Pokemon Elements

[zman27]

Hack of: Fire Red

Story:
There has been a great tragedy, Professor Oak has passed away (I needed something to start the game). You, the brother/sister of the hero in Red/Blue, are left a few items, and instructions in Oak's will. One of the items is a pokemon, another a pokedex. The instructions are to go and follow in the footsteps of your brother, and become a master.

New things:

• The plan is for 386 completely new pokemon.
  • Will feature a new system where a pokemon is not limited to just 3 stages, there will be 4 and even 5 stage pokemon
• New types for the starters
  • A Dragon, a dark, and a fighting
• A new gym system
  • The gyms are arranged for maximum difficulty. Each gym is super effective against what was super effective against the last gym (confusing, but it will work out)
• A new region where elements reign supreme. The region's name is Kansai, and each town will have a focus, one of the pokemon types.

Looking for:

• Anyone willing to commit to spriting, alot of spriting

What we have (these are all real life friends who do not often visit forums):

• General planner, Map maker, facilitator
• Scripter
• Flavor text/story/attack creator.

I have a few screen shots (of the maps). Any questions, comments, and criticism is appreciated.

Screenshots: [Credit to Green Charizard, and Saurav for the Rombase
The first town:

Spoiler:

The first route:

Spoiler:

The second town:

Spoiler:

The second route:

Spoiler:

The third town:

Spoiler:

The third route:

Spoiler:

The forest:

Spoiler:

The fourth town:

Spoiler:

 

[Midnight Beat]

You've got a good start, but you need to do some work in a few areas.

To begin, the starters of dragon, dark, and fighting don't work well. Traditionally the starters in a Pokemon game form a triangle with each one being strong against one and weak against another. Thus making no one starter supreme. The best choices for this "triangle" are the traditional fire, water, and grass combo and the dark, fighting, and psychic combo. There are a few more, I think, but they don't come to mind at the moment.

Next, your story. It's got a good start, but there is definitely room, and need, for improvement. It lacks conflict as well as development. But it is a good basis for an excellent story. If you want to go the traditional route think evil team, like team rocket, but if you want to make your hack original, come up with a new idea.

Now the maps. You have very nice grass and tree tiles in there thanks to your ROM base. But the original fire red buildings distract from these. Some new buildings would do wonders for your maps.

 

[zman27]

We have figured out a way to balance the starters, though they might not all be super effective against each other at first, as they develop, they also develop weaknesses to each other. The dragon becomes Dragon/flying, and the Dark becomes Dark/ice to counter that. The Dark/ice is then countered by hte fighting. And then the flying aspect of the dragon counters the fighting.

Though the types do not develop until the 2nd evolution, they will learn a move that is super against their counterpart very quickly (like second attack move they learn).

As for the story, that is just a really short part of it, we havent decided what we are going to do for conflict, but we will find something.

I actually like the look of the old style houses etc combined with the new trees/grass, but if we do get enough people that say it should be changed, so it shall be.

 

[Erimgard]

looks okay so far, but I must say, the maps need work. They don't look bad, but they are far too easy. You can walk through the map and only walk on like 10-15% of the map and hardly touch any grass. There needs to be more obstacles to FORCE you to see the whole map, otherwise it's wasted space

As for this new region, how do you get there? If you're going to spend most of the game in the new region, then your plot needs to become independent of Oak. If you're being original with the region, then you should be with the storyline too. No need for Oak/Hero from the first gen to play a MAJOR roll. I'm okay with cameos here and there, but this just seems odd that you'd have it in a different region, but you get your start from Kanto players

anyway, this has potential. keep it up!

 

[zman27]

what will force people to use the whole map is the fact that you must catch new guys and train your guys to beat the gyms, beacause they will be increased difficulty. I also havent added in the trainers, which will be positioned to force players to either choose to walk through alot of grass or face alot of trainers, or both. I will be using those as the main obstacle to force people to either confront the trainers, and in some cases do both.

As for utilizing the older games in the story line, they will not play a large role at all. Oak is dead after the first minute of the game, he is only utilized to give the person his first pokemon, and a pokedex. And as for the original hero he will not play a large role at all, mostly there will just be a few mentions of him, and you being his brother/system, and then an opportunity to battle him (a very tough battle) at the end

The way they got to the new region is, after the red/blue hero moved out, the mother had a new child and decided to move to this new region, as did oak (for oak, to study the new pokemon that reside in the region)

 

[Erimgard]

well, correct me if I'm wrong, but when you add a pokemon into the wild in advancemap, it will appear everywhere there is grass in the map, correct? thus, you don't have to travel the whole map. just any place with grass.
and looking at the first two routes, if you placed trainers in such a way that you HAVE to follow the 'correct path' ...then the trainers would look very out of place.
I mean on route 2 for example, you can just walk straight across. only have to touch 11 pieces of grass.

As for the storyline...So you and Oak moved to the new region? is Oak taking care of you, or did your mom move too?

 

[zman27]

I see your point about route 2, and I changed it, so that you have to travel the whole map and confront, at the least, three trainers.

Both Oak and your mom moved to the new region, the mom felt it was a new opportunity, raise her new child, and Oak wanted to study new pokemon.

Here is the new route 2:

 

[Erimgard]

well that's much better in terms of making the player look at the travel the whole map
The other problem I have with the map is that it's far too square. Have you ever been in a forest that was pretty much a perfect square/rectangle with some rocks in the middle? if you don't know exactly what I mean, or don't know how to fix that, check out the mapping tutorial:
http://pkmncommunity.com/showthread.php?t=99401

gives some pretty good tips about mapping.

 

[zman27]

I looked at that tutorial, and I know that I should depart from the square base. I am just trying to get the first part of the map done before I go back and do some serious editing (that first part includes the first 5 towns, first 6 routes, almost done with that). But when I am done with that, I will go back and make an effort to improve the quality of the maps, and to depart from the square as a map shape. In the most recent maps that I have made, I think I departed from the square (such as the forest) did I accomplish my goal of departing from the boring square?

 

[Erimgard]

The forest is a definite improvement! The top left hand corner could use a little touching up, but it's definitely the least square of the maps, and probably your best map

 

[zman27]

Ok, thanks alot for the advice. It being my first hack, and first attempt at mapping anything, any pointers and opinions are greatly appreciated. Hopefully I will have the first part of it done, so I can begin to work on all the smaller detailsto make all the maps better. Once again, thanks alot of your input. If you have any other comments, dont hesitate to post them

 

[Erimgard]

Not a problem
oh, and just a heads-up, I'm pretty sure the name Pokemon Elements has already been taken, but I don't think that hack is still active, so I'm not sure what the policy is on that

 

[zman27]

I dont see why there should be a conflict if the hack is dead. I dont think that a dead hack should maintain a claim to a name, but thats just my opinion.

One new map, and one redone map:

The forest (Redone):

Spoiler:

Route 4 (New):

Spoiler:

 

[Antwhan]

Even if the hack has been dead, use some consideration ask the owner of the old one for permision ir just change ur name, it's not like it's a huge deal to change it yet anyway...

 

[zman27]

can anyone direct me to a thread with the old pokemon elements? I searched for it, but did not find anything.

 

[Teh Baro]

the maps are too wide (I mean, the room between two walls, not the whole map itself). It'd be confusing to walk through them

 

[zman27]

do you mean that there isnt really a defined path?

I dont like the feeling that parts of the original games create, where there is really only one path to move. If thats not what you mean, then please explain.

 

[Erimgard]

I think what Teh Baro means is that the paths that are there are too wide
too much open space in the middle of the 'paths'
To fix this, you can add more bushes/small trees and such, or you can just add more trees to the SIDES of the paths so that the paths are smaller
either way, it just looks a little open

 

[zman27]

I will keep that in mind, but I will reserve judgement, or any changes for the walk through (scheduled for right after I finish the first part, and I only have one route, and then come offsets to finish).