Crystal hack: Pokémon Polished Crystal (update 3.1.1!)

[Rangi]

Sorry if (some of) these have been reported already:

1. Mons in the Hall of Fame slideshow have a glitch bar above them. Same with the player character.
2. This one has been around since 2.2.0 and I finally got sick of ignoring it: it's possible to not activate the event with Lawrence by flying to Vermillion. It's also possible to walk up to him in his initial position and prompt the "object event" text box.
3. Lawrence disappears after the "camera" panning on Zapdos (after completing the Power Plant quest). The rest of the "cutscene" plays perfectly fine, though.
4. Only a ridiculously small part of Lucky Island actually shows up (single tile row of: shore, grass, "sand" and shore). You can only surf through them.
5. Battle Tower receptionist sorted me in the level 90 tier despite having a level 100 mon.
6. It's possible to stay in the Battle Tower elevator. Exiting it resumes thr script as usual.
7. I know that there are several components that still need to be finished, but 1. All the BT trainers have 3 fainted mons yet one will be sent into battle (and faint after any move is used); and 2. None of the BT merchants are functional.
8. Player character spawns in the PokeCenter counter which can lead to the player getting stuck behind it.
9. Magmortar being sent in crashes the game
10. Talking to the NPC in the Celadon house where the Dubious Disc is acquired crashes the game.
11. Battling the Rich Boy in the Celadon Hotel crashes the game. The error occurs before a mon is sent.
12. Candela doesn't appear in Fire Island; the other two do in their respective islands.
13. This might be attributed to the TODO nature of some of the trainers in the area (where the pantless Slowking is) but some of them only have a level 50 Bulbasaur.
14. Girl who sells Shell Bells/Shed Shells (whichever one heals 12.5% of the damage done) takes the player's money but doesn't give any items in exchange.
15. Weakness Policy doesn't activate all the time.

Some feedback, if you don't mind:
1. The Johto part of the game is waaayyy shorter than the Kanto one, to the point that Johto feels like an addendum to the game (rather than being the main region).
2. The leaders are extremely easy to beat. This is easily remedied, though, by giving them better mons (for instance Farfetch'd works better as a Flying gym mon than a Fighting one, or Girafarig being a better Normal gym mon than a Psychic one), semi-wildcards (Chuck could definitely use an Electabuzz in his team as it's a Fighting evolver, or a Rhydon for Jasmine), better movesets (they're Gym leaders after all, breeding shouldn't be a problem) and items (Eviolite Pidgeotto, Scyther or Magneton would be an actual challenge), etc. I modified my beta to have a more competitive Gym Leader roster and beating them actually feels rewarding.

Thanks. Some of these are helpful; I didn't know about the Hall of Fame or Lucky Island ones. Others are just things that haven't been coded yet, like Battle Tower or the level 50 Bulbasaur trainers. And some others are just confusing. Like "talking to the NPC in the Celadon house where the Dubious Disc is acquired crashes the game"?that does not happen, and I can't imagine why it ever would have. Same goes for "battling the Rich Boy in the Celadon Hotel crashes the game."

Or "Player character spawns in the PokeCenter counter which can lead to the player getting stuck behind it"?I can't even reproduce this without more information (and I tried). Which Pok?mon Center? Which ROM version? Which emulator? Did you build it yourself from GitHub? How did you spawn inside a Center, since blacking out puts you at the entrance? Do you have a screenshot? Can you reproduce it with your current ROM, or confirm whether it happens with a newer one? Edit:, Oh, you meant the Battle Tower counter. Yeah, it's probably clear that Battle Tower is unfinished.

I mean, thank you for putting in the time to find these problems at all, but this is beta testing, not a standard release where people just play it normally and complain about things. If you give me more information, or even do some basic debugging yourself (just replaying the game to figure out how a bug behaves, no need to delve into the source code), then I can fix them a lot more quickly. Not you personally, I mean everyone playing the 3.0 betas.

As for your feedback: the designs of Johto and Kanto are pretty much finalized by now. I did try to give both regions their share of optional side areas, although Kanto does have more than Johto, plus it's now enlarged to its RBY size. It may feel larger because you're used to GSC's shrunken Kanto; and keep in mind that Shamouti and Valencia are their own mini-region, even though they're still post-game.

The overall difficulty is fairly subjective. It depends on your play style and experience level; I'd say it's a bit more difficult now than 2.2.0, since NPCs can have good abilities and natures, and some players were routinely fainting even in 2.2.0. Anyway, difficulty can easily be adjusted in future updates, so I'm not worrying about it too much right now. I'd like to wait for more players' impressions of the whole game before I keep tweaking NPC teams. But thanks for your feedback already; I'll at least consider giving Johto's leaders better held items for 3.0.

 

[Fid]

Sorry if it may sound stupid, but is there any way to play the beta in iPhone? No jailbreak, just GBA4iOS.

Anyway, keep up the good work!

 

[Milesilus]

I'll at least consider giving Johto's leaders better held items for 3.0.

Yesss. Harder, daddy. Let the weak git gud or be scraped off the gym floor and mailed back to their fiscally exploitative mothers.

 

[Equalsign]

I have found some other bugs:

I think there's something wrong with how pokemon values (DV, nature, personality) are calculated when the pokemon appear and how are recalculated when you capture it:
I have discovered this with my Gastly, it actually changed nature and become Lax from being Modest.
But in this case this problem become more evident:

This Unown just had some personality problem hehehe

Also Joey's Rattata became something else:

(MissingNo is that you??)

I don't recall well but isn't the girl supposed to remain in the room even when the puzzle is solved?

Thanks for all your work I really appreciated it ^^

 

[JAlexGamer]

There's something I would like to report:
I've been playing 3.0 beta for quite some time. I'm in the latest beta build (June 26th), and I noticed something wrong with wild Pok?mon held items. You see, I normally deposit the last poke of my team to the PC, and then go catch another poke which I know have a held item of my interest (e.g. a Bellsprout w/ Gold Leaf). The problem is, when I catch it, and then check the held item, it seems to be holding the same held item as the 'mon of my team that was deposited earlier.
Example: I had in my 6th slot a Graveler with Assault Vest. I deposited it to make space for a Bellsprout with Gold Leaf. After I catch the Bellsprout, hoping it has the Gold Leaf, when I check it, it says that is holding an Assault Vest! Tried with multiple Bellsprout and the result is the same!

I think this is a bug/glitch. I could show you a screenshot but I'm playing in my phone. I'll post a pic to show you what's wrong as soon as I can.

 

[Brook128]

Been playing the latest beta build, still at Olivine city. Some issues to go over:

- Cut tree in route 36 does not respawn after cut, even when I go to Goldenrod or route 37 and come back. Maybe it's intentional? Other cut trees along the way respawn just fine, IIRC.

- Ledian does not learn Comet Punch in level 24 (learns Dizzy Punch instead). Hope I'm not being dumb about the learnset's gen or not knowing that it learns at a later level

- Glitchy location plate when NPCs are walking underneath it. Happened in all towns up to goldenrod (I usually enter them rushing in, if that helps).

- Some battle tower headbutt trees can't be headbutted

- Is it just me or the sound of passing the next dialogue box still plays a little after a battle ends? It happens after all battles to me, dunno if this is really a bug or not.

I'm using gambatte for emulation.

 

[Rangi]

I don't recall well but isn't the girl supposed to remain in the room even when the puzzle is solved?

She is not.

You see, I normally deposit the last poke of my team to the PC, and then go catch another poke which I know have a held item of my interest (e.g. a Bellsprout w/ Gold Leaf). The problem is, when I catch it, and then check the held item, it seems to be holding the same held item as the 'mon of my team that was deposited earlier.
Example: I had in my 6th slot a Graveler with Assault Vest. I deposited it to make space for a Bellsprout with Gold Leaf. After I catch the Bellsprout, hoping it has the Gold Leaf, when I check it, it says that is holding an Assault Vest! Tried with multiple Bellsprout and the result is the same!

Similar bugs to this have been fixed before. But I'm glad you noticed the correlation between the items; I'll see if it's still an issue. Edit: Doesn't seem to be happening any more.

- Cut tree in route 36 does not respawn after cut, even when I go to Goldenrod or route 37 and come back. Maybe it's intentional? Other cut trees along the way respawn just fine, IIRC.

None of them are supposed to respawn, and none do for me. Can you double-check the prior routes?

Ledian does not learn Comet Punch in level 24 (learns Dizzy Punch instead). Hope I'm not being dumb about the learnset's gen or not knowing that it learns at a later level

Comet Punch is removed.

Glitchy location plate when NPCs are walking underneath it. Happened in all towns up to goldenrod (I usually enter them rushing in, if that helps).

Yeah... This happens in more accurate emulators like BGB, but not in VBA, because BGB enforces rules about when and how you can edit graphic data (I process the font graphic to give it an opaque background). None of the solutions are good: disabling the screen during processing (technically correct) causes a screen flash when you enter a new area, and storing already-opaque graphics for all the fonts would take up precious ROM space.

Some battle tower headbutt trees can't be headbutted

Will fix. Fixed.

Is it just me or the sound of passing the next dialogue box still plays a little after a battle ends? It happens after all battles to me, dunno if this is really a bug or not.

I can't hear any spurious dialog box noises. They only happen when you press A to continue a visible box, as far as I can tell.

 

[Acrozz]

I know that it's still incomplete, but the tall grass from Shamouti Island can't be cut using the HM Cut (just a little detail that you may miss later).

 

[Rangi]

I've made a Discord for Polished Crystal discussion, let's see how that goes: https://discord.gg/ZK5pqK8

 

[Kingfisher99]

Small graphical Bug:
I'm playing the version of the BETA released on June 26th(d0b3f97), and on Route 35 coast, the male bird keeper has some frames of his walk cycle replaced with a group of jumbled letters. This glitch appears no matter what direction he walks toward you in, as well as at all times of day.

 

[NoMoreStars]

Just a little thing, but any reason that the Pokedex says the Johto starters can be caught in Yellow Forest? I checked the documentation and that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm playing the most recent stable version 2.2.0 of course.

 

[Rangi]

Just a little thing, but any reason that the Pokedex says the Johto starters can be caught in Yellow Forest? I checked the documentation and that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm playing the most recent stable version 2.2.0 of course.

The "documentation" is just the source code, which has changed since 2.2.0. Here's the 2.2.0 source.

 

[NoMoreStars]

The "documentation" is just the source code, which has changed since 2.2.0. Here's the 2.2.0 source.

Of pffft, I feel dumb. I've been looking at the old source code all along. Thanks so much for the link, and also this hack is fantastic and I've had a lot of fun with it thus far. Super excited for the stable version of the next update!

 

[WorldsBoss]

I don't remember if this has been clarified yet, but has Hidden Power been standardised? As in, base power is always 60 rather than things ranging from 20 - 70? Also, I know the main series games don't have a Hidden Power Fairy, but could that be included here too?

Legitimately can't remember whether I already suggested it, but it's been in my head for a while so thought I'd ask.

 

[looneyman1]

I don't remember if this has been clarified yet, but has Hidden Power been standardised? As in, base power is always 60 rather than things ranging from 20 - 70? Also, I know the main series games don't have a Hidden Power Fairy, but could that be included here too?

Legitimately can't remember whether I already suggested it, but it's been in my head for a while so thought I'd ask.

I think HP's mechanics have been changed, but I cant remember if it has a base power of 60 or not.

 

[Rangi]

I don't remember if this has been clarified yet, but has Hidden Power been standardised? As in, base power is always 60 rather than things ranging from 20 - 70? Also, I know the main series games don't have a Hidden Power Fairy, but could that be included here too?

Legitimately can't remember whether I already suggested it, but it's been in my head for a while so thought I'd ask.

Yes, it's 60 power in Faithful and 70 in standard.

I don't see a convenient way for the type formula to allow a 17th type.

 

[looneyman1]

oh hey I downlowded the documentation you provided for Drayano's own rom hack for the info on the base stat changes for this one? But the entire file is broken, I can't open the darn thing at all.

EDIT: And I just conned myself just now, I caught a jolly geodude and there's no sign of Rock Polish having been added to the game....crap, unless there's a rock polish substitute in Geodude's available moves now, I can't use this thing.

 

[Acrozz]

I don't see a convenient way for the type formula to allow a 17th type.

What about a simple change like making it 4 x (AttackIVs mod 4) + (DefenseIVs mod 5) and if the result is 16 Hidden Power is fairy type? Or is that a bad idea?

 

[FIQ]

I don't like the idea of changing how Hidden Power works to make it possible to give Fairy... But maybe that's just me.

Allthough I've considered updating to the Gen III+ method of calculating type.

 

[Silent S]

I know this has been reported before, but apparently the "All stats except HP get zeroed" bug still exists in the latest patch update Rangi provided back on page 69.

I just started a new game on that patch and was hunting for Geodude on Route 46. The zeroing of stats occurred on the captured Geodude because the experience provided by the capture caused my lead Pok?mon, a Level 9 Cyndaquil, to level up. (Edit: also occurred with a wild Caterpie on Route 30. Capture again caused my lead 'mon to level up, triggering the zeroing of stats.)
Edit 2: Switching my lead 'mon out before capture did not trigger the stat zeroing. It only triggers when the 'mon that is currently in the battle levels up upon capturing the wild 'mon.
Also, there is another error: when a wild Jigglypuff uses Sing on Cyndaquil, sometimes it will say "It doesn't affect Cyndaquil!" and then right after that message appears, Cyndaquil falls asleep. Unfortunately, I cannot provide more information on this one at this time.

FYI, the Cyndaquil has its Hidden Ability, Flash Fire.