Crystal hack: Pokémon Polished Crystal (update 2.2.0)

[Prietodactyl]

I have a question. Have you considered make Lapras appear more than once a week? Or is there another place to get Lapras, other than Union Cave? Because I love that Pokémon, but I hate having to wait a week to get one. The only way I could get one is through wonder trade, but I had to try a lot of times...

Thank you

 

[Rangi]

I have a question. Have you considered make Lapras appear more than once a week? Or is there another place to get Lapras, other than Union Cave? Because I love that Pokémon, but I hate having to wait a week to get one. The only way I could get one is through wonder trade, but I had to try a lot of times...

Thank you

I'm already avoiding making new time-restricted events because they're hard to discover. Lapras will stay as-is, but if you don't want to wait, press Down+B at the title screen and set the time to Sunday.

 

[FIQ]

Would it be feasible to use the Form metadata to squeeze in a few extra species for Pokémon? Given how few there is needed to maintain a complete Johto dex including evolutions... (Possibly merging all legendaries into a single index to avoid the need to mess with evolution/breeding data and location data, and merge the 2 Nidorans families -- the latter would also allow you to hatch both of them -- which would add 13 additional spaces)

 

[Rangi]

There's a new poll! Should Aerodactyl be Rock/Dragon instead of Rock/Flying?

The only Dragon types are Dragonite and Kingdra, so I'd like to add some more. Most of the ones I considered wouldn't work, because they're available too early and would be overpowered.

• Charizard: Lance has one, and Mega Charizard X is Fire/Dragon; but, Charmander is a starter
• Gyarados: Lance has one; but, Magikarp is available before badge #2
• Ampharos: Mega Ampharos is Electric/Dragon; but, Mareep is available before badge #2
• Exeggutor: Alolan Exeggutor is Grass/Dragon; but, Exeggcute is available before badge #2
• Yanmega: It's a dragonfly; but, Yanma is available before badge #3

Aerodactyl is another Pokémon used by Lance, and it's not available until Kanto. On the other hand, it might seem more like a flying dinosaur than a dragon. And I don't know how useful its Flying type is competitively, compared to Dragon. Thoughts?

Would it be feasible to use the Form metadata to squeeze in a few extra species for Pokémon? Given how few there is needed to maintain a complete Johto dex including evolutions... (Possibly merging all legendaries into a single index to avoid the need to mess with evolution/breeding data and location data, and merge the 2 Nidorans families -- the latter would also allow you to hatch both of them -- which would add 13 additional spaces)

Interesting idea! I considered merging the Nidorans, but decided not to since they have different learnsets and base stats. Varying all those things based on form could work, although I'm sure it will turn out to be more complex than it sounds. (E.g. how would the Pokédex work?) I'm not against the idea, but I don't want to delay 3.0 for it. It could turn out to be an elegant way of fitting in more species for 4.0.

 

[FIQ]

If you are asking purely from a competitive standpoint, I think Rock/Dragon is actually worse than Rock/Flying, especially if disregarding Levitate. Dragon STAB has worse coverage than Flying, you lose EQ immunity (unless Levitate as said), gain a weakness to Dragon, Fairy and Fighting. The main (or only?) benefit is losing weakness against Water and Electric.

That said, I don't play competitively myself, so I'd rather someone more knowledgeable than me state his/her opinions.

Interesting idea! I considered merging the Nidorans, but decided not to since they have different learnsets and base stats. Varying all those things based on form could work, although I'm sure it will turn out to be more complex than it sounds. (E.g. how would the Pokédex work?) I'm not against the idea, but I don't want to delay 3.0 for it. It could turn out to be an elegant way of fitting in more species for 4.0.

Doesn't the Pokédex already have custom listings? I don't see what prevents you from just customizing it further. In fact, I think the Pokédex in particular might be one of the easier parts of this. I don't know exactly how the Pokédex work, but I'd imagine you'd just have 2 return bytes for index, and have certain ones be special cased (e.g. every ambiguous index).
Also, if you want to push it beyond 3.0, I think you can still implement it without breaking saves, by selecting other mons -- in particular those lacking evolutions.

 

[Rangi]

If you are asking purely from a competitive standpoint, I think Rock/Dragon is actually worse than Rock/Flying, especially if disregarding Levitate. Dragon STAB has worse coverage than Flying, you lose EQ immunity (unless Levitate as said), gain a weakness to Dragon, Fairy and Fighting. The main (or only?) benefit is losing weakness against Water and Electric.

That said, I don't play competitively myself, so I'd rather someone more knowledgeable than me state his/her opinions.

I would like Green's Aerodactyl to be as good as possible.

Doesn't the Pokédex already have custom listings? I don't see what prevents you from just customizing it further. In fact, I think the Pokédex in particular might be one of the easier parts of this. I don't know exactly how the Pokédex work, but I'd imagine you'd just have 2 return bytes for index, and have certain ones be special cased (e.g. every ambiguous index).
Also, if you want to push it beyond 3.0, I think you can still implement it without breaking saves, by selecting other mons -- in particular those lacking evolutions.

I'm thinking of the seen and caught flags, which are just bit arrays 0–255. Those would need extending and some special-case logic for forms. Anyway, even if that particular feature isn't a problem, there would be other bugs that need tracking down and fixing. It'll be a neat problem to work on eventually.

 

[Netizen]

Hello Rangi, first I just wanna say that it's a great game! One question though, can we find our rival's Pokemon through Wonder Trade? I'm playing as Gold and I have Cyndaquil, so Lyra has Chikorita and that's the only starter I couldn't find so far and it kinda triggers my Ocd... I feel like it's possible and I'm unlucky so I keep trying and trying but if you say it's not, I can move on my game in peace haha

 

[Deokishisu]

There's a new poll! Should Aerodactyl be Rock/Dragon instead of Rock/Flying?

The only Dragon types are Dragonite and Kingdra, so I'd like to add some more. Most of the ones I considered wouldn't work, because they're available too early and would be overpowered.

• Charizard: Lance has one, and Mega Charizard X is Fire/Dragon; but, Charmander is a starter
• Gyarados: Lance has one; but, Magikarp is available before badge #2
• Ampharos: Mega Ampharos is Electric/Dragon; but, Mareep is available before badge #2
• Exeggutor: Alolan Exeggutor is Grass/Dragon; but, Exeggcute is available before badge #2
• Yanmega: It's a dragonfly; but, Yanma is available before badge #3

Aerodactyl is another Pokémon used by Lance, and it's not available until Kanto. On the other hand, it might seem more like a flying dinosaur than a dragon. And I don't know how useful its Flying type is competitively, compared to Dragon. Thoughts?

I share FIQ's concerns about making Aerodactyl worse by giving it the Dragon-type. I think that Yanmega would be a better choice. Giving it a Bug/Dragon typing makes it unique and gives it a purpose other than generic Bug-type #1000. I could see it using its wings to use Dragon Pulse. Dragon Dance works because dragonflies do that cool little dance when they hunt. Twister works because of its dangerous wings; Dragon Tail because of its tail; Dragon Rage as an upgraded Sonicboom. So it has Dragon-type move options that make sense for it. If you're concerned that it would evolve too early (at 33 if you're using ORAS' level), move Ancientpower further off on Yanma's move list. It would be weak to Flying, Rock, Dragon, Ice, and Fairy; have key resistances to Water, Electric, Fighting, Ground, and a double Grass resistance. It gets almost perfect neutral coverage with its STABs, with only Steel and Fairy having resistances to both, but because Dragon's only SE against itself, it actually loses a few SE hits with its STAB attacks by switching Flying with Dragon. Through careful planning, you could get one with Hypnosis (through Yanma) and then DD up to a respectable Attack stat and go to town on its weaker physical side, or use Hypnosis and Dragon Tail to spread sleep through the enemy team. Or just go standard and fire off blazing fast Bug Buzzes, Air Slashes, and Dragon Pulses; U-turning out if the enemy tries to counter you.

I would definitely play with and have fun with Bug/Dragon Yanmega, as the typing makes the Pokemon more interesting. Rock/Dragon Aerodactyl takes away interesting stuff and leaves it almost universally worse off. (Also, I just listed out moves that Yanmega could know without checking to see if they're in the hack. Hopefully they all are and I don't look lazy.)

 

[FIQ]

^ Yeah, I'd personally find a Bug/Dragon Yanmega pretty cool myself! I was always disappointed over the fact that Flygon didn't get that typing.

EDIT: Yanmega also get Tinted Lens as an alternative to Speed Boost which doubles damage from resisted hits, if you intend to use DD. Also, Dragon Tail or U-Turn doesn't exist in Polished Crystal, the only physical Dragon attacks is Dragon Claw and Outrage.

 

[Rangi]

I'm getting similar feedback at Skeetendo. Now considering making Charizard and Yanmega part Dragon, as long as Yanma learns AncientPower at a later level (probably 43 instead of 33).

 

[MrDollSteak]

There's a new poll! Should Aerodactyl be Rock/Dragon instead of Rock/Flying?

The only Dragon types are Dragonite and Kingdra, so I'd like to add some more. Most of the ones I considered wouldn't work, because they're available too early and would be overpowered.

• Charizard: Lance has one, and Mega Charizard X is Fire/Dragon; but, Charmander is a starter
• Gyarados: Lance has one; but, Magikarp is available before badge #2
• Ampharos: Mega Ampharos is Electric/Dragon; but, Mareep is available before badge #2
• Exeggutor: Alolan Exeggutor is Grass/Dragon; but, Exeggcute is available before badge #2
• Yanmega: It's a dragonfly; but, Yanma is available before badge #3

Aerodactyl is another Pokémon used by Lance, and it's not available until Kanto. On the other hand, it might seem more like a flying dinosaur than a dragon. And I don't know how useful its Flying type is competitively, compared to Dragon. Thoughts?

I definitely think Aerodactyl should stay as Rock/Flying.

I think Charizard being Fire/Dragon isn't a problem since you wont be getting it until Kanto, and its Flying Stab is never particular impactful. It only really gets Air Slash that's of note, whereas it could quite effectively use some more Dragon moves.

I do like Yanmega being a Dragon! I'll miss Air Slash flinch hax shenanigans, but it'd certainly get some more benefits. Ancient Power at 43 would make sense. Swapping it with Wing Attack seems pretty logical.

I don't think Gyarados, Ampharos or Exeggutor particularly need to become Dragons, especially because as you say they're available so early.

 

[FIQ]

Have you considered making these kind of polls for the other non-Faithful changes there is in Polished Crystal?

 

[Rangi]

Have you considered making these kind of polls for the other non-Faithful changes there is in Polished Crystal?

I've only polled a few changes where I didn't have a strong preference myself.

 

[Prietodactyl]

Charizard is a totally different case because Charmander is available pretty early through wonder trade (I got it in my first 10 trades). And since it is a foreign Pokémon it levels up faster, and if you have the fourth badge (which isn't very hard to get) you can level it to 36 without a problem.
So, unless you limit the trades or move the evolution level of charmeleon to say, level 45 (like Flygon) you'd get a Dragon pretty early.

 

[Rangi]

Charizard is a totally different case because Charmander is available pretty early through wonder trade (I got it in my first 10 trades). And since it is a foreign Pokémon it levels up faster, and if you have the fourth badge (which isn't very hard to get) you can level it to 36 without a problem.
So, unless you limit the trades or move the evolution level of charmeleon to say, level 45 (like Flygon) you'd get a Dragon pretty early.

That, I'm okay with. You can get really lucky with Wonder Trade: Leftovers or Lucky Egg as a held item, Larvitar or Dratini before the third badge, a powerful single-stage Pokémon like Kangaskhan or Lapras.

 

[uchihamadada]

Cynthia and Steven get better teams after you rematch the Elite 4. I already have Steven's theme music, demixed by Mmmmmm, and hope to get Cynthia's too

Yeah, I know that, but they're in level 70-75 (aprox), but for example: Lance's Dragonite is in level 80 and his party is a Little higher than Cynthia and Steven's pkms

 

[blaziken662]

Toxic Spikes is better competitively? I don't really have a preference, so I left Spikes in because it's the original.

I would like to keep Spikes but modify it to be stackable as in current Gens, as 25 % for 3 layers against any grounded Poke is more meaningful than Toxic poison that can be absorbed by the pretty nice amount of Poison types in Gen I-II.

Also, I wanted to thank you for considering the change of Spike Cannon for Icicle Spear and wanted to suggest the change of Fury Attack -> Drill Run (something I've already made in my copy) to add more coverage options for Pokes like Beedrill and Fearow.

Finally I do agree with the Bug/Dragon typing for Yanmega and the Fire/Dragon change for Charizard as they can fill offensive/wallbreaking niches pretty well to balance the "bulky" GSC Enchanced Metagame that is being constructed by your hack.

Best regards!

 

[uchihamadada]

About the "Dragon types" discussion...I share FIQ's and Deokishisu's concerns, Aerodactyl should keep his Rock/Flying dual type, by the way...check Lance's Aerodactyl moveset...I think he attack me with "Ancientpower" (or maybe it was someone else's Aerodactyl, like Green's or Walkner's ~_~)...and as you know, Aerodactyl it's a physical sweeper...not special. an attack like "Rock Slide" Works perfect for him because he used to attak you first and that's great for the "Flitch" factor :)

I personally find like a remarkable idea turn Yanmega into a Bug/Dragon type...because his moveset and resistence possibilities (by his new stab) are awesome!! {:3}

-Charizard: This pkm should keep his Fire/Flying type, if you'll turn it into a Fire/Dragon pkm he should change his ability "Blaze" to "Levitate" and just in that case...Maybe you can add for him a new form (like Pikachu), or maybe just the "Shiny" Charizard should be a Fire/Dragon...because beeing Black instead Red color...he emulates almost perfectly the Mega Charizard X
-Gyarados: Alredy exist "Kingdra" like a "Water/Dragon" pkm...I preffer the idea of turn it into a "Water/Dark" like his Mega evolution....also he has a very good physical power for an attack like "Crunch"...but in this hack alredy exist Feraligatr (another Water/Dark pkm)...~_~
-Ampharos: Mega Ampharos is Electric/Dragon; I'm totally agree with this change
-Exeggutor: I don't plan to hide my disgust with "Alolan Exeggutor">_>, I mean, Sceptile alredy looks like a Dragon...but Exeggutor...I preffer it like a Grass/Psychic pkm

 

[Rangi]

I would like to keep Spikes but modify it to be stackable as in current Gens, as 25 % for 3 layers against any grounded Poke is more meaningful than Toxic poison that can be absorbed by the pretty nice amount of Poison types in Gen I-II.

Also, I wanted to thank you for considering the change of Spike Cannon for Icicle Spear and wanted to suggest the change of Fury Attack -> Drill Run (something I've already made in my copy) to add more coverage options for Pokes like Beedrill and Fearow.

Finally I do agree with the Bug/Dragon typing for Yanmega and the Fire/Dragon change for Charizard as they can fill offensive/wallbreaking niches pretty well to balance the "bulky" GSC Enchanced Metagame that is being constructed by your hack.

Best regards!

I will get around to making Spikes stackable.

Fearow had to be removed to make room for new Pok?mon. Does anyone other than Beedrill really need Drill Run? Looks like mostly Ground-types learn it, and they get Earthquake. Also, Fury Attack is paired with Fury Swipes, so I want to keep both.

Thanks for your input!

 

[Netizen]

Hello Rangi, first I just wanna say that it's a great game! One question though, can we find our rival's Pokemon through Wonder Trade? I'm playing as Gold and I have Cyndaquil, so Lyra has Chikorita and that's the only starter I couldn't find so far and it kinda triggers my Ocd... I feel like it's possible and I'm unlucky so I keep trying and trying but if you say it's not, I can move on my game in peace haha

Can someone answer this?