Silver hack: Pokémon Dark Energy (ex Dark Future) [Beta 3.1 Released]

[miksy91]

Originally Posted by y0r124

Yes Some support for you .
And hope next beta will be more Epic than beta 3.1

The further the next version goes, the more interesting it gets!
If I ended up releasing a version (poll above) which had the smallest amount of gameplay in it, that wouldn't turn out that epic yet as the storyline will start to play a bigger role in the game later but still...

Originally Posted by Autophobic

This hack is really unique and fun. It's kept me pretty occupied, I'm at the third gym right now and I'm having a blast. Good job!

Thank you

One thing I've been "worried" of is the fact that the beginning of the hack isn't as unique compared to how it continues as I was still learning scripting at that time, and didn't plan everything out that well yet. Good to hear people aren't bored of it any way though. I know it's way different from Silver but I want also those, who aren't looking for a "travel from town to town" quest, not end up quitting in the beginning.

Thanks for the feedback and also reminding you to go to vote in the poll above!
Looks like I'll end up releasing the beta related to option 3 but we'll see.

Edit:
It's nothing major but would you like to see BW2's repel system ported into this hack? I hadn't heard about new repel feature of those games before until I read the newly posted tutorial by Dartharon about it. But this shouldn't be difficult to implement at all.

[Autophobic]

I've reached the end of the beta! It was super fun, great job!

[CycloneGU]

The end of the beta leaves you generally around Lv.35? Interesting. Struggling in SoulSilver with Pokémon in the 40s right now. LMAO

Cyclone

[Autophobic]

Originally Posted by CycloneGU

The end of the beta leaves you generally around Lv.35? Interesting. Struggling in SoulSilver with Pokémon in the 40s right now. LMAO

Cyclone

Well, my Girafarig (level 51) helped me 1-2 hit most of the pokemon when the rest of mine fainted.

[miksy91]

Originally Posted by Autophobic

I've reached the end of the beta! It was super fun, great job!

Nice to hear you had lots of fun playing it
If you want to "complete" the beta, there are probably still a couple of things you haven't done yet (including finding 4 of the missing Pages and defeating "King of the Sea"). But even these aren't really made to be done at this point in the game yet but you can either way.

What I regret though is that it's getting more and more likely you won't be able to continue to beta 4 with beta 3 save because of all minor additions I'll be doing to improve the beginning of the game (mainly up to Greenwood Town or so). Or you actually pretty much can but will encounter minor bugs here and there if you do.

[Autophobic]

Originally Posted by miksy91

Nice to hear you had lots of fun playing it
If you want to "complete" the beta, there are probably still a couple of things you haven't done yet (including finding 4 of the missing Pages and defeating "King of the Sea"). But even these aren't really made to be done at this point in the game yet but you can either way.

What I regret though is that it's getting more and more likely you won't be able to continue to beta 4 with beta 3 save because of all minor additions I'll be doing to improve the beginning of the game (mainly up to Greenwood Town or so). Or you actually pretty much can but will encounter minor bugs here and there if you do.

Yeah, I've only found one page, I'll go searching for the rest. And I do have one question.. Why is the Squirtle you encounter shiny, but not the Bulbasaur or Charmander?

[BroskiRage]

nice work on the game im playing right now

[miksy91]

Originally Posted by Autophobic

Yeah, I've only found one page, I'll go searching for the rest. And I do have one question.. Why is the Squirtle you encounter shiny, but not the Bulbasaur or Charmander?

For others to know, I replied Autophobic through VM because I don't see a point in just saying something without a reason to post anything else related to the hack/progress etc. Related to Squirtle's event, I'll probably make it a normal wild pokemon battle without Squirtle being shiny for the further releases (because there is no particular reason for it to be shiny).

Which led me into an idea... Who wants to see shinies being more common in the game? The current shiny pokemon encounter rate is 8/65536 but I could change it to any value between 1/65536 and 1 (= 100%). Every 1/100 pokemon or so being shiny would be a nice ratio I think.

Originally Posted by BroskiRage

nice work on the game im playing right now

Getting feedback later on would be appriciated

P.S
By the looks of how you've voted so far, I think I'll be going with option 3 (related to poll).

[CycloneGU]

Originally Posted by miksy91

Which led me into an idea... Who wants to see shinies being more common in the game? The current shiny pokemon encounter rate is 8/65536 but I could change it to any value between 1/65536 and 1 (= 100%). Every 1/100 pokemon or so being shiny would be a nice ratio I think.

Sounds nice, but you better make sure there is no trading possible from the game or people will abuse it and move illegit Shinies into real games using tools...

Cyclone

[miksy91]

Originally Posted by CycloneGU

Sounds nice, but you better make sure there is no trading possible from the game or people will abuse it and move illegit Shinies into real games using tools...

Cyclone

Whether the encountered pokemon is shiny depends on its DV values. Basically, what I'm going to do is to hack the routine telling the game pokemon of which DV values are considered shiny. So if you traded a shiny pokemon of this rom hack into any other game, it would most likely turn out non-shiny in the other game.

But I'll also eventually remove the possibility to trade with other games but this is 'cause of a completely different reason.

[miksy91]

Double-post update!

I posted the following in Skeetendo Inc. so I felt like sharing the same thing here too.



That's the map of Granaldo City, biggest city in East-Suden. On the upper-left corner, there is the research center. In the middle, Inn and Gym. On the upper-right corner is the entrance to Granaldo Cave. Beneath it is the city entrance, Underground Tunnel.

I haven't started scripting (or even creating event data) for any maps of this city yet (expect for Underground Tunnel which is already complete) but I can tell that this place is going to be "super awesome" (especially Granaldo Cave)

There are lots of quests related to the storyline that can be done while being here - someone might even hand over the password to A.W. Research Center if sees you worthy of getting it, and doing something for him. There is an event going on in the gym and explorations of dark energy in the research center. City people also talk you about the minerals of Granaldo Cave which could possibly be mined later on if someone, who is rich, started a mining project in there. Workers would also be needed. And even after saying all this, there are quite many special events going on which I haven't told a bit of...

[CycloneGU]

Why have no Route connections? I always found places like that - well, weird. Same with Four Island having no connections save by boat in the Sevii Islands. I mean, a connecting Route with wild Pokémon in it might still be a nice touch. After all, it's the biggest city in the region.

I'm sure you have your reason, I'm just giving my view. I'm sure the reason makes sense.

Cyclone

[miksy91]

Originally Posted by CycloneGU

Why have no Route connections? I always found places like that - well, weird. Same with Four Island having no connections save by boat in the Sevii Islands. I mean, a connecting Route with wild Pokémon in it might still be a nice touch. After all, it's the biggest city in the region.

I'm sure you have your reason, I'm just giving my view. I'm sure the reason makes sense.

Cyclone

I originally planned the city to be connected to Area 125 just like that but then figured it would be more interesting and realistic to make Area 125 have an entrance to Underground Tunnel leading to the city as the city is surrounded by high mountains.
There is also a special event in the underground tunnel related to something that happens in the city later on so that's another reason I guess. Granaldo Cave itself doesn't have another entrance so the only way to get to the city is through the underground tunnel.

Feedback is always appriciated, may it be good or bad. If you have something to say about the map or city idea, feel free to.

Also, the banner has gotten a "name update".

[Pvt Tamama]

Granaldo City looks awesome i just finished playing through the beta it was pretty sweet keep it up! i didnt find any bugs that bothered me and the sprites didnt look strange or anything

[miksy91]

Originally Posted by Pvt Tamama

Granaldo City looks awesome i just finished playing through the beta it was pretty sweet keep it up! i didnt find any bugs that bothered me and the sprites didnt look strange or anything

Thanks for the comment!

I don't really have anything else to say here but it's always glad to hear more feedback about it

[CycloneGU]

Originally Posted by miksy91

I originally planned the city to be connected to Area 125 just like that but then figured it would be more interesting and realistic to make Area 125 have an entrance to Underground Tunnel leading to the city as the city is surrounded by high mountains.

Two words: Vantrek City. In diego's "Shining Opal" beta. You head along Route 1, enter a cave, and come out the other side still on Route 1 (I suggested renaming the Route, possibly Vantrek Mountain). There isn't a lot of space to travel and no wild grass, but Vantrek City does have a long entrance-type area in the mountain and come down a couple of stairways at the top and bottom; it doesn't just pop up from underground like a sore thumb.

It also exits into Route 2 to the south as a normal exit. That Route does also eventually meet the mountains and goes over them, which literally circle around the city and also invade upon what in the beta is labeled as Route 16 (where your travel is blocked off) and more mountains as the north border of the city (no exit); if it were in an official game, it could have the motto "マウンテンシティ" (The Mountain City).

Again, it's just a personal opinion that a city completely enclosed like this could not be the biggest city in the region. If it's indeed the biggest city in the region, its residents should be doing something to better connect it with the outside world - like Vantrek City.

I suggest the same kind of treatment here. Have the cave in the middle of Area 125. Even have a little wild grass between it and the city. Mountain borders in other spots is perfectly fine and realistic.

Cyclone

[miksy91]

Originally Posted by CycloneGU

Two words: Vantrek City. In diego's "Shining Opal" beta. You head along Route 1, enter a cave, and come out the other side still on Route 1 (I suggested renaming the Route, possibly Vantrek Mountain). There isn't a lot of space to travel and no wild grass, but Vantrek City does have a long entrance-type area in the mountain and come down a couple of stairways at the top and bottom; it doesn't just pop up from underground like a sore thumb.

It also exits into Route 2 to the south as a normal exit. That Route does also eventually meet the mountains and goes over them, which literally circle around the city and also invade upon what in the beta is labeled as Route 16 (where your travel is blocked off) and more mountains as the north border of the city (no exit); if it were in an official game, it could have the motto "マウンテンシティ" (The Mountain City).

Again, it's just a personal opinion that a city completely enclosed like this could not be the biggest city in the region. If it's indeed the biggest city in the region, its residents should be doing something to better connect it with the outside world - like Vantrek City.

I suggest the same kind of treatment here. Have the cave in the middle of Area 125. Even have a little wild grass between it and the city. Mountain borders in other spots is perfectly fine and realistic.

Cyclone

It's good to see you put real thought into making that post. But I don't think I'll be changing it from how it works currently because of how the underground tunnel works and is related to some quests in the area.

I was curious to see how what you described works in Shining Opal though so I tried it out. I do see your point here but yeah... it works fine the way as it is.

The reason why Granaldo City is the biggest city in East-Suden because most population of this world (yes, it's an own world, somewhere in outer space and has nothing to do with Kanto, Johto etc.) is centered close to The Capital in West. They do talk about this in the game too.
And the reason why this place has grown so large is mostly due to the research center of Argent Warehouse ending up disbanded (a couple of years ago?) and the science pretty much moved to this city afterwards because they already had a research center built here too.

[CycloneGU]

Well, you have your reason and I won't argue it. It still doesn't make sense that the only connections outside are through dangerous caves, but that's just me.

Cyclone

[HeroesAndCons]

I would love to see this completed, although I knwo that will not be till at LEAST mid-2013, and possibly be a year from now. All I can say is good luck, as I am very interested to see how it pans out, but I don't like playing incomplete Betas. When this has at least a Beta that goes to the equivalent of the E4 (or whatever you have replaced them with in this hack), I'll play it and see what it's like.

[miksy91]

Originally Posted by CycloneGU

Well, you have your reason and I won't argue it. It still doesn't make sense that the only connections outside are through dangerous caves, but that's just me.

Cyclone

For ones wondering, I continued the discussion with Cyclone through VMs.

Originally Posted by HeroesAndCons

I would love to see this completed, although I knwo that will not be till at LEAST mid-2013, and possibly be a year from now. All I can say is good luck, as I am very interested to see how it pans out, but I don't like playing incomplete Betas. When this has at least a Beta that goes to the equivalent of the E4 (or whatever you have replaced them with in this hack), I'll play it and see what it's like.

I've been making this hack for around 2 years now and it will most likely take me another 2 years until I can release the first complete version. Currently, I'm already at the point "equivalent to E4" but there is still a lot more to come. Oh, and Elite Four isn't really replaced with anything in this hack. I've made a place called Grand Tower in the game which you can access in beta 3 already but it's more like Battle Tower than E4 challenge (and even it has its role related to couple of storyline related events in the game). I've pretty much everything being there for a reason, most stuff is connected to each other.

Anyway, the game won't end you beating random trainers in order to achieve something, like getting your team in the hall of fame. Instead, you're gonna have to save the world (whatever this means... you'll find out in beta 4) ! All I can say for now that this has something to do with the Elemental Orbs you're sent off on a quest to search for.

I've been saying it countless amount of times already but the next release will be something totally unique containing lots of things you wouldn't run into in any other pokemon rom hack. Everyone should try it out.

[y0r124]

Originally Posted by miksy91

The further the next version goes, the more interesting it gets!
If I ended up releasing a version (poll above) which had the smallest amount of gameplay in it, that wouldn't turn out that epic yet as the storyline will start to play a bigger role in the game later but still...

Talking about support, My banner is still Dark Future xDD
I'll change later .

[TotalPotato]

I've played through a bit of this hack, but I'm getting a bit annoyed with it. The problem is that I feel it's unbalanced.

I'm the kind of guy who doesn't want to waste his time grinding for ages against wild Pokémon to continue. Although it's been tricky, I've managed to reach Highland Town with minimal battles against wild Pokémon. But at this point, you may as well have put up a sign saying "You must grind everyone to level 20 before you can continue" or something. My team of Lv. 14 Swinub, Lv. 18 Oddish and Lv. 19 Eevee is getting more and more overwhelmed the further I go. It's possible that I'll be able to beat the Darkness goons you fight just when you leave Highland Town with Double Team and insane luck... but how many battles am I going to have to do that for? How overlevelled is my Eevee going to get compared to Swinub and Oddish? I can't even buy items to help me because there's a goon in the way, and I'm down to one Energy Root for healing! The only options I see are grinding against the local sub-level 10 Pokémon population (which will be dull and time-consuming) or catching yet another Pokémon (which will be time-consuming and will compound my level problem, not to mention that one of the reasons I love Pokémon is that I can catch pretty much whatever I like and still have a decent shot. It's not like all my Pokémon are the same type or anything!).

EDIT: It turns out it wasn't as impossible as I thought, but I still think the levels are too high. If you don't want to change the levels, at least let me buy some Super Potions! Or raise the level of wild Pokémon a bit so I don't have to baby them for so long after capture!

[miksy91]

Originally Posted by TotalPotato

I've played through a bit of this hack, but I'm getting a bit annoyed with it. The problem is that I feel it's unbalanced.

I'm the kind of guy who doesn't want to waste his time grinding for ages against wild Pokémon to continue. Although it's been tricky, I've managed to reach Highland Town with minimal battles against wild Pokémon. But at this point, you may as well have put up a sign saying "You must grind everyone to level 20 before you can continue" or something. My team of Lv. 14 Swinub, Lv. 18 Oddish and Lv. 19 Eevee is getting more and more overwhelmed the further I go. It's possible that I'll be able to beat the Darkness goons you fight just when you leave Highland Town with Double Team and insane luck... but how many battles am I going to have to do that for? How overlevelled is my Eevee going to get compared to Swinub and Oddish? I can't even buy items to help me because there's a goon in the way, and I'm down to one Energy Root for healing! The only options I see are grinding against the local sub-level 10 Pokémon population (which will be dull and time-consuming) or catching yet another Pokémon (which will be time-consuming and will compound my level problem, not to mention that one of the reasons I love Pokémon is that I can catch pretty much whatever I like and still have a decent shot. It's not like all my Pokémon are the same type or anything!).

EDIT: It turns out it wasn't as impossible as I thought, but I still think the levels are too high. If you don't want to change the levels, at least let me buy some Super Potions! Or raise the level of wild Pokémon a bit so I don't have to baby them for so long after capture!

I do agree with most things you've said here; additioanal grinding is needed until you beat the gym leader of Greenwood Town or so. After that, the game is pretty much going to be traveling from place to another, solving things you've gotta solve and so on (without having to return to the latest area to get your pokemon up by a level or two).

When I started making this, I focused too much on unessential things like "difficulty". Now I pretty much focus only on planning new events ahead and later scripting the difficult ones of them.

So yeah, I understand what you mean here because I've heard someone in vizzed proboards saying totally the same thing when reviewing the hack. I don't think I'll do anything about how the mart in Highland Town works (not being able to buy anything until taking care of those goons) but I do think I should tone down the amount of level grinding a little bit. Because you'd have to be at a certain level (lv25-29 or so) after defeating the gym leader of Greenwood Town to be able to progress further without any problems, I could make it so that the wild pokemon will be higher leveled in the areas Area 100 to Area 106 (next to Greenwood Town) at least.
Some trainers (like gym leader Arnold) could also be modified a little bit to make the hack not a challenge but fun to play and for easier progress.

[alo123]

I usually dont like the hacks of the older games like gold,sliver and crystal
but this seems to interest me so i am going to try it out

[miksy91]

Originally Posted by alo123

I usually dont like the hacks of the older games like gold,sliver and crystal
but this seems to interest me so i am going to try it out

Go for it! ;)



Now this thing here is really something else...
I'd planned to make this "minigame" (which alone, wouldn't have been much of an idea but it's part of something bigger, and smarter) for quite a while and now that I started to edit this part of Granaldo City, it was time to make it.

Basically, that video is about a sidequest of which what you see in the video is part of. I don't think I've anything else to add here but really, watch the video!
You've no idea how much you're missing if you do not.