guess it's a nice challenge to have on the side, but at the moment I don't even have the hack I normally would prefer.

Pokemon blue original is great but it's a shame that you can't catch them all or evolve every Pokemon to the latest and some Pokemons can't learn moves that they should be able to learn. Like Charizard can't learn "fly" even though he is a fire/flying pokemon.

Originality.

Look, just about anyone can edit a game and call it a "hack" (heck, I've done a few edits myself, but I don't consider them to be a hack, just an improvement or modification), and many people these days don't really put much time and effort into a game in order for it to be ORIGINAL.

Now, don't get me wrong, many hacks (despite being a rip-off or clone of some sort) tend to follow suite, sticking to the generic "I'm gonna become a pokemon master" idea or "I'm going to save the world from Team Nobody-Cares-What-Their-Name-Is", but in the end, the most amazing hacks are the ones which don't follow the outline that Pokemon is.

When a pokemon hack is more than just playing Pokemon, that is when I am genuinely intrigued. As I said before, there are so many great hacks which are essentially copies of the original game but with changed graphics/sounds/characters/etc, and they are indeed outstanding to see... but in the end, they're not really any different than the original game.


For me personally, the hacks that I truly enjoy are the FAKEMON hacks, these ones please me the most, and this is simply because they are just 1 more pokemon collection for me to gather. I mean heck, I've already caught all 721 Pokemon (+Mega Evolutions and a few of the newest ones in the later games), but to have even more Pokemon to track down and add to my family/team/party is really something special to me.

But sadly, there are many FAKEMON hacks which are not in English or are so poorly done, they can't even be played entirely (and some which are not complete yet). So in the end, I get what I can, and slowly add them to my roster.


Now of course, 99.9% of these are definitely a CLONE of the original game, just with different Pokemon to capture. But hey, that's the beauty of it.


Now once again, I'm not much of a fan of clones and there are only a few exceptions to the cloning rule, but more importantly, the games that truly and I mean TRULY capture my eye and keep me playing are the ones which don't pursue the usually "I want to be the very best" or the same old slogan of "I will become a Pokemon Master" or "I will be the Elite 4!" or "I will conquer the WHATEVER-THE-NAME-IS League".

The games that really keep me addicted are the ones which don't play like regular Pokemon, the ones that have something about them which isn't the same old song and dance.

I'm still waiting for the day where there is a Pokemon game that doesn't make you fight trainers that see you, doesn't expect you to become a Pokemon Master, doesn't expect you to become a Champion, doesn't want you to save the world from some disaster caused by Team NOBODY-GIVES-A-****.

I want to hopefully live to see the day when Pokemon expands out from the usual crap that it keeps rehashing over and over and over and over again and does something new. Heck, this is why I still play Pokemon Snap, it's different. I want a pokemon game where you can just be a NPC, live a calm life, raise your pokemon, die with your pokemon, just... be a normal human being.

And of course, I also want for someone to someday make a pokemon hack where you can simply just battle non-stop, like that Pokemon Battle Factory hack, that was something. It would be amazing to see a GBA version of Pokemon Stadium or something like that, or even a hack which is nothing but an endless randomized Battle Frontier, that'd be amazing too.

For me, the hack has got to have an interesting, new plot. I'm not talking about getting rid of gyms or anything, you keep those because that's just tradition (though there are a few exceptions), I'm saying make the plot interesting. As much as I don't like Gen 4, I give it and Gen 5 credit for having really unique and interesting stories.

Fakemon are a no-go about 95% of the time (exception being Snakewood for me), and it's nice to have a brand new region, or at least change things around enough where it doesn't feel like your going through Kanto for the 9 millionth time.

The Physical-Special split is nice to have, but it's nothing I lose sleep over. I also like it when the trainer sprites are new, or at least a different color that looks good.

Lastly, don't make your hack stupidly difficult where grinding is absolutely required (Looking at you, Dark Rising!), unless you're making a Kaizo variation, because that's the whole point of Kaizo. I like challenge in my games, but I like them to be fair challenges. Make the A.I. tougher, yeah, but don't make grinding a requirement.

And, I do like a little bit of immature humor now and then, or for a game that's intended to be serious have a few light-hearted moments to lighten the mood.

I really like the idea of remake hacks of the older games done in all perfection.

I also really appreciate alot of the feedback as far as what you crave in hacks.

I think I'm going to start a hack like no one has ever seen before. All new story holding the originality of Pokémon but different enough that it doesn't feel like the traditional. I'll achieve this by changing the mindset of the player, adding the option to stray off from the main game, etc. I'll be heading out on deployment this November for 6 months. expect a load of this game to be being put together.

What do you guys think of me making a storyline maker thread? where I give you what I have and we all brainstorm a storyline together based on popular vote?

Did a strawpoll a while back about this, take a look at the results if you're interested. Sample size could've been better but eh, it's something. http://www.strawpoll.me/5629986/r

I like when my Pokemon follow me around like in Yellow and HeartGold/SoulSilver.
I also like being able to complete the Pokedex without P2P trading and/or cheating.

Finally, +1 for No Fakemon.

MarineTyler said:

I think I'm going to start a hack like no one has ever seen before. All new story holding the originality of Pokémon but different enough that it doesn't feel like the traditional. I'll achieve this by changing the mindset of the player, adding the option to stray off from the main game, etc.

Click to expand...

Wait, I have an idea! If at all possible, could you try a branching storyline? Make the player's decisions matter, you know?

What I look for is a solid region and story. I could care less about graphics or having to add fairy type or anything like that. (I would like a P/S split though, but I'd still consider playing if it didn't). A perfect hack to me has a perfect flow from and to each city and location, while well-balanced with the story.

UltimateThundrFang said:

Wait, I have an idea! If at all possible, could you try a branching storyline? Make the player's decisions matter, you know?

Click to expand...

That's was definitely something I had thought about. like a mass effect feel. ex. someone runs by you yelling move. then you have 2 choices to move or to stop him. this will decide if you let this man get away with stealing from an individual providing whether the one who got stolen from gives you a reward or not. and it can also go along with branching storylines.

cjlambert said:

I like when my Pokemon follow me around like in Yellow and HeartGold/SoulSilver.
I also like being able to complete the Pokedex without P2P trading and/or cheating.

Finally, +1 for No Fakemon.

Click to expand...

idk if I wanna write in a code to have the Pokemon follow you around. I can look into it. but I can definitely make Pokemon Sprites a more regular thing. like maybe they follow rivals, gym leaders are standing by them, etc.

The Den said:

What I look for is a solid region and story. I could care less about graphics or having to add fairy type or anything like that. (I would like a P/S split though, but I'd still consider playing if it didn't). A perfect hack to me has a perfect flow from and to each city and location, while well-balanced with the story.

Click to expand...

I agree. for example light platinum is probably my favorite hack as far as quality. but when it comes down to it. I barely had NY idea what was happening town to town and everything was so jumpy. I plan to excel past that!

Stormzy said:

I think even the most basic ROM Hacks these days have to have updated mechanics; P/S Split, Fairy Type, Mega Evolution etc. I'd want a ROM Hack to have all those features before I even think about playing it.

Click to expand...

I want to implement 1-5th Gen Pokemon so it will have all the updated mechanics up to that point. the only reason I don't go further in Gen is honestly for the sake of sprites. it will look more common using ds Sprites and staying away from these custom 6th Gen sprites. meaning I may or may not implement fairy typr... we'll see

someguy.fromnevada said:

Originality.

Look, just about anyone can edit a game and call it a "hack" (heck, I've done a few edits myself, but I don't consider them to be a hack, just an improvement or modification), and many people these days don't really put much time and effort into a game in order for it to be ORIGINAL.

Now, don't get me wrong, many hacks (despite being a rip-off or clone of some sort) tend to follow suite, sticking to the generic "I'm gonna become a pokemon master" idea or "I'm going to save the world from Team Nobody-Cares-What-Their-Name-Is", but in the end, the most amazing hacks are the ones which don't follow the outline that Pokemon is.

When a pokemon hack is more than just playing Pokemon, that is when I am genuinely intrigued. As I said before, there are so many great hacks which are essentially copies of the original game but with changed graphics/sounds/characters/etc, and they are indeed outstanding to see... but in the end, they're not really any different than the original game.


For me personally, the hacks that I truly enjoy are the FAKEMON hacks, these ones please me the most, and this is simply because they are just 1 more pokemon collection for me to gather. I mean heck, I've already caught all 721 Pokemon (+Mega Evolutions and a few of the newest ones in the later games), but to have even more Pokemon to track down and add to my family/team/party is really something special to me.

But sadly, there are many FAKEMON hacks which are not in English or are so poorly done, they can't even be played entirely (and some which are not complete yet). So in the end, I get what I can, and slowly add them to my roster.


Now of course, 99.9% of these are definitely a CLONE of the original game, just with different Pokemon to capture. But hey, that's the beauty of it.


Now once again, I'm not much of a fan of clones and there are only a few exceptions to the cloning rule, but more importantly, the games that truly and I mean TRULY capture my eye and keep me playing are the ones which don't pursue the usually "I want to be the very best" or the same old slogan of "I will become a Pokemon Master" or "I will be the Elite 4!" or "I will conquer the WHATEVER-THE-NAME-IS League".

The games that really keep me addicted are the ones which don't play like regular Pokemon, the ones that have something about them which isn't the same old song and dance.

I'm still waiting for the day where there is a Pokemon game that doesn't make you fight trainers that see you, doesn't expect you to become a Pokemon Master, doesn't expect you to become a Champion, doesn't want you to save the world from some disaster caused by Team NOBODY-GIVES-A-****.

I want to hopefully live to see the day when Pokemon expands out from the usual crap that it keeps rehashing over and over and over and over again and does something new. Heck, this is why I still play Pokemon Snap, it's different. I want a pokemon game where you can just be a NPC, live a calm life, raise your pokemon, die with your pokemon, just... be a normal human being.

And of course, I also want for someone to someday make a pokemon hack where you can simply just battle non-stop, like that Pokemon Battle Factory hack, that was something. It would be amazing to see a GBA version of Pokemon Stadium or something like that, or even a hack which is nothing but an endless randomized Battle Frontier, that'd be amazing too.

Click to expand...

this is going in my notes

What I would love the most is complete pokemon XY remake for nintendo DS emulators (so based on BW2 optimally), but doubt it will ever be make.
In general there is lots of gen3 hacks for GBA and we lack DS hacks.

Despite that:

Must for me:
Gen6 types (fairy!)
Gen6 skills and balance
phys/spec split
Different pokemon set (best if its not just you can catch them all but selection of lets say ~400 from all gens, and ofc always with Mawile!)
Different map/story lines then vanilla (unless your demaking/remaking sth with good purpose for that).
no fakemons, they are garbage
no type chart swap just because. Noone wants to mess they knowledge of typings for one hack.

strongly advised:
mega evolution, cuze they are fun. Hopefully with just one for a time because option of having 6 megas breaks game.
Different starters (for example gen6 starters instead of gen1)
Not giving access for some stuff to early. As said before why some poke should have endgame skill at beginning?
Good lvl curve. Most hacks have same problem. Every gym is big challenge that force grinding, then after it you meet tons of trainers that do nothing to you, and have to grind again at next gym.
No stupid challenges. Doing puzzle is ok etc, but at some points it might gate annoying.
Actually making it more rpg like. In vanilla game you pretty much have no option of chosing your actions.
Gen6 exp share
Repel reuse option
reusable tms
removable hms (and at best not making like 10hms in game, its best when your not force to have so many of them).
bit balancing (so underused pokemons can get more love).

In general I have most fun with gen6 and like to have close expierience to it.

Fakemon are almost always a no go for me.
Physical special split is necessary
I like a little difficulty, let's not make things a cakewalk.

The rest is dependent upon the hack.

I just want people to be original.

We have the capability to do so much more than the same stuff I've been seeing for years, the majority of hacks just follow the same exact formula as game freak have been doing, the only time anything new pops up in a hack, it's because it happened in a new Pokemon game, like, think outside the box. I haven't really been very active here in a long time, but other than maybe a few hacks, the progressing hacks and hack showcase sections honestly just look the same to me right now as they did about five years ago.

Just look at the features list for most hacks. You'll see the same stuff. Look! Pokemon from other generations! Look! Updated battle mechanics to mirror the newer Pokemon games! Look! You can run indoors like the newer Pokemon games! Look! Default FireRed tiles!

I want to play a hack, and not feel like what I'm playing is a hack.

EDIT: I didn't actually see Someguy's comment when I posted this but that says it better than I did.

I may as well put my little list in, as well.

Things I like in a hack:

• A small Pokedex. In my opinion, a lot of hacks like to implement some form of a max Pokemon patch, where you can catch every single Pokemon known to man. What I feel some people don't see is that there's a reason the official games didn't do this: the games become very, very, cluttered. I feel like when there's 30 random Pokemon in any given route, it becomes very, very busy, and the game loses a sense of its organic difficulty that you only have so much to choose from for your roster. The game becomes fairly easy when you can obtain 6 of the top non-legendary heavy-hitters. Hell, one of my biggest gripes with Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire is the sheer overflow of legendaries available.
• A unique region. There's nothing wrong with remakes/demakes, but I do slightly take issues with hacks that show the same region(often times the one that is the game's base) with only slight modifications.
• New graphics. This one is a double-edged sword, as I seem to dislike graphics that try to look tooo DS-style for a GBA game. I get it, you want it modern, but it's just a personal preference for me.
• Most importantly, an engaging story. I can stomach all of the above if the story you have is truly one worth telling. One that isn't just your generic "You must beat the Region X Pokemon league while simultaneously stopping Evil Team Y from capturing Legendary Pokemon Z." You show me a story that makes me forget for a second that this game is fan-made, and you've got me hooked.

Things I dislike in a hack:

• Fakemon - this is mostly due to poor quality of them.
• Giant pokedex - Really, 150 and fewer is more than an enough.
• Unoriginal features - Like Fairy Type, P/S split, running indoors, almost anything else you'd gather from a patch in the resources list. Nothing wrong with these features in particular, it's just that at this point, it's almost standard in new hacks. What I want to know is what you created, what you came up with, not what you found in the Resources section. What is it in your hack that no one else has?
• Bland stories that demand far too many coincidences and assumptions. In addition to this, I like the hacks that don't reveal much at all about the story. Just a very engaging hook, a teaser, to make you itch to find out what's next.

There's probably more, but I don't want to come off as pretentious or rude, plus I'm tired.

I love all the feedback, let me know what else you guys want.

The first thing I look at is the story. All 721 Pokemon are not necessary. If it has a fun engaging story I'll play it even if it looks graphically simple and the features are simple but one feature that I can't play without nowadays is Physical/Special split other than that not much else is needed.

Also I look for hacks with meaningful text, can't stand hacks with bad grammar.

First and foremost THE POKEMONS. If you dont want to call them pokemons call the whatever you want BUT make sure it includes the below:

1)Monsters that arent RANDOM. Such as a monster that is chair or an ice cream and crap like that.
2)Base your monster on something that exists, existed, could exist, exists in fantasy and mythology and approach its looks as seriously and realistically as possible.
3)Make the monster unique and detailed. And by that i dont mean to add 193219 colors and random body parts that make absolutely NO SENSE. The accuracy of colors is important, the accuracy of the body parts is important.
4)Add Defend option in combat. It blows my mind that there are sooo many unofficial pokemon games yet none added Defend? really? Think of it, your monster has no option of instead of attacking stay in defence stance? its just ridicoulous.
5)Add abilities that make sense for each monster.
6)Add more than 1 passive abilities if you think it fits the monster. Give every monster all the unique characteristics/abilities that it could have.
7)Instead of moving from area to area, create huge open areas, like in open world MMOs and let players roam randomly in there not knowing whats ahead of them. Risking to come across something that they cant deal with and die.

8)Quick save/load options are really cool.

those for now.
8

First Chapter

What always buged me in pokemon games is that there is a max amount of 4 skills you can learn!... So what? Whats the problem with that? The problem is that you are forced to delete skills not knowing what skills future lvls will bring. And this kills probably the most strategic aspect of the game for each pokemon.
Ofc you can claim that one can google and find out which skills each pokemon learns, but this is a broken claim and ill tell you why. First and foremost those games are mainly offline which means in case somebody for some reason doesnt have internet connection he simply CANT know what skills will the future lvls bring.
If a game is online only then i can justify this claim but its not, its an offline game and having to forget skills without knowing that future skills are is simply a bad game design. It kills the pokemon build aspect.
But i have a solution to this.
First of all dont use the generic pokemon menus for skills that everybody does. Because those menus are limited and there isnt enough room for proper skills' descriptions. Instead create a menu where we will be able by using the arrow keys go up and down reading skills in detail.
Plus add detailed descrpitons for them. For example, the formulas for buffs/debuffs.

Now the skills themselves.
1)Let pokemons learn and keep ALL their abilities.
2)Then introduce skill points. Skill points will be used to upgrade a specific amount of chosen skills (the amount of skill could be 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 etc. Whatever the number of abilities you have decided your pokemons will use in combat). Its a matter of preference and game balance.
3)How many times a skill can be upgraded is also up to you. You can make it 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 etc. Again its a matter of YOUR game balance and preference. Just make sure that the upgrades are worth it.
4)Once a skill has been upgraded cannot be changed. Its permanent. If you regret for your choice then you will have to catch that pokemon again.

Now ill give you a complete EXAMPLE of this idea and what you need to pay attention too.

Max number of abilities that can be upgrade: -> 4
How many times an ability can be upgrade: -> 5
Max level of pokemons: -> 100
This means that every 5 levels your pokemons will get one skill point and at lvl 100 they will have 20 skill points. And with these 20 points you will be able to upgrade 4 abilities max.

----

If you combine the skill idea along with the more detailed skills' descrpitons idea you wont even need to create a wiki with pokemons, their upgrades etc.

Also. Keep in mind this is just an idea, you can take it and change make changes on it, you dont need to make it exactly like this. Just keep in mind that your goal is to provide detailed skills descriptions (like every modern offline game does) and build diversity for the pokemons.


Second Chapter

In my first comment on this topic i spoke of detailed pokemons/monsters and their importance but now ill go in a little more depth.

Monsters/Pokemons with unique stats and quality over quantity
A game that is ALL about monsters yet monsters themselves have very similar stats and abilities just for balance reasons and this belongs to the past and at the core of it its a lazy game design (just eazy $ ). Lazy designs, lack of monster uniqueness, stats and abilities.

If you truly love monster raising games then i suggest to evolve:
1)Add more than 1 passive ability for each creature as long as the ability fits the creature. The amount of passive abilities a creature can have can scale from 1 to 5, 6, 7 (whatever number of abilities you think could fit that creature).
Also, its very prossible that many monsters could have the same ability, it makes absolute sense (maybe other weaker versions of it and other stronger, or with a minor differences).
Abilities should make sense and fit the creature!

2)Add different stats for each creature. Doesnt matter how strong or weak some stats might seem, because those stats along with the passive and active abilities are what going to make each monster feel unique, especially on the highest evolutions. Its a game based on creatures, its all about them so they should be unique.
Dont think of balance! if you think of balance then you will not create anything special. First create your creatures as unque as possible then go for balance.