Humbly , before I offer any suggestions and criticism, I have to extoll Emerald Rogue's incredible polish and addictiveness. I can't put this damn thing down; over 100 hours over the past two months! As a result of my obsession, I'd like to offer some ideas that popped into my head that might fit in with the vision of the hack.
Basic Suggestions:
-Let players immediately see which Pokemon are available on any given route: Removing the question marks takes away some surprise, but greatly reduces Mach Bike bunny-hopping 😆
-Increase trainer battle pay-outs as the player progresses: Right now, it's perhaps too easy to farm with the Amulet Coin over the first few segments and avoid trainers from then on out.
-Give Gym Leaders Permanent Weather: A dominant strategy for ER is to run a rain core. Rain counters or goes neutral against every Gym Leader other than Watson, and water Pokemon are nearly ubiquitous. Letting Roxanne and Flannery have permanent weather (and maybe ensuring every Pokemon Juan uses can counter water somehow) would, in theory, foster more creative team building. Maybe add this as an "Insane Mode" toggle?
-Add Additional Gym Leaders: This one might sound a little glib and obvious, but preparing for a forthcoming major fight from a larger pool of Gym Leaders should also foster more creative team building (barring an emergent tendency to middle of the road solutions). Maybe keep Hoenn's 8 for the players' first Hall of Fame run, and add in Leaders that cover the 9 other types for subsequent playthroughs. Maybe let players select a region's Gym Leaders?
-Let players glimpse who the next Gym Leader might be: Perhaps a Channeler NPC tucked at the top of every "route path" could clue players in on one of e.g. two possible Gym Leaders they might face next. Maybe this could cost some P$?
More Conceptual Suggestions:
-Add Fixed Teams for Gym Leaders: At the cost of unpredictability, perhaps some Gym encounters could feature fixed teams. Maybe this could be done for evenly numbered encounters (ensuring the Champion has a fixed team). Fixed teams can have more powerful synergies and thus be way more difficult. Like some of my other suggestions, I think this would be a welcome toggle.
-Add friendly NPCs within routes. For instance:
-The bike shop owner might pop up and offer to swap bikes for some fee (consequently, some HM hazards might need to be removed/reverted).
-Some Nurses could be coupled with idling trainers (i.e. guaranteed healing after taking a risk for P$).
-Nurses un-coupled from trainers could be altruistic, or undercover Grunts.
-Ace Trainers could offer to trade Pokemon after being defeated.
-Reduce the amount of time spent in the bag: This one's a little tricky. I reckon an easy first step would be to eliminate nature mints (reducing the amount of bag space they take, and thus inventory management) and replace them with a nature changing NPC (reducing the time spent sifting through a cluttered bag).
-Add an alternate exit to some routes: Self-explanatory; maybe place unique obstacles in front of either. For example, one exit might follow a bunch of roaming, weaker trainers, while its opposite has a single but forced strong battle.
Out-There, Wacky Conceptual Changes:
-Add secret exits to routes: This one ought to be a programming nightmare, admittedly. Basically, the idea is that on certain routes, players have to use a key item (e.g. called the Escape Rope) over a correct tile to progress. Possible exit tiles are to be somehow marked (e.g. with flowers). To determine the correct tile, players may hone in on one of several 3x3 groups and eliminate rows/columns. Eliminating possibilities would be accomplished by receiving procedurally generated clues from e.g. sign posts, NPCs, and/or defeated trainers. Players could attempt to escape prematurely, i.e. before narrowing escape down to a single possible tile, but risk guessing incorrectly and incurring some penalty (e.g. getting ambushed by a powerful trainer who pays out nothing).
-Save a Pokemon for later at the Day Care: Often, players encounter a Pokemon that isn't immediately useful or might be useful down the road (e.g. it evolves late, its evolution item isn't at hand, or it's most useful against a specific Gym Leader). One way to perhaps add a layer of strategy (admittedly by removing some risks, and therefore converse strategies), is to let players deposit one Pokemon at a "Day Care" in rest stops. This Pokemon could be retrieved for some fee that corresponds to however many Gym Leaders players have defeated since depositing it.
-Let Pokemon grow with the player: I reason that using a Pokemon and keeping it alive for as long as possible should carry additional rewards. So, if a Pokemon participates in a victory, perhaps it should gain IVs in some stat. This would be most appreciated by players who typically turn off EVs, like myself. Additionally/alternatively, perhaps make it so EVs can be reassigned at rest stops . Even more, maybe partner Pokemon could retain their increased IVs... which paradoxically brings me to my last point.
-Rework how "permanent items" purchased from the hub relate to the adventure: Undoubtedly my most radical suggestion, this one cuts to the heart of my main discrepancy with roguelikes: You often can't determine whether you're improving over time or reaping the benefits of persistent failure. Therefore, instead of items transferring 1:1 from the hub to adventure, buying items in the hub would instead make them more likely to appear in adventure opposed to alternatives. I have no particular formula in mind for this system; an ideal would likely have to be derived from play-testing. Essentially, this would force players to earn their way to victory, while still letting them carve out favourable paradigms. This might be the basis of an Insane mode.
Thank you for indulging this lengthy post from but a meager fan and lapsed hacker, but more importantly, thank you for Emerald Rogue! 😁
