Crystal hack: Pokémon Polished Crystal (update 2.2.0)

Can you add a limit level for pokemon before every badge, like Pokemon Pyrite

my scyther just evolved into a.... bulbasaur?!!? neat?

I haven't tried this out yet, but it looks rather promising. I really like all the added features and the decapitalization. I'm a little sad that some pokemon had to be removed, but I'm sure the evolutions you have added in will more than compensate. I'm just a dork who likes all of the original 151. Still I'll definitely be sure to try this out soon! I'm probably going to wait until Kanto is sorted out as far as wild pokemon goes, since I generally play GSC for revisiting Kanto, but I really look forward to seeing what else you do with this.

I'd say not to make a level cap based on badges though. Pyrite is great, but it's a difficulty hack, and from what I understand, although this is increasing difficulty, it's supposed to be slight and not hardcore, and it's more of an enhancement of anything.

Also, along with that, in Red ++, I think the topic of breeding legends was also brought up? Do you think you may or may not enable that here? ( I can't remember if Mateo did or not ) While I guess it could be perceived as abuse-able, I also think by the time there is access to most legends, it won't really matter. Not to mention they hatch at level 5, so it would require a lot of grinding before say, you could ruin Pryce with a team of Enteis and Raikous. Plus it'd allow for moveset experimentation, as well as breeding for a chance of shinies as opposed to soft resetting. Since hex values are being changed I'm guessing trading or battling with other games or something like that would cause issues, but since I'm assuming this is mostly meant for single player, I just thought I would bring that up since rarity wouldn't be an issue considering the effort that goes into catching a legend and you can't really trade them off and distribute them to other players. If not I definitely understand, I just thought I could bring up the possibility.

Yeah, I'm not going to add a level cap, it seems too arbitrary. If you use Wonder Traded Pokémon you'll already have to keep them below the badge limits so they'll obey you (although I've only ever had to worry about the level 30 limit before the 4th badge). My goal is to fix the complaints with vanilla GSC, and a common one is that the levels are too low, even in HGSS.

Breeding legendaries hadn't occurred to me. Maybe I'll include it, for non-mythical Pokémon (so just the trios), and with some extra requirement (like a certain held item that's hard to find). Actually, that could be pretty cool. Thoughts?

I would love if people use my hack for multiplayer trading and battling, but it would have to be between two copies of Polished Crystal. By now I'm sure that trading with GSC is broken, let alone RBY. Some of the Pokémon shifted index numbers, lots of moves have been replaced, and I completely reordered the items to have a neat arrangement. (Might do the same with moves, since backwards compatibility doesn't matter.)

Right now I'm working on some of the prerequisites for fixing the walking-sprite glitches. For the TMs, I might make them infinite-use for 1.0.1 and ignore the fact that you can keep buying them until later, since it's easy to just not do that.

The battle mechanics will all get upgraded, eventually. Those kinds of changes just take a lot of testing to make sure nothing broke, and the randomness of some of them has to be verified.

Rangi said:

Breeding legendaries hadn't occurred to me. Maybe I'll include it, for non-mythical Pokémon (so just the trios), and with some extra requirement (like a certain held item that's hard to find). Actually, that could be pretty cool. Thoughts?

Click to expand...

I think having a rare item for it would be a good idea. And yeah, I meant more for the trios, not so much Ho-oh, Lugia, Mewtwo, etc.
Like I can see multiple legendary birds existing without much problem, but having a bunch of Mew wouldn't make sense at all. I mean, I can totally get why official games don't have it that way, but it kind of makes sense for the birds to be able to lay eggs? Of course I think of the legendary birds and beasts as a very rare species and not one-of-a-kind, but that's just me.

As for TM stuff, in Gen 5 onward TMs are treated like key items. You can't sell them or dispose of them. But as long as it's made clear that TMs are reusable when you add that feature, I don't think people will go about buying a bunch of the same one just to waste money, especially since it's a negative exploit if anything.

A little question ¿how to evolve eevee to sylveon?

Nuzlocke: Beaten Red
Caught: 72
total RIP: 18 (including lvl77 typhlosion who died to pikachu's surf in the red battle ㅠㅠ)
Money left: 361248

SING, BOOST(x items) AND SWEEP
thanks for the fun hack, awaiting for your updates before i attempt a new journey to catch all the mons as well :-)

Jarsurf: Use a Shiny Stone. There's one in National Park.

Murkrow: Awesome. :) Did you do the post-Red mission? Also, how was the leveling curve? My guess is that up to the Elite 4 would be okay, since only the leaders were somewhat buffed, but in Kanto the leaders get stronger while wild Pokémon are still weak, so you'll probably be underleveled. Was this your experience? I know Red is a jump up in difficulty from Blue, but he was always like that.

I finished fixing the walking-sprite graphics glitch, so that'll be in the next update (probably out by Sunday, depending on how much I want to include in it).

Rangi said:

Murkrow: Awesome. :) Did you do the post-Red mission? Also, how was the leveling curve? My guess is that up to the Elite 4 would be okay, since only the leaders were somewhat buffed, but in Kanto the leaders get stronger while wild Pokémon are still weak, so you'll probably be underleveled. Was this your experience? I know Red is a jump up in difficulty from Blue, but he was always like that.

I finished fixing the walking-sprite graphics glitch, so that'll be in the next update (probably out by Sunday, depending on how much I want to include in it).

Click to expand...

by the middle of kanto i was basically only using 2 pokemon (vaporeon and typhlosion) and i thief ed a lucky egg from a chansey to help gain xp (which took QUITE a while). this was the way i keep up with the level curve without having to grind massively.

so yeah i think the level curve does need tweaking. really could not be bothered to train more mons other than my main 2 since it entails massive grinding.

after getting the 16 badges i basically have to grind on e4 like 4-5 times with the lucky egg on to get vaporeon to lvl90+. while i didnt touch typhlosion too much, it was only on lvl77. since i was basically just banking on vaporeon as a bulky sweeper to sweep everything.

haven't touch post red yet, taking a break now.

my idea is that when you reach kanto(vermillion) for the first time, every trainer you meet from there on should have at least lvl50 mons (i was seeing many kanto trainers using really low level mons..) wild mons should be around lvl40.

force linearity by placing snorlax at key route locations, allowing you to steadily increase the difficulty of trainer/wild mons as player progresses along the route you want.

uhhh my scyther evolved into bulbasaur at level 14

Some features I'd really really like to see from the Pokemon Red hack are:
-Add an EXP share like Gen 6 (easier to raise different teams - but give later in game so not OP)
-Auto repel like Gen 5
-Reusable TMs (already being worked on?)

Thanks for your great work on this hack! I really appreciate a chance to relive Pokemon crystal as Gen II was my first gen! Enjoying it so far, though I don't have much time to play being a medical student ;P

That's three people who've reported a Bulbascyther. It's a popular Pokémon. The bug has been fixed for the next release by Sunday. Pokémon like Scyther will only evolve if they gain a level while holding the right item (a Metal Coat here).

I just finished reusable TMs, and auto-Repel will probably be next. :) I'm not a fan of the Gen 6 Exp. Share, though. It creates more experience instead of dividing up a fixed amount, making it even harder to have a sensible level progression.

Quick question about how auto-Repel works: if I have all three kinds, which kind will get automatically reused? Whichever one I manually used? The cheapest? The first one in the bag?

I think it's just the one you're currently using i.e. you use a super repel, it runs out, it asks you to use another super repel.

And hmm yeah, the exp share generating experience isn't great.

I'd be happy just if a few more exp shares were given out/on the ground/whatever. I mainly just want to be able to train up several new Pokemon evenly without having to constantly switch the single exp share around :)

i'm pretty sure it's whatever one you used.
and yeah everstoning the scyther til i thieved a metal coat worked out fine. 7 badges in, really fun hack

edit:
by the way, will the update increase kanto's levels? i'm taking a break from it until tomorrow, just wanted to know

Yes, I've raised the levels of wild Pokémon in Kanto. The trainers have already had their new higher levels copied from HG/SS, although I may raise them more if people say they're still not getting enough experience.

I'll think about adding a way to get more Exp.Shares.

hey fam
somethings wrong with onix, everytime i level up this nigga i have to sit through a Onix is evolving scene each time
he doesn't even evolve into steelix either, he just turns into onix
also when can a nigga evolve his onix as soon as possible?

Sounds like the same bug as Scyther→Bulbasaur. It'll be fixed in the next patch, out by Sunday. You can get a Metal Coat from a Magnemite on Route 38, then it will evolve into Steelix on level-up.

i think elemental punches should be cheaper. 75 bp moves shouldn't cost $80000 worth of coins each.

Good point. I hadn't changed the price from back when he taught Flamethrower/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt. I think 200 coins, or ¥4000 worth, is fair.


On the other hand, TMs will be reusable now, so they should be more expensive. And I'm going to copy HG/SS and have the Dept. Store sell the powerful but inaccurate elemental moves, with the more reliable and useful ones at the Game Corner. TM prices in the two Dept. Stores will be based on the prices in B/W.