hi, first of all i want to thank you for this phenomenal work of a game. i've been a poke fan since a while and even though i find myself always enjoy a pokegame, something about the way difficulty is handled always bugs me, either being too easy or, hard because the game doesn't give tools to overcome it. you have done a job that balances that in a perfect way with this game. the battle mechanics and QoL just go TOO well with each other and the diversity of pokemon is just fantastic. i really appreciate romhackers for stuff like this, gamefreak could learn a thing or two about making a game fun, challenging and practical!
i love trying new pokes i NEVER thought i'd be using, like drought sunflora and aerilate ledian (TFW flying type STAB comet punch!!!). i'm going for the 4th gym and i can't wait to use stuff like power fists machamp, no guard focus blast pidgeot and drizzle wailord. the starter selection was so unique! and the gamecorner handing you the others makes sense too. iv & ev training is very practical and move tutors per gym is genius! the way levels scalates is very cool as difficulty maintains, so you don't have to be worried about over/underlevel.
the battle tents giving bottle caps makes SO much sense. remember playing vanilla and wondering why would i fight three battles for a full heal that i can just buy with money later on? you gave it an actual purpose so i'm very glad! would recommend giving 5 bottle caps and a random valuable item to sell as a bonus BUT i don't know if that's going too far.
the new areas are GORGEOUS!! love the petersburg woods forest expansion, very clever dungeon design and item placement. the dewford meadow/manor too! if you're thinking of adding more new areas i'm all for that!
into other matters... i'd like to give my own recommendations of things that can still improve so far (in my opinion), as you keep updating and adding features (kudos for that as well).
- when changing nature and iv/ev training, reduce the text to just the prompt screen of the actions. for example, when you go to the chef he mentions the stuff about the pokeblocks and the nature EVERY single time and even though it's not thaaat big deal i feel like it can be tedious sometimes when you are rushing to continue; the same for iv/ev training when the girls keep telling you again what they already told you upon meeting them the first time.
in the case of the chef, make it so you talk to him, you select the pokemon and then right away he asks the flavors.
as for the sisters, evie asks you the pokemon and then prompt screen appears, if adding evs she doesn't tell you how much but just show the screen right away; when reset she doesn't explain what would you do it for (i mean if you're doing it's cause you already know...) and just asks for a quick confirmation.
ivie asks for the pokemon and go through the screen prompts right away, also please place the 31 ivs at the top, i found myself mistakenly pressing 0 cause it's the first option.
MAYBE what bugs me is that the dialogue can slug that process sometimes? have you thought about increasing dialogue speed to be instant? maybe as an option... but i think it would cool for situations like that.
- an improve UI for the PC!!! i know this might sound risky for me to say (as i don't know if it's possible), but i thinking adding more ways to navigate the boxes, like a mode for selecting several pokemon at a time or having a pick and switch mode would be cool (like in newer generations). this is because there's quite A LOT of pokemon out there to catch and try... i'm just in 4th gym and i have 3 boxes fulled already...
adding the pc features upon catching a pokemon introduced in 7th generation would be really cool as well (checking the summary, replace it with one of your team if it's full, etc).
if you think of doing it in a future update, you could have the players go to lanette's house for her to update the PC.
- prompts change when trying to learn new moves. remove the asking for confirmation when you already said no to learn a new move. the "stop learning the move" prompt when backing of a move selection, as well as "do you want to learn tm/hm?". i think it would be more practical if it was like 7th generation where it just says "select pokemon" and "select a move to forget" instead of going through three boxes of dialogue.
- when going through a move tutor list of a particular gym badge group, if you select a move and then go back, change it so it sets you back to that list and not through the gym badge group selection (to not get the move lost).
- as for moves the only thing i can think of is making charging beam always raise special attack like a special power-up punch. but that might be a little niche so idk.
- the battle frontier! though you're probably working on it so just a reminder hehe.
- maybe introduce a new system for match calls? so that after you walk 100 steps, normal trainers will always be available? without the "chance" but rather the reliability, you know? ofc after norman. implying this not for the experience but rather the money, and i know you can farm through stealing in meteor falls, but having that alternative could be interesting as well.
anyways, keep up the good work! it's very appreciated.