Well guys I too am back :). I took a short break due to college and other stuff, but now i'm back working on LC again. I'm in the testing stage at the end of Johto so a lot of things have been fixed and improved for beta 3.1.
As for 3.1, it will go up to the end of the first island on the Orange Islands, so not much progress done since 2.1, 3.1 is more of an improved version of whats already in the hack, working more for the final release. I must say I was slacking a lot over the past 2 years with some lack of motivation here and there so i'm not best pleased about the progress and amount of work done on LC over the 2 years. I wanted to get a lot more done but its still a great update to look forward too :)
Heres a short plan of action for what needs to be done for the release:
Finish testing up to the end of the first island. Currently on route 46 heading towards the league.
Fix all the bugs which I find along the way.
Add in some changes to the hack, such as tweaks and some story changes.
Add in the extra graphics.
Do the final testing for the beta 3.1
Thats all of it in a nutshell. One of the things on that list, is a pseudo Pokégear. A Pokégear i plan on making which will provide the underlining functionality through the use of a script. This would then be changed and hopefully made into the real thing for the next beta, or the final release.
Another extra includes a revamped weather system. Some of you might of noticed for the 3.0 that i nummed the weather down making it less random and more consistent. Well now with the use of the Day/Night I will be making a more seasonable weather system which is based on the seasons in the UK. This means it will be more common to snow during the winter, more sunny in the summer etc. So, also means no sandstorms which i'm sure messed with peoples battle strategy a bit.
There will be more new music including the missing mixes such as legendary battles for the birds, the dogs and more. Other themes missing like the national park will be added, and infact already are in the new beta along with over 10 over new mixes, with more planned.
The other thing I would like to inform people of, is the new difficulty level in the game. I found the old Crystal to be too easy, so for 2.1 i raised most of the levels by 2-5 levels from the original. Well even that I found to be too hard so I've now raised them higher up to another 20 levels in places. For example on route 46 theres a Hiker which has a load of level 15 Pokémon, i raised them all to level 35 which is a 20 level increase over the rest. Now I should note that people who have had a taste of the new levels, have said its very hard. When i do the final testing, these levels might be lowered just a little depending on how the final test goes.
Regarding compatibility for other emulators, those key areas (releasing the dogs, opening stats page, the static battles, silver battle) theres no reason they would cause errors, making it much harder to actually fix them. The emulator I will be working closely with is gameboid for android phones which uses the gba_bios.bin. Working with that would most likely solve the problem with all other emulators that use gba_bios.bin as they all work from the same bios file.
I will also say regarding the planned events in the Orange Islands. Don't expect an anime remake of the same storyline. The teaser up to the first gym from 2.1 might of implied that it would be, but that event is just to start it off and to get the player to go to the Orange Islands. The rest of the Orange Islands, there will be a total of 5 in the hack, will contain some of the main events from the anime but the main plot will be fan made. Just to inform people of that once again.
The release date, most people want to hear right now is planned for.. I'll say again "planned" and, once more 'planned' for the summer holidays. Anything could happen since then but, to be truly honest not much is needed to be done on the hack for the beta 3.1 release.
So until then, keep patient, happy and no more arguments ;)
