FireRed hack: Pokémon Lightbolt Version - [Beta 2.1 Released!]

you were right i kept bumping into walls and found a way thanks a lot

yo update kinda

note in the 6th gym town the people are kind of messed up and have no morals so they do messed up stuff
in reality I'm just slowly losing my sanity so I have to put this dumb crap in - hope y'all like dark "humor" haha

On a more serious note, I have scripted around 40% of the 6th gym city - it's kind of a really huge city so that's why it's taking so long. I think I'm slowly losing my dislike of scripting - I just have to force myself to do it since putting it off isn't doing anyone any favours. At most there is just logic involved in which flags to set and all that - it's not really that hard.

Another thing I wanted to mention is that I'll be updating more of the Pokémon stats and learnsets. I want to make my game so that each Pokémon is worth picking and has its strengths, which means that each obtainable Pokémon will (generally) have serviceable stats and one or two decently powerful moves (with different type coverage) in its natural learnset. Of course, some Pokémon will learn more TMs, and that's fine. But I also want to make the game so that you can't just auto win with your starter or any other Pokémon - those of you who played the Beta have probably noticed that already. I've been playing this game in my off time when I have motivation, but with different Pokémon every time, and I think that it's really exciting to use Pokémon early that you've never been able to in other games (like Pineco and Venonat). I think it's equally nice when you can use Pokémon that were available to you early on in other games, but knowing that they won't be useless when it gets later into the game (like Beedrill, Linoone, etc.).

Regarding moves, I've also updated some of these and will be continuing to do so. Those who have played the Beta may know that I've replaced some moves already. I will be replacing some of the signature moves of Pokémon and some moves that don't get much use.

Lastly, I wanted to mention that I'm still contemplating when to end the next Beta. It's possible that I finish 6 gyms like I originally had planned and then continue working until I've got everything. Though as I have mentioned before I feel like this may be too little content. I might end up delaying the game (until 7 gyms or even longer) until the world is a bit more polished. You may have noticed some locked doors in earlier cities, and I do plan on using some of these for some events as well. Utilizing old areas, making sure the world is accessible and balanced after obtaining SURF/STRENGTH/ROCK SMASH, making sure item balls are balanced, these are what I mean by making sure that the world is more polished.

Also here are some screenshots:

5qwerty said:

yo update kinda

note in the 6th gym town the people are kind of messed up and have no morals so they do messed up stuff
in reality I'm just slowly losing my sanity so I have to put this dumb crap in - hope y'all like dark "humor" haha

On a more serious note, I have scripted around 40% of the 6th gym city - it's kind of a really huge city so that's why it's taking so long. I think I'm slowly losing my dislike of scripting - I just have to force myself to do it since putting it off isn't doing anyone any favours. At most there is just logic involved in which flags to set and all that - it's not really that hard.

Another thing I wanted to mention is that I'll be updating more of the Pokémon stats and learnsets. I want to make my game so that each Pokémon is worth picking and has its strengths, which means that each obtainable Pokémon will (generally) have serviceable stats and one or two decently powerful moves (with different type coverage) in its natural learnset. Of course, some Pokémon will learn more TMs, and that's fine. But I also want to make the game so that you can't just auto win with your starter or any other Pokémon - those of you who played the Beta have probably noticed that already. I've been playing this game in my off time when I have motivation, but with different Pokémon every time, and I think that it's really exciting to use Pokémon early that you've never been able to in other games (like Pineco and Venonat). I think it's equally nice when you can use Pokémon that were available to you early on in other games, but knowing that they won't be useless when it gets later into the game (like Beedrill, Linoone, etc.).

Regarding moves, I've also updated some of these and will be continuing to do so. Those who have played the Beta may know that I've replaced some moves already. I will be replacing some of the signature moves of Pokémon and some moves that don't get much use.

Lastly, I wanted to mention that I'm still contemplating when to end the next Beta. It's possible that I finish 6 gyms like I originally had planned and then continue working until I've got everything. Though as I have mentioned before I feel like this may be too little content. I might end up delaying the game (until 7 gyms or even longer) until the world is a bit more polished. You may have noticed some locked doors in earlier cities, and I do plan on using some of these for some events as well. Utilizing old areas, making sure the world is accessible and balanced after obtaining SURF/STRENGTH/ROCK SMASH, making sure item balls are balanced, these are what I mean by making sure that the world is more polished.

Also here are some screenshots:

Click to expand...

good to hear man, good to hear. i wish you luck on this hack and progression. and thanks for the little update, it keeps the hack interesting and in peoples minds. that's all i wanted to say so have a very good day and once again, good luck on this hack.

bumping cuz I've got something to say

I just had an exam last Friday, so there haven't been any major advances in progress. I'd say I'm like 50% done the 6th gym town, so that's cool. I also wanted to post an update for two other reasons which are related to the final state of the game as well as the direction of the game. I like to give detailed reasons for these changes so my explanation might be a long-winded...so please bear with me.

The First Thing
The first thing is that I'm considering having a Physical/Special Split for the final version of the game (as an alternate version). After my exam, I wanted to work on my hack but I didn't really have motivation at the time, so I didn't do anything. The lack of productivity as well as some brainstorming I did earlier wanted me to try working on another hack if I was unmotivated for this one. I decided that if I were to start another hack, I would have to get the Base ROM to fit my needs instead of adding stuff later on. I didn't use the Phys/Spec split in this game so I wanted to try it for the next. Lunos pointed to me on Discord to a tool that can apply the split easily for me. I also decided to test if the tool could apply the split to Lightbolt as it is now.

Through my initial tests, everything seems to be working fine, but I have yet to test extensively. Another reason for me to be hesitant about this is because I have to re-balance the game around these this and possibly add new moves (I haven't even gotten around to figuring out how to edit the Physicalness/Specialness of moves yet). Something related to this is that I'm most definitely going to add music from Squeetz's Music Patch to the game - the only case where I don't is if it crashes the game. Again, I've done some initial testing with this and it works fine.

The Second Thing
Ok so the other thing is the direction of the game. It's not about the story or gameplay features, but rather about "geography". I recently played through Emerald and I think that there are some aspects that I appreciate about Hoenn that aren't currently in my game. Compared to Kanto/FR, which I look to as reference, Hoenn has a lot more unique areas and also optional areas (I guess Fire Red has Sevii Islands, but those are concentrated into one part of the game). Abandoned Ship, the Route 111 Desert, Shoal Cave, Mt. Pyre Interior, just to name a few. I feel like these places are unique but are also optional - the player can visit them to get rewards (Ice Beam, Fossils, Shell Bell, Shadow Ball, respectively). For some reason, I just really enjoy this aspect of Hoenn and I think it's lacking a bit in my game (basically Route 7 and Linklater Cave). My idea with my game was to add "secret areas" that you can enter once you have some sort of requirement or if you do some obscure thing (kind of like Zelda?) - I still plan to have a few of these, but I think taking some ideas from Hoenn is more important. So I will probably end up changing the World Map again (ugh) and having to remap a few places, but hopefully it will make the region a more interesting place.

That's all for now. Will post screenshots or updates later when I do more.

So is this hack still in development? Have you made any progress if so?