All I can promise is that I'll have it out sometime before this calendar year is over.
I didn't think that I made that statement so plainly. Well, allow me to apologize for that. There was no big release before the end of the year for this hack.
Life happens. Things have been changing greatly for me in the past few months. Frankly, I don't know how much I'll be able to keep thinking about or working on this hack in the future. It's getting to the point where work will be so sparse that updates could become an annual thing. That, or it might soon be time for someone else to continue the project. At the very least I owe it to everyone to get out this big release. When it will come out, I don't know. Hopefully kind of soon.
I'm sorry for any disappointment or underwhelming feelings this project has brought about.
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Now, time for an overdue response. Clearly you're still better than me when it comes to speedy replies!
That is essentially what I was thinking, yes. The fossil you choose at Mt. Moon should be the first fossil Pokemon you can obtain, otherwise the choice is used against you.
I'll have to think about this event and how to treat it when I get to the Catch 'em All portion of the hack. It'll take the most amount of work of all of them, and I've been putting it off for awhile.
I honestly did not believe you. Then I checked, and dear GOD you're right. How did I never notice that? Even so, it's not particularly bothersome on the 3DS because the menu items are far enough away that it doesn't catch my eye. On the GBA it drives me absolutely crazy, so I implore you to do something about it regardless of "series canon" in this instance.
This capitalization policy actually extends far beyond Pokémon. I'd say a good majority of video games have all caps for their menu items. It's to add extra emphasis to the major components that hold the game together. I'll be standing by my decision with the capitalization standards. This is something that is trivially modified, though.
...Please make this happen. Somehow. This absolutely needs to happen.
The fact that this hasn't happened yet should tell you how plausible it is to implement into the game. There does exist a means to
kind of simulate trade-based evolution, but not to my desires. I assure you I won't be able to do anything about that to advance this.
Damn :D This reminds me of the email conversations I had with Tiddles when S3C was being worked on. Many of them can be reduced to "I think you should do this!" "No." "But!" "No".
(Don't take that as a criticism of Tiddles, obviously. He always presented his reasons for not wanting to do it, and I don't consider "not agreeing with me 100% on everything all the time" a flaw in others. And of course, the same extends to you.)
I guess some of his standards and practices rubbed off on me, then? :)
I only ever had one disagreement with Tiddles in terms of what direction S3C should take. Ironically, it was a set of options that my contributions probably had a direct influence on! I took the disagreement rather hard, and since then I've come to accept that content creators are free to change things as they please. Although being challenged by others and getting suggestions can make for a better product, you have to respect the wishes of the creator. If that person modifies something in a way you strongly disagree with, see if you can take the initiative to change it to your liking! This is especially true for ROM hacks.
Yes, I am aware of that. This request wasn't because the starters are currently unobtainable. I had three reasons:
1. Once again, I must admit I completely forgot about breeding. So the first reason I had is moot. Never mind.
2. It always felt a bit weird to me that the starter Pokemon families, supposedly "native" to the region, don't actually live anywhere in the region. There's a part of me that likes seeing that remedied.
3. The main reason I asked about this is actually because the best "catch 'em all" mods I've seen for Emerald also do this, and I'd like to have mods of both GBA adventures that behave consistently and are 100% completable.
1. Alright then!
2. Game Freak and Nintendo consider starters to be special/event Pokémon. This designates them to one-only status. I agree that it makes sense in-universe to have starters in the wild. The same would even go for the legendaries! Unfortunately, that's just not how they were designed to function within the confines of the game. Much like the fossil choice, altering this would decrease the significance of getting one.
3. Ranking 'mon hacks is subjective by nature. Each one might have a different goal in mind other than making all Pokémon of a given classification available. Also, keep in mind that
your idea of what is best in a 'mon hack is likely different from what
my idea is. Who knows if I would personally agree with you on your evaluations of those Emerald hacks?
On that note...
Would you consider doing a version of your "Catch 'em all" mod (and the extras) for Emerald? There are some good ones out there, but I would love if you could make one consistent with Throwback. At least you wouldn't have to worry about wardrobe and GB Player mods :D
(And if you dare suggest I play ORAS if I want a proper Hoenn adventure, I will make an extremely annoyed face. Emerald is ten times the game ORAS will ever be.)
I hope this reply makes sense. I'm a bit sleepy right now...
My whole reason for pushing OR/AS over R/S/E was because the base game was much better. The graphics hold the same odd distorted charm as the ones from the old games, all without the awkward perspective of the original Hoenn games (FR/LG fixed that). The music is no longer annoying, yet it is still faithful to the original compositions. And, most importantly, it's up to date in terms of Pokémon compatibility and metagame.
I noted in the OP that people who wanted the Battle Frontier or customization to their games should look at Emerald. That hasn't changed. I'm guessing the only reason the BF wasn't in OR/AS was because the game was rushed to completion so it could get put out on store shelves in time for the 2014 holiday season.
Also, I need to note the drastic art style change. Whereas Ken Sugimori's style was on the tail end of his Toriyama-esque phase at the time that Ruby and Sapphire came out, his style today personally screams something more generic. Kind of ironic given what it looked like before, even if there is certainly a personal edge to how it is now. There are stark differences with character designs that many fans of the old games might not like, and I'm inclined to agree with them somewhat.
We also can't forget that there are people who might not like the gameplay mechanics as they are now compared to how they were back then. And people might not like the ability to obtain the newer Pokémon because they don't like the newer Pokémon. And they might think that Exp. Share now beaks the main game. And they might not want polygons at all, but just sprites. And... oh dear.
Throughout my years of searching for "the best" version of games, I've come to realize one thing:
Every future release of a game that is more than just a port or emulation of the original is bound to have some change that someone will object to over how it was in a previous release. Think about it. The 16-Bit versions of the Mario games in Super Mario All-Stars look and sound better in terms of fidelity (well, at least 2 and 3 do). However, there's a distinct charm that's missing without the 8-Bit music or simplistic graphics. Even so-called "HD Remasters" inevitably change things from the old releases that people might object to. Some of them crop the screen to give the player a "widescreen" view, while others widen the view and show things the player isn't supposed to see. Some remove features from the original games, sometimes erroneously. Some are just terribly done throughout. Some even replace certain assets of the game (textures, models, sounds, etc.) with revisionist elements.
It's making me come to terms with where my hack stands in the whole Kanto Pokémon game segment: a weird niche that fulfills some of the desires of the small number of people who check it out might like, along with things they never asked for. Ultimately, the only person who it fully satisfies is myself. This is why I value customization and what it brings in terms of making an experience that is truly your own. I'm going to double down on my hope to get a customization tool out for the hack. If I can't come time for the v4.0 release, I'll just put out the update and call it a day.
...Oh yeah, the Emerald request. I'll take a rain check on that, thank you very much!