Crystal hack: Pokémon Polished Crystal (update 2.2.0)

[Rangi]

There have been a lot of changes recently, but here's one with an accompanying screenshot: Hidden Grottoes!

Unlike B2/W2, these will regenerate their contents daily.

 

[looneyman1]

oooh nice!

 

[Unown Seer]

Will the Hidden Grotto Pokemon always have hidden abilities?

Just in case you missed my question from the last page: Can the elemental stones obtained without Bill's grandfather or Pokegear calls? He is a huge pain and waiting for calls isn't much better.

Also, I've run into at least three trainer Pokemon that used Struggle just after a turn or two.

 

[Maxim]

It's been a while since I've played a hack...

I tried Polished Crystal 2.2, the "non-faithful" version (to have the full experience) and I must say that I'm pretty impressed. But what is going to be in the next releases looks much, much more impressive.

Generally, this is a hack of the type that I like the most. Even though I have mixed feelings about the retypings (though they did make the game easier to me, especially when I learned that Sunflora is Fire-type) and I'm still not very keen on adding newgen Pokemon at the cost of existing mons (this feels more okay in hacks like Prism, which are set in their own region with its own Pokedex, rather than a heavily canon-based hack like this one), but I guess it's up to one's taste. And I do realize that it's a part of this hack's purpose.

I loved most the new stuff, though some felt random or uninspired to me (again, a matter of taste) But all in all, the hack makes a nice, interesting whole. I'm eagerly looking forward the next releases and I have some ideas and suggestions (as well as minor complaints) for them. Even if you disagree with some or most of them, please take a look at them.

• Why is the female counterpart of Cal named "Kay"? Don't you think that Carrie would make more sense? Even if you're not re-spriting them to match their Stadium 2 designs, I think that having her as Carrie would be a nice touch.

• Did you think about adding colored rocks on top of each Whirl Island to reference the anime? I mean, like this. Not a big thing, but nice nonetheless.

• I wonder why Yellow didn't heal the player's Pokemon after the battle. She's a Healer, after all. Also, speaking of Healers, did you think of putting Doctor/Nurse Trainer Class in the game?

• I hate the feat of Breeders rebattling the player again and again. I know it's from BW2 but it's freakin' evil thing.

• I love the fact that you expanded Silph Co. (which, I guess, is unfinished?). Did you think about doing the same with Lavender Radio Tower? It may not sound like the most interesting place on Poke-earth, but since you're adding some new music features, that'd make sense. Don't forget about DJs Fern and Lily.

• However, some of the bringbacks from Gen I seem unneccessary or unwelcome to me. For example, why restore that random gate in the middle of Silence Bridge? It serves no purpose at all. Or the Celadon Hotel. Celadon actually has an university in many canons. Wouldn't that be more interesting than a copy-pasted, useless hotel from Gen I? Also, I've seen the full region map (great work, by the way) and it looks like you're restoring the Route 23 from RGBY/FRLG. Do you think it's necessary? To me, it seems like a forced and unneccessary addition that will just make the way to the League unnecessarily long and tedious. It's a really big map, which surely takes up a lot of ROM space. Wouldn't it be better to map something else?

• Why did you make Faraway Island in Gen III graphics? I think devamped is sexy.

• I know you're not putting Sevii in the game, but how about referencing them somehow? I haven't found any reference to them in the game. Even Lorelei doesn't make one? I think Sevii need more recognition, even more so than Orange Islands.

• Have you thought about giving Kiyo an unique Trainer Class (Karate King) and sprite?

• I think that DJ Mary and Eusine deserve their own overworld sprites. They're both iconic characters and had unique overworld sprites in HGSS.

• Have you thought about FRLG-like Fame Checker item (of course, if it's do-able)? Collecting those facts about different important in-game characters was a great sidequest.

• Have you thought about putting Jackson AKA Vincent in the game? He's one of those anime-made characters that "make sense" (I'd see him as a male counterpart of Lyra but maybe that'd be too much of a radical change).

• Have you thought about putting in Goldenrod City Museum, like in the PokeSpecial manga?

• I know Pokeathlon is not do-able, but have you thought of referencing it? Like, putting a construction site for it, as if it is not yet built?

• Will Baoba return in the future releases? Safari without the Safari game is fine, but I think things would be more exciting if Baoba returned from vacations (maybe after beating all Kanto GLs) and redesigned the Safari somehow (maybe make it somehow HGSS-like?). He had an unique overworld sprite in Gen I, so that could be reused.

• The girl in Lavender Volunteer House is basically Reina from Pokemon Origins. How about acknowledging this name and perhaps giving her some bigger role?

• I know that it is hard to do because stuff is poorly documented, but have you thought about recreating the original way of getting the GS Ball, with Chieko (the time-travelling girl, who's apparently Kurt's successor) and her questions/dice game, based on the information we know, mixed with your own imagination? That'd be exciting to see!

That's all I can think of for now. I think I had some more ideas in my head while I was playing the game but I don't recall them at this moment. I can post here if something comes to my mind.

I'm really into the Pokemon lore stuff and this hack is really like a dream coming true in many aspects. Keep up the great work, Rangi, I am cheering you.

 

[sonic65101]

I love the fact that you expanded Silph Co. (which, I guess, is unfinished?). Did you think about doing the same with Lavender Radio Tower? It may not sound like the most interesting place on Poke-earth, but since you're adding some new music features, that'd make sense. Don't forget about DJs Fern and Lily.

I second this. I would like to see the Lavender Town Radio Tower expanded.

 

[Unown Seer]

I am not sure Rangi even knows about Chieko, and I assume that the GS Ball is obtained via Prof. Ivy in this hack (I recognized the map from Pokemon Orange). But here is a translation of this page:

The process to obtain the GS Ball differed between April and May 2001. After reading the news at the PCC, a woman named Chieko communicated with the player via the machine. In April, Chieko tested the player with a game of rock, paper and scissors, while in May she used a different game of rolling a dice. After that, Chieko checked whether or not the player had all 16 badges, and if they did, she would ask them a series of yes/no questions (five questions in April and eight in May). The April questions tested the player's heart, whereas the May questions tested the player's memory. The May questions weren't anything special (fairly standard questions about Johto locations), but the April questions were quite interesting:

1) Should Pokémon protect and rescue people other than their trainers? [Yes]
2) If a Pokémon is afraid of a person, is it the person's fault? [Yes]
3) Is there a goal for a person who likes Pokémon beside being a trainer? [Yes]
4) Is a child a weaker trainer than an adult is? [No]
5) Do you think that the legends from the days of old are all a lie? [No]

If the player answered all five questions correctly, he was said to be a "splendid trainer with a strong, right heart" and was then given the GS Ball by the nurse upon leaving the PCC (only this was part was localized). In fact, she revealed that she was a ball curator like Kurt. Since Kurt's granddaughter was called Chie in the Japanese anime (Maizie in the dub), I suspect that Chieko is Chie from the future...

Even after the Ilex Forest event, the player could rematch Chieko for another shot at her mini-game, giving them three Apricorns if they won. But she never revealed anything about her era or what the GS Ball contained.

Anyway, I'd localize Chieko as Mayson, and use the April mini game (rock, paper and scissors is simple enough to code) and the respective questions. Again, I don't know how the GS Ball is already handled, but at the very least you could have Prof. Ivy say she got the ball from a mysterious person, Mayson, who claimed to be a ball curator from Azalea.

 

[Rangi]

Will the Hidden Grotto Pokemon always have hidden abilities?

Just in case you missed my question from the last page: Can the elemental stones obtained without Bill's grandfather or Pokegear calls? He is a huge pain and waiting for calls isn't much better.

Also, I've run into at least three trainer Pokemon that used Struggle just after a turn or two.

Just like in canon, they will always have hidden abilities (but can never be shiny).

Hidden Grottoes will actually have the elemental stones, rarely. Otherwise you'll have to wait for post-game in Celadon City.

It's been a while since I've played a hack...

I tried Polished Crystal 2.2, the "non-faithful" version (to have the full experience) and I must say that I'm pretty impressed. But what is going to be in the next releases looks much, much more impressive.

Generally, this is a hack of the type that I like the most. Even though I have mixed feelings about the retypings (though they did make the game easier to me, especially when I learned that Sunflora is Fire-type) and I'm still not very keen on adding newgen Pokemon at the cost of existing mons (this feels more okay in hacks like Prism, which are set in their own region with its own Pokedex, rather than a heavily canon-based hack like this one), but I guess it's up to one's taste. And I do realize that it's a part of this hack's purpose.

I loved most the new stuff, though some felt random or uninspired to me (again, a matter of taste) But all in all, the hack makes a nice, interesting whole. I'm eagerly looking forward the next releases and I have some ideas and suggestions (as well as minor complaints) for them. Even if you disagree with some or most of them, please take a look at them.

(snip)

That's all I can think of for now. I think I had some more ideas in my head while I was playing the game but I don't recall them at this moment. I can post here if something comes to my mind.

I'm really into the Pokemon lore stuff and this hack is really like a dream coming true in many aspects. Keep up the great work, Rangi, I am cheering you.

Thanks a lot! I'm glad you enjoyed the game overall. I can understand missing the original game's selection of Pokémon, but now that the Gen 4 evolutions are well-established, I'd miss them much more than the babies and relatively unmemorable Pokémon they had to replace. (Hopefully by 4.0 I'll have managed to fit more than 253 species. Or at least brought back Shuckle.)

• I just picked "Kay" as a three-letter name similar to "Kris", like "Cal" and "Chris". "Carrie" actually works quite well, except that the character has a known appearance and isn't a Kris clone. Then again, she was actually in Trainer House, and used the default guy sprite. I'll consider it.
• That would be cool! Unfortunately, the tileset is 100% full. GSC's map engine won't let you reuse the same tile graphic with a different color, so you have to make two identical tiles. I was barely able to fit the gray cliff tiles for those islands (new to 3.0).
• Good idea for Yellow. I did consider Doctors and/or Nurses, but there's less need for them in Crystal, since it doesn't have B/W's long dungeons. I recall fighting a lot of trainers in Chargestone Cave before reaching a Doctor.
• Hehe. They keep hatching new Pokémon and fighting back. :P Most of them are somewhat out of the way, though, like on Route 35 or Route 7.
• Silph Co. is complete; I didn't see any more content that could be added on additional floors, and I'm not great at dialog so a floor of filler NPCs would be boring. Do you have any ideas? Lavender's Tower is one of the last unfinished scripted areas left for 3.0. And thanks for the reminder about its DJs.
• I added the RBY gate on Silence Bridge (and the HGSS gates on Routes 1 and 36) because they were technically necessary. When you can walk straight between outdoor maps, they need to share the same tilesets and the same set of sprites, only nine of which can have walking frames. As for Celadon Hotel, the ground floor was memorable from RBY, and then it felt incomplete without at least a few explorable rooms. 3.0 does add Celadon University too, though; it's a pretty large new area. Same for Route 23: I liked the increasing tension in RBY as you climb it, no trainers, few wild Pokémon, with the dramatic music not even being overridden by the usual Surf theme, and the guards reminding you of each badge you earned along the way. B/W and B2/W2 did the same thing. I can understand it feeling like a long trek; would it help if you could Fly straight back to the League gate?
• I know it doesn't really fit in with the Gen 2 style, but I had fun cramming its colors into the GBC's palette system. :) Thing is, just like with Shamouti Island, I would feel required to at least use the local tree and grass tiles instead of the same ones from Johto, just like how Kanto reuses its RBY tiles. Same goes for the fancy water. And then I might as well give it Gen 3 cliffs too. And some kind of custom palette, since it's a one-off location like Ice Path, Bellchime Trail, Yellow Forest, Mt. Silver, etc, and after learning how location-unique palettes work I think they really help individualize the maps. But I'll admit it may go too far. :P
• When/if 4.0 comes around with even more Pokémon (see TODO.md), I've thought about adding at least some Sevii Islands to hold the new species. For now I've left it ambiguous whether the new archipelago is called Orange, Sevii, or isn't named.
• Already done for 3.0. :)
• Eusine has one, but his used the last of 255 sprite slots. DJ Mary does look cool, though, so if a slot opens up I could add her. (Note that Buena technically has a unique sprite now that I gave Beauties their Prism sprite, since it better resembles their GSC trainer sprite.) (So many GSC trainer classes use overworld sprites appropriate to their RBY artwork. It doesn't help that the overworld sprite system I mentioned before means that classes have to share.)
• This is also already in the works for 3.0. Bookshelves in the Pokémon Centers and elsewhere hold 33 Pokémon Journal entries. There's a reward for reading them all, too.
• I have Jackson/Vincent written down along with a few other anime trainers (like the challengers on New Island in the first movie) as potential cameos. Just in a subtle way, as NPC trainers with the same names and teams, like what DPPt did.
• I'd never heard of the Goldenrod Museum before. All I see is results about a real one in Goldenrod, Florida. What issue was it in? If there's potential new content that's not already in Pewter's I'll consider it.
• Hm, maybe so. I could widen the Route 35 gate and have some Engineers talking about it.
• If 4.0 adds back RBY's Safari Game, with its Bait+Rock mechanic, then Warden Baoba will be back and it'll be retconned to never having closed.
• Good idea! I'm in the middle of scripting the whole new Lavender Town event, so I'll be sure to use her.
• Can you link to more details about this? I assume "Chieko" was some prototype for his granddaughter Mazie (Chie in Japanese)?

Thank you very much your critiques and suggestions! This will help make 3.0 even better.

Edit:

I am not sure Rangi even knows about Chieko, and I assume that the GS Ball is obtained via Prof. Ivy in this hack (I recognized the map from Pokemon Orange). But here is a translation of this page:

The process to obtain the GS Ball differed between April and May 2001. After reading the news at the PCC, a woman named Chieko communicated with the player via the machine. In April, Chieko tested the player with a game of rock, paper and scissors, while in May she used a different game of rolling a dice. After that, Chieko checked whether or not the player had all 16 badges, and if they did, she would ask them a series of yes/no questions (five questions in April and eight in May). The April questions tested the player's heart, whereas the May questions tested the player's memory. The May questions weren't anything special (fairly standard questions about Johto locations), but the April questions were quite interesting:

1) Should Pokémon protect and rescue people other than their trainers? [Yes]
2) If a Pokémon is afraid of a person, is it the person's fault? [Yes]
3) Is there a goal for a person who likes Pokémon beside being a trainer? [Yes]
4) Is a child a weaker trainer than an adult is? [No]
5) Do you think that the legends from the days of old are all a lie? [No]

If the player answered all five questions correctly, he was said to be a "splendid trainer with a strong, right heart" and was then given the GS Ball by the nurse upon leaving the PCC (only this was part was localized). In fact, she revealed that she was a ball curator like Kurt. Since Kurt's granddaughter was called Chie in the Japanese anime (Maizie in the dub), I suspect that Chieko is Chie from the future...

Even after the Ilex Forest event, the player could rematch Chieko for another shot at her mini-game, giving them three Apricorns if they won. But she never revealed anything about her era or what the GS Ball contained.

Anyway, I'd call localize Chieko as Mayson, and use the April mini game (rock, paper and scissors is simple enough to code) and the respective questions. Again, I don't know how the GS Ball is already handled, but at the very least you could have Prof. Ivy say she got the ball from a mysterious person, Mayson, who claimed to be a ball curator from Azalea.

Interesting! I'm kind of attached to my own way of getting the GS Ball, though. (No, it's not from Prof. Ivy, and it's already in 2.2.0.)

This could be a way to reacquire the GS Ball if you KO Celebi the first time. (Other legendaries respawn after you KO them if you beat the Elite 4 again.)

 

[Unown Seer]

Could you use spoiler tags to tell me how it is obtained? I'm curious.

I've also compiled all the unused text from the Ruins of Alph. I assume you're aware of this since you used the reference to Prof. Silktree, but what about the rest? Or the Unown Report from HGSS? I don't know what happens when you collect all the Unown, so maybe I'm missing something.

Edit: Also, you may have missed my mention of the Struggle bug. But you're probably aware of it by now.

 

[Rangi]

Could you use spoiler tags to tell me how it is obtained? I'm curious.

Hint: after you beat the Elite 4,

Spoiler:

try Wonder Trading.

Edit:

I've also compiled all the unused text from the Ruins of Alph. I assume you're aware of this since you used the reference to Prof. Silktree, but what about the rest? Or the Unown Report from HGSS? I don't know know what happens when you collect the Unown, so maybe I'm missing something.

Thanks, but I'm already using this. Some is in 3.0, some was already in 2.2.0 (like the Prof. Silktree portrait).

Do try to catch all the Unown. Unlike in GSC, it's worthwhile.

 

[Unown Seer]

Will do.

I'm battling Lyra east of Ecruteak, and she uses a level 37 Croconaw. Is this intentional?

 

[Rangi]

Will do.

I'm battling Lyra east of Ecruteak, and she uses a level 37 Croconaw. Is this intentional?

You mean that it hasn't evolved? Yeah. Don't worry, it will later, she's not like the RSE rival.

 

[sonic65101]

Do you have any plans for a Celebi event like the one in HeartGold and SoulSilver, where you go back in time and battle Giovanni?

 

[Rangi]

Do you have any plans for a Celebi event like the one in HeartGold and SoulSilver, where you go back in time and battle Giovanni?

Something like that, yes. :D

 

[Unown Seer]

You mean that it hasn't evolved? Yeah. Don't worry, it will later, she's not like the RSE rival.

So I guess you envision her as a slightly more competent version of Shauna? Although even she randomly showed up with a Goodra, Delcatty and a fully evolved starter despite having only battled as a newbie.

 

[sonic65101]

Something like that, yes. :D

Cool! By the way, what's with the up and down arrows on the Pokémon stats? I just compiled a faithful build less than an hour ago after seeing the post about hidden grottos. I noticed it in the previous build, and I figure it has something to do with stat bonuses and penalties.

 

[Rangi]

So I guess you envision her as a slightly more competent version of Shauna?

Can't say, I haven't played the DS games.

Cool! By the way, what's with the up and down arrows on the Pokémon stats? I just compiled a faithful build less than an hour ago after seeing the post about hidden grottos. I noticed it in the previous build, and I figure it has something to do with stat bonuses and penalties.

Those indicate which stats the Nature raises or lowers.

 

[sonic65101]

I just compiled a faithful build today, and the Pokémon Storage System's palette is inverted.
EDIT: Just saw on GitHub that it was fixed.

 

[Maxim]

I'd miss them much more than the babies and relatively unmemorable Pokémon they had to replace. (Hopefully by 4.0 I'll have managed to fit more than 253 species. Or at least brought back Shuckle.)

Oh, cool. I hope you manage to do this, that'd really help to make your hack near-perfect.

I just picked "Kay" as a three-letter name similar to "Kris", like "Cal" and "Chris". "Carrie" actually works quite well, except that the character has a known appearance and isn't a Kris clone. Then again, she was actually in Trainer House, and used the default guy sprite. I'll consider it.

Well, Cal also technically has a known design via Stadium 2, but most people remember him as the clone of the boy player anyway.
Also, if you go by Carrie, you may want to rename Lass Carrie, who appears in the Goldenrod Gym (interestingly, another Lass, named Bridget in GSC was renamed to Cathy in HGSS, so you might use that name).

That would be cool! Unfortunately, the tileset is 100% full. GSC's map engine won't let you reuse the same tile graphic with a different color, so you have to make two identical tiles. I was barely able to fit the gray cliff tiles for those islands (new to 3.0).

Oh. Understood.
But please keep this in mind, in case it somehow becomes possible.

Good idea for Yellow. I did consider Doctors and/or Nurses, but there's less need for them in Crystal, since it doesn't have B/W's long dungeons. I recall fighting a lot of trainers in Chargestone Cave before reaching a Doctor.

Oh, yeah, that's quite right. One location that I thought could need a Doctor was Victory Road, somewhere before you fight the Rival. But yeah, I guess adding a new Trainer Class just for that would make no sense.

Silph Co. is complete; I didn't see any more content that could be added on additional floors, and I'm not great at dialog so a floor of filler NPCs would be boring.

Well, one thing that I immediately thought about is Maizie's father (Kurt's son? or son-in-law?), who apparently works at Silph (he was mentioned somehow in the original). But this could easily be fit into the existing floors, he could be the guy who develops the Balls (being part of Kurt's family, this seems natural).

I also thought about the Silph Co. President appearing (since he was a character in RGBY), but I'm not quite sure about the role he could play...

I added the RBY gate on Silence Bridge (and the HGSS gates on Routes 1 and 36) because they were technically necessary. When you can walk straight between outdoor maps, they need to share the same tilesets and the same set of sprites, only nine of which can have walking frames.

Oh, okay. I understand. I thought that you restored it just because it was there in Gen I.

As for Celadon Hotel, the ground floor was memorable from RBY, and then it felt incomplete without at least a few explorable rooms.

So, it does have explorable rooms in 3.0? If yes, then I'm totally cool with this.
I'm not against bringing back old stuff from Gen I. I'd just like them to have some purpose, other than just being there. I thought that the Celadon Hotel could work somehow like the Hotels in XY. But I guess you've already thought about that.

Also, the Celadon Hotel having a PC (as a reference to its "phantom" PC in Gen I) is a nice touch, I admit.

3.0 does add Celadon University too, though; it's a pretty large new area.

Oh, awesome. I couldn't locate this on the map (I guess it's one of those buildings that didn't have doors before?), so I thought it wouldn't be there.

So, will you be referencing the Dragon Rage giveaway that took place in Japan in Gen I times and used the University as its lore? The Magikarp is also in the University's crest.

The promotional characters for this Japanese-only giveaway used a special character, named Prof. Matsumoto (he also made a cameo appearance in PokeSpecial, Vol. 4, chapter 46, here is a fanart picture of him), who is apparently the principal there. You might want to use him.
Also, in the manga, Erika lectures at the University but you probably know about that.

Also, the promotional materials for the giveaway mention that a professor of the Celadon University, named Nishinomori (probably related to this guy) apparently invented the Pokeball. It's also a fact worth mentioning.

Yeah, it's the most obscure and poorly documented part of the Pokemon games lore. But this is the kind of stuff that just fit in this hack perfectly.

Same for Route 23: I liked the increasing tension in RBY as you climb it, no trainers, few wild Pokémon, with the dramatic music not even being overridden by the usual Surf theme, and the guards reminding you of each badge you earned along the way. B/W and B2/W2 did the same thing. I can understand it feeling like a long trek; would it help if you could Fly straight back to the League gate?

So, did you think about giving it the theme of the League Route in BW? With additional notes emerging with each Badge checked, as in BW? Though, I guess GBC soundfonts are not detailed enough for that.

As for flyposts, I think every PokeCenter (even those outside towns) should be one, if that's do-able. Same goes for the Pokemon League Gate, as it was a flypost in HGSS (however, I hope that you don't add the option to fly to both Kanto and Johto from Indigo from HGSS, as it kind of outshines the Magnet Train's glory).

When/if 4.0 comes around with even more Pokémon (see TODO.md), I've thought about adding at least some Sevii Islands to hold the new species. For now I've left it ambiguous whether the new archipelago is called Orange, Sevii, or isn't named.

Oh, this "to do" list is nice. It coincides with some things that I thought about before (like the Honey being in the game, as it was in the beta. I think the woman who gives Sweet Scent TM in the original games, originally talked about Honey in the beta. I know that Sweet Scent is now gone from the hack and the TM is replaced with something else, but having her talk about Honey would be a great reference).

I hope that you indeed manage to find the way to add more Pokemon (and probably other things too), it'd help with so many things. I've got my fingers crossed for that.

I have Jackson/Vincent written down along with a few other anime trainers (like the challengers on New Island in the first movie) as potential cameos. Just in a subtle way, as NPC trainers with the same names and teams, like what DPPt did.

Oh, nice.
I thought that Jackson could have some kind of a bigger role, since he's also from New Bark and belongs to the New Bark Trainers in the anime. But I guess he could be too much, with all that cool stuff that you already added.

I'd never heard of the Goldenrod Museum before. All I see is results about a real one in Goldenrod, Florida. What issue was it in? If there's potential new content that's not already in Pewter's I'll consider it.

The Museum appeared in Volume 11, Chapter 136.
Janine stole a Big Pearl from it, although it wasn't a real theft - she was hired to do so by the Museum Curator, in order to test the Museum's security.

I know that this story wouldn't make much sense in the game (Janine has a rather different role). But the Museum could still be there. I thought it could exhibit some stuff related to the history of Johto and the Legendary Pokemon role?

f 4.0 adds back RBY's Safari Game, with its Bait+Rock mechanic, then Warden Baoba will be back and it'll be retconned to never having closed.

Oh, nice. Although I thought that having Baoba go and then return would be more exciting and make more sense plot-wise. Especially if you manage to put some new Pokemon species in the game, it could be said that Baoba returned from vacations abroad with new kinds of Pokemon for the Safari.
It's three years after RBY, things have changed. I think that having the same old stuff from RGBY doesn't make much sense at this point. But it's your hack, of course.

Good idea! I'm in the middle of scripting the whole new Lavender Town event, so I'll be sure to use her.

Oh, that's awesome. I'm glad to have helped.

Can you link to more details about this? I assume "Chieko" was some prototype for his granddaughter Mazie (Chie in Japanese)?

Well, "Chie" has existed before (it was used in the anime before Crystal was out), so it's possible that "Chieko" is the nickname that Chie (Maizie) went by with her time-travelling mission, hidding her true identity. Or it may actually mean that she's Maizie's child (Chie + "ko" = child). She's from the future after all.

As for Chieko's story, what Unown Lord posted is pretty much everything that we know about her and her event. I'd really love to see it somehow adapted in the hack. Of course, you don't have to be faithful (especially that it's impossible to be faithful if we know so little about this event and there's no recorded material from it) but I think that the idea of a female Apricorn Maker from the future asking riddles is somehow appealing, isn't it?

I dare to say that this is the kind of stuff that this hack is actually for.

Thank you very much your critiques and suggestions! This will help make 3.0 even better.

I'm glad to have helped. I'm always open to talk when it comes to lore stuff.
And I really appreciate those little touches that the hack already has, such as Miguel appearing at Mt. Moon. It was really great.

By the way, there's something that I thought about just now:
Could the Azalea Town woodcuters use their anime names - Sylvester and Yosaku? Or is it too much, giving such meaningless characters names?

Also, acknowledging Maizie's name would be nice, especially if you put Chieko/"Mayson" in the hack.

 

[WorldsBoss]

Oh, awesome. I couldn't locate this on the map (I guess it's one of those buildings that didn't have doors before?), so I thought it wouldn't be there.

So, will you be referencing the Dragon Rage giveaway that took place in Japan in Gen I times and used the University as its lore? The Magikarp is also in the University's crest.

The promotional characters for this Japanese-only giveaway used a special character, named Prof. Matsumoto (he also made a cameo appearance in PokeSpecial, Vol. 4, chapter 46, here is a fanart picture of him), who is apparently the principal there. You might want to use him.
Also, in the manga, Erika lectures at the University but you probably know about that.

Also, the promotional materials for the giveaway mention that a professor of the Celadon University, named Nishinomori (probably related to this guy) apparently invented the Pokeball. It's also a fact worth mentioning.

Yeah, it's the most obscure and poorly documented part of the Pokemon games lore. But this is the kind of stuff that just fit in this hack perfectly.

Don't worry, Rangi is way ahead of you on all of this :P We did a lot of research about the university and scraped together everything that we could find when writing dialogue for the game, including all the stuff you mentioned.

As for Goldenrod Museum, I had no idea that it was a thing. I somehow missed it on Bulbapedia until now, but it does mention about Janine testing the security system. Maybe this could be in reference to Team Rocket's attack on the Radio Tower? If before the takeover, Rockets in the tower could complain that security in the museum is too tight for them to steal anything. If after the takeover, museum staff could mention tightening their security and discuss a Kanto gym leader coming over on the Magnet Train? I really like both of those ideas. Regarding the museum's theme, I would suggest a history of Johto theme since the region is so ancient with such a rich backstory. It'd be a great opportunity to celebrate that.

 

[Maxim]

Don't worry, Rangi is way ahead of you on all of this :P We did a lot of research about the university and scraped together everything that we could find when writing dialogue for the game, including all the stuff you mentioned.

Oh, that's great. I'm glad that you guys are putting so much thought into this hack. It really makes it feel "Polished".

So, if the Dragon Rage Magikarp is in the hack, connected with the patterns from Magikarp Jump, will it be given some special IVs, so that it has a rare pattern (is there a pattern in Magikarp Jump that could be described as somewhat "draconic"?). Also, how about its level? It is not known what level the original University Magikarp from the '98 event (I assume it was rather low, maybe Level 5?) but since Celadon is relatively late into the game, maybe it should have a high level, like 50 or something? Overleveled Magikarps are a thing in the games. It should also hold an Everstone, obviously.

As for Goldenrod Museum, I had no idea that it was a thing. I somehow missed it on Bulbapedia until now, but it does mention about Janine testing the security system. Maybe this could be in reference to Team Rocket's attack on the Radio Tower? If before the takeover, Rockets in the tower could complain that security in the museum is too tight for them to steal anything. If after the takeover, museum staff could mention tightening their security and discuss a Kanto gym leader coming over on the Magnet Train? I really like both of those ideas. Regarding the museum's theme, I would suggest a history of Johto theme since the region is so ancient with such a rich backstory. It'd be a great opportunity to celebrate that.

That sounds pretty good.