FireRed hack: [HotM October 2009] Pokémon ToxicPurple (Team Rocket hack)

[Cholo]

this looks really good
looking forward to the first beta.. cant wait :D

 

[luigirulze]

Oh wow, this looks great, i can't wait for a release!

 

[jbs829]

can't wait for this hack, hope you release an alpha or prealpha

 

[TombolaMan]

So how are things going Ckret? Any progress? :)

 

[ckret2]

oh thats cool... i personally prefer cyndaquil... so i hope you make him possible to get

Like I said: eventually, you will be able to get every Kanto and Johto Pokémon in ToxicPurple. Which means Cyndaquil is included. I just haven't made up the plan for how you get it yet.

Hows to progress on the project? Can you give us a percentage mate ? :D

I could come up with a percentage... but you probably wouldn't like it much. XD;

Okay, since I get to reuse the Kanto maps, mapping is maybe... 40% done. 45%, let's say. 35% of the remainder will come from mapping out Johto (and we've already got a start on that), and the remaining 20% will come from the extra maps that weren't part of the original Johto and Kanto maps, and from any reworking of the maps that will be needed to make the game work out, little details like adding a path between Saffron City's trees to the Rocket base.

Spriting, I dunno how much will be necessary. We need the Male and Female hero front and backsprites, and Rival, and Kris, and Jenny, and Joy, and Amber... Many of these have been made yet but not inserted. There'll also be some items needed, but many of those have also been made-but-not-inserted. Let's say 35% on the sprites.

Scripting... yeesh. I will be optimistic and say the percentage is "not zero."

can't wait for this hack, hope you release an alpha or prealpha

Considering it. I'll finish scripting the events in Pokémon Tower first before I even consider doing that, though. I've got to test and see if my scheme for replacing Cut with a Key Item will work or not.

So how are things going Ckret? Any progress? :)

... A little... Heh. I should make more progress soon, though. If all goes well, all the events in Pokémon Tower should be scripted before the end of the weekend.

 

[Zanny77]

There's a possibility that you'll be able to steal the leftover Kanto starter from Oak's lab, which probably means Squirtle. That one's iffy, though, because Oak will catch you trying to make the steal; perhaps you'll be able to come back and steal it later.

You'll also definitely be able to steal the leftover Johto starter from Elm, which will be either Chikorita or Totodile, depending on which starter Kris ultimately ends up with. I'll find a way to make all the other Kanto and Johto starters available as well, but those are the only planned methods I've got for for giving a starter so far.

The plan is that ultimately, ToxicPurple will let you catch every Kanto and Johto Pokémon. To balance out the ridiculous number of Pokémon you can catch in one game, a lot of them will be steal-only; you've only got one opportunity to get some evolutionary lines, so if you battle a trainer that you can steal one of those Pokémon from and you don't have an open slot in your party to accept the new Pokémon, you'll never get it.

Great idea!.........
......
......but.........
??? stole one of those Pokemon first. It would seem odd if instead of 1, both Pokemon were missing. And don't you think Elm step up security after 1 Pokemon was stolen? I'm not sure of a replacement idea for Johto staters, but I don't thiink that would work.

 

[ckret2]

Great idea!.........
......
......but.........
??? stole one of those Pokemon first. It would seem odd if instead of 1, both Pokemon were missing. And don't you think Elm step up security after 1 Pokemon was stolen? I'm not sure of a replacement idea for Johto staters, but I don't thiink that would work.

Yes, ??? stole one of those Pokémon already. (And "???" is "Silver" in ToxicPurple.) Because of that, security IS stepped up. You'll have to do something to get past the security measures--either you'll battle someone guarding the Pokémon Lab, or you'll have to do something to distract everyone inside like cause a commotion across town to get everyone to run outside and allow you to sneak in and steal the Pokémon.

Elm will be quite furious that not only one, but two of the rare Pokémon he was taking care of were stolen from him.

Exciting news! Test runs of a HM-replacing Cut Key Item are 100% successful! I'll have to go through and manually replace all the scripts of the HM Cut trees with the script for the Key Item Cut trees, but that's no biggie.

Now, as soon I do the applymovements for the final script in Pokémon Tower, the first mission will be finished. Woot!

 

[Crimson Stardust]

This is amazing...it got good storyline...and i found it very intersting...good lucj with the hacked

 

[mineowyn]

Exciting news! Test runs of a HM-replacing Cut Key Item are 100% successful! I'll have to go through and manually replace all the scripts of the HM Cut trees with the script for the Key Item Cut trees, but that's no biggie.

Actually, I don't see a real need for a Key Item for cutting trees since both ways work fine.. And anyway since the objective of the game is to steal as many pokemon as you can, there are bound to be lots of extra stolen filler pokemon that the player can lump a HM on.. The only reason why I think a Key Item Replacer would be necessary is for aesthetic reasons, like a nice Magikarp sub for crossing waters or Meowth hot-air balloon to fly.

Great ideas here :D I'd be checking back for updates. Is you project a group or solo effort?

EDIT: Hey I just noticed this while browsing your main post a second time..The female Corey sprite looks awfully similar to Miyamoto (hairstyle and all), Jessie's mom. And the male Corey has green hair! *coughButch'sDad?cough* I'm gonna mess around with the sprite examples you've posted and see what I can do about the Rival's sprite, for some reason, the darker sprite colour is bugging me alot. >.<

btw I'm so glad and surprised you're a girl..Not many girls past the puberty age still like Pokemon, glad to find a fellow female fan!

 

[ckret2]

Actually, I don't see a real need for a Key Item for cutting trees since both ways work fine.. And anyway since the objective of the game is to steal as many pokemon as you can, there are bound to be lots of extra stolen filler pokemon that the player can lump a HM on.. The only reason why I think a Key Item Replacer would be necessary is for aesthetic reasons, like a nice Magikarp sub for crossing waters or Meowth hot-air balloon to fly.

It's for several reasons. One, you might want to be chopping down trees sooner than you'll be getting a promotion, and I don't want to force players to have to go through with getting a promotion to be able to chop trees down. ( And honestly, HM logic is rather silly in the games. Why would having possession of a badge that a Water-type gym leader hands out suddenly give your Pokémon the ability to use a move to slice down trees, when they could use that move just fine to slice down Pokémon beforehand? What on Earth do the two have to do with each other?)

Two, the Key Item that's handed out--the machete--has more than one purpose. It's used to chop down trees, yes; but it's also used to take hostages (there's no better way to get by a police blockade than grabbing their rookie and holding a nasty-looking knife to their throat), and will probably have other purposes later on.

Three, you'll already have to run around with a five-Pokémon party, because when you try to steal a Pokémon, they won't hand it over if you don't have a space for it--getting a Pokémon sent to the PC is for catching wild Pokémon, not for stealing already-caught Pokémon. If you need an HM slave as well, then you can only have a four-Pokémon party if you want to keep the option to steal Pokémon open. That's a bit too limiting.

So, while a Key Item replacement for Cut is nice for aesthetics, it's also more practical, and is important to the plot.

Great ideas here :D I'd be checking back for updates. Is you project a group or solo effort?

Most of the work I'm doing myself, but several people are helping out on some sprites, maps, and plot ideas.

EDIT: Hey I just noticed this while browsing your main post a second time..The female Corey sprite looks awfully similar to Miyamoto (hairstyle and all), Jessie's mom. And the male Corey has green hair! *coughButch'sDad?cough* I'm gonna mess around with the sprite examples you've posted and see what I can do about the Rival's sprite, for some reason, the darker sprite colour is bugging me alot. >.<

Hah. The similar colors are coincidence, actually. Jessie and Butch both make cameo appearances in the game (in the first base, actually), and since Corey is much younger than both of them... Might be an extended family, though. You never know.

And yes, Leone is a darker color. This is not an accident, I wanted him to have that skin color. It's the same color his OW sprite has, too, and it's the color for him I saw in my head when I thought of the character. I actually had to use the palette for one of the boats to get that shade for him. Apparently, there isn't a single other sprite--OW or Trainer--in Pokémon FireRed that isn't white. Not even Brock's trainer sprite, despite the fact that he's clearly got darker skin in the animé.

So, I went through quite a bit of trouble to get Leone to be the darker sprite color that's bugging you, even having to change his hair color from the originally planned dark purple to a blue in order to fit with the OW palettes' limitations. I'd appreciate it if you didn't mess with him.

But if you want to mess with female Corey's shoulders, which got messed up when I flattened her to 16 colors and I haven't gotten around to fixing yet, I'd be grateful.

btw I'm so glad and surprised you're a girl..Not many girls past the puberty age still like Pokemon, glad to find a fellow female fan!

Glad to find that you're one, too. :D There certainly aren't enough post-preteen female fans out there.

In other news: Currently having trouble with the last big script in Pokémon Tower. There are two minor issues, to do with items and OW sprite placement, and they won't take long to fix. Then the whole mission will be up and running, woot.

... Though I suggest you don't talk to the Mediums. They won't initiate battles with you, but you can still initiate battles with them, and their Pokémon haven't been levelled down yet. I just haven't gotten around to that yet.

Edit: ... Erm, apologies if I came off as defensive over my sprite. I'm not going to edit the contents of this post because... well, because it would be lame of me to say something and then pretend I didn't say it. But I still apologize if I seemed snappy.

 

[Sumirelove]

Very interesting! Good luck completing it :)

 

[mineowyn]

So, I went through quite a bit of trouble to get Leone to be the darker sprite color that's bugging you, even having to change his hair color from the originally planned dark purple to a blue in order to fit with the OW palettes' limitations. I'd appreciate it if you didn't mess with him.

But if you want to mess with female Corey's shoulders, which got messed up when I flattened her to 16 colors and I haven't gotten around to fixing yet, I'd be grateful.

Edit: ... Erm, apologies if I came off as defensive over my sprite. I'm not going to edit the contents of this post because... well, because it would be lame of me to say something and then pretend I didn't say it. But I still apologize if I seemed snappy.

It's ok, actually I didn't notice Leone had a darker skin palette until you pointed it out. I think the reason why his OW sprite seemed odd to me was his clothes' colour. I think it needs just a little bit more highlights for contrast.

I tried taking a look at Corey's shoulders but I don't see what's wrong with it colour-wise? I think it's very well-done. I ended up elongating her sprite and changing her hands/gloves xD

...
EDIT

--> Changed a little of the uniform highlights and added gloves, not sure if it's OW compatible or if it's to your liking.

--> Corey Experimentation. I changed the sprite back to it's correct height it originally was. After further experimentation, besides editing the gloves, I edited the rocket uniform. I'm not sure if the shoulders was what you were looking for? Excuse the hair, I was fooling around with it. :P

...
EDIT EDIT:

--> Altered gloves+shoulder+uniform only.

Anyway, I had lots of fun experimenting with your sprites, and read up on some interesting facts about TR uniforms. Will Leon and Corey become "A + Rank" agents at the end?

Hopefully scripting for Pokemon Tower will go smoothly for you!

 

[ckret2]

It's ok, actually I didn't notice Leone had a darker skin palette until you pointed it out. I think the reason why his OW sprite seemed odd to me was his clothes' colour. I think it needs just a little bit more highlights for contrast.

I tried taking a look at Corey's shoulders but I don't see what's wrong with it colour-wise? I think it's very well-done. I ended up elongating her sprite and changing her hands/gloves xD

Ah, the OW sprites? You just said "sprites" and didn't specify, I thought you meant the trainer sprites on page 5. Which was why I thought you were referring to Leone's skin palette, since that's the darkest part of his palette there. (And it's a lot more obvious on the trainer sprite than the OW sprite.) It was female Corey's trainer sprite that needed the work, not her OW sprite. ...It should be pretty obvious why. Here are all the sprites I posted on that page, in case you didn't see them:

(An anime cameo that'll be appearing in the Johto arc.)

Come to think of it, male Corey's neckline needs some work, too.

...
EDIT

--> Changed a little of the uniform highlights and added gloves, not sure if it's OW compatible or if it's to your liking.

--> Corey Experimentation. I changed the sprite back to it's correct height it originally was. After further experimentation, besides editing the gloves, I edited the rocket uniform. I'm not sure if the shoulders was what you were looking for? Excuse the hair, I was fooling around with it. :P

The changes to Leone's gloves are OW compatible, but not the changes to the sigil in the middle of his uniform; did you copy/paste the colors from female Corey's sigil to do that? Those colors aren't available in Leone's palette, the closest it's got is the orange I've used. (Palette limitations are rather annoying. There's a reason male Corey's uniform is randomly purple. Speaking of which, I'll have to edit his trainer sprite to reflect that...)

I'm not sure what you meant about changing female Corey's sprite back to the correct height, since it currently is the correct height for a child-sized character, and on top of that the height of your sprite is the same as the height of the one I made.

...
EDIT EDIT:

--> Altered gloves+shoulder+uniform only.

Anyway, I had lots of fun experimenting with your sprites, and read up on some interesting facts about TR uniforms. Will Leon and Corey become "A + Rank" agents at the end?

Hopefully scripting for Pokemon Tower will go smoothly for you!

Unfortunately, the pinkish colors you added aren't available in Corey's palette. And she's not exactly old enough to look good in a midriff top, I'm afraid. It was her trainer sprite that needed help, in any case.

What do you classify as "A + Rank"? Most ranks are fandom terminology. The ranks I'm going by are pretty much the ones from the game: Grunts, Admins, Executives, Boss, with "Field Agent" thrown in to explain the agents like Jessie and James who don't do regular Grunt work. Corey and Leone get separated at the end of the Kanto arc (Corey is sent to jail in Johto, because that's his/her native region, and Leone is sent to jail in Kanto), and eventually Corey will rise pretty high in the ranks of Team Rocket. I won't say how high, though; there need to be some secrets left for the final game, yeah? :P (Unless I've already blown that somewhere else in this thread. I don't think I have yet, though. Hm.)

Thanks, I hope it goes smoothly too!

 

[D_Force]

hey, skimmed through a couple of pages of this thread, looks pretty impressive :)

Anyway, apologies if this has already been mentioned, but I have an idea of a way you could replace the elite 4 - after Geovanni's disappearance, a rocket admin takes over (think back to the gsc storyline).

Getting bored of Team Rocket running round like headless chickens you decide to take over Team rocket; by this stage, after all, you have the "eight badges" which i think probably equates to also being a rocket admin.

You battle your way through the four most senior rocket members, before finally overthrowing the previous regime in charge of Team Rocket ;)

 

[ckret2]

hey, skimmed through a couple of pages of this thread, looks pretty impressive :)

Anyway, apologies if this has already been mentioned, but I have an idea of a way you could replace the elite 4 - after Geovanni's disappearance, a rocket admin takes over (think back to the gsc storyline).

Getting bored of Team Rocket running round like headless chickens you decide to take over Team rocket; by this stage, after all, you have the "eight badges" which i think probably equates to also being a rocket admin.

You battle your way through the four most senior rocket members, before finally overthrowing the previous regime in charge of Team Rocket ;)

Thanks for the suggestions. However, there isn't going to be a "replacement" Elite Four. A lot of people seem to think that, because there will be "promotions" instead of "badges," then the act of getting a promotion will directly correspond with the act of getting a badge: there are precisely eight promotions, each promotion is gained by battling a particular character in a particular place... it doesn't work like that. Earlier on in the planning process I thought I might have been constrained to exactly eight badges due to the way the flag system works, as there are eight badge flags; but I've learned more about how scripting works, and now it looks like that won't be necessary at all. There will not be eight promotions, not all of them will be triggered by winning certain battles, they will not directly correspond with the badge system.

There's also not going to be an "Elite Four" replacement. In the Johto Arc, you're a much higher ranked Rocket than you were in Kanto, but you don't organize a hostile takeover and overthrow the Executives. In G/S/C, Team Rocket's Johto branch is defeated by Gold or Kris (Kris in ToxicPurple), and the Executives decide by themselves to disband Team Rocket again and fade into obscurity. That's when you get a chance to become leader of the Johto branch, when there is no leader. Of course, it's not as easy as walking up to an ex-Executive, talking to them, and having them say "Oh hey, do you want to be the leader now? (yes/no)" You have to do something to convince everyone to follow you, after everyone's lost hope twice. There will be challenges to overcome to become the leader of the Johto branch, but it's not a beat-four-trainers-who-are-sitting-there-waiting-for-you, running-the-gauntlet Elite Four replacement. And that's also not the end of the game.

 

[Dabottle]

Hi, I'm new here. I like the look of this and I have one suggestion. Maybe make the "starters" Staryu, Exeggcute and Vulpix? You could get the stone for evolving whatever you took during the storyline and they form a circle. Also I love the idea as playing as Team Rocket.

 

[~Poke~]

I've been watching this for ages (even when it was still violet) but somehow I've avoided commenting...

Those sprites look good, but Female corey's shoulders look a bit wide...
The story is excellent, but the post is too wide. It's fine for people with fixed width themes, but most of them aren't wide-screen :(
The scripts (well the ones we've seen) are amazing, I'm not sure what to criticize...

 

[ckret2]

I've been watching this for ages (even when it was still violet) but somehow I've avoided commenting...

Those sprites look good, but Female corey's shoulders look a bit wide...
The story is excellent, but the post is too wide. It's fine for people with fixed width themes, but most of them aren't wide-screen :(
The scripts (well the ones we've seen) are amazing, I'm not sure what to criticize...

Hey, glad you're commenting now. :D

Yeah, they do look a bit wide. That's one of the things that needs fixing. I try to fix her shoulders, and then can't do it in a way that doesn't make them more ugly... yeesh.

The post's too wide? How so? I didn't do anything at all to the formatting. The only formatting that the main post has are {SIZE="#"}{B}{COLOR="Indigo"}these{/COLOR}{/B}{/SIZE} for the headers, double returns between paragraphs, two HTML lists, and a single spoiler. No CSS layout, no tables, no frames, nothing. It's the same way I've formatted every post I've ever made on PC. What themes does it look bad in, and how does it look "too wide"?

Thanks, glad you like the scripts so far.

Edit: I just scrolled through all of the themes at the bottom of the screen and I didn't see any problems with the width. (Although I did notice some coloring problems. Dark purple headings and Midnight Misty Revived do not go well together.) Are you seeing something different from me? Can you take a screenshot?

 

[Milk]

Are you going to be adding any fakemons? ;o
And do you need a graphics person? ;3

 

[mineowyn]

O LOL I made a mistake. I immediately referred to the OW sprites since that was the only sprites I saw on the thread's 1st page. The sigil on Leon's uniform, is the red pixels I changed from orangey-red that you're referring to right? That was a colour I selected from Team Magma's OW uniform. Does the red on the Corey Trainer Sprite's sigil work in OW?

Are the highlights on his uniform OW compatible? I merely lightened the lighter shades of indigo-blue, but I'm still not sure if it's compatible. I think I'll go back to editing the OW sprites once I finish reading the inserting OW sprites tutorial here and download the program to test it out.

You see before I posted that I was experimenting with her sprite and I wanted to make it to look like she was wearing a mini-skirt or a shortskirt, ala Cassidy's uniform to make her figure look curvy. And then I was wondering how I could edit her shoulders and gloves. So in the process, it got elongated and then I realised she's supposed to be a teen/tween sprite, so I switched it back and added the midriff to make her curves more obvious. I suppose I could just change the midriff into a white belt. The weird hair popped in because I was bored and I thought hey, wouldn't it be funny if she looked like Miyamoto? Well anyway, I changed back her hairstyle and her original hair colour in my 2nd edit.

I really like how you're trying to make their uniforms unique to each individual character instead of rank specific, otherwise it's quite alot of work to do changing uniforms as the player climbs the ranks. The "A + Rank" agents I'm referring to are actually just high-level elite field agents who cover groundwork for special missions such as Attila, Hun and Tyson. They've got silver-coloured uniforms and are slightly higher than "A Rank" agents like Cassidy & Butch who typically wear black uniforms with red and white stripes. Jessie & James are kind of loser field agents, slightly above grunts (who are used for support and mundane guard stuff) no doubt, but probably near the bottom ranks. I don't think executive and admins actually do any groundwork or missions other than the brain stuff like plotting, micro-managing, assigning and planning the finances. They're like in a totally different class category.. Maybe retired field agents, but they could possibly be promoted from other divisions within the organization, like spies and correspondants or even former lab scientists maybe?

Anyway, I'm going to take a look at the trainer sprites now (not the OW). btw, is male corey's uniform grayish-black & white or purple & yellow?

EDIT: O yeah I got mixed up with female Corey and Leon's sigil. Indeed I changed Leon's sigil with Corey's original orange one, but for Corey's sigil I made it brighter by selecting a red colour from Team Magma's OW sprite.