FireRed hack: Pokemon Shadow Grey - Shades of the Past Await

[ShadowGrey]

Good day to you all, and welcome to our progressing hack 'Pokemon Shadow Grey', tagline 'Shades of the Past Await'.
Hack team: 'KCAT HAX'

- There are so many hacks out there, but we wanted to try something a little different. The hack, like so many others has an 8 gym and Pokemon League base, but focuses much more heavily on the storyline, the player and his brother (rival) set out to discover the intentions of the mysterious 'Team Shadow' and put an end to their evil deeds. It is rumored that they are looking for ways to mix human and Pokemon DNA.

- The hack itself features major re-tiling, As well as a custom Pokedex set based on that of the Johto region.

- Your trusted companion or 'starter pokemon' will be Espeon and your rival/brother's will be Umbreon.

- The game features the Corvon region, which is north of Hoenn and east of Johto (with some overlap). It thus far includes the areas:

-Opal Bay - A quiet and remote seaside town where the player lives and will begin his/her journey.
-Rushwater Valley - This is the first route, and yes, it contains trainers. Those who play hacks have undoubtedly played numerous Pokemon games before and in my opinion are looking to 'get straight to the action.'
-Rushwater Town - This little town features stone cottages and is built into the side of a mountain, here you will find Martha, the leader of the Rushwater Gym and possessor of the Fortune badge, you might think this early to have the first gym but it works well in the grand scheme of things.
-Hoenn Path - To the west of Rushwater town, this path is as its name suggests.
-Mt. Rushwater - North of Rushwater town, this is your first real obstacle or dungeon in the game.
-Freedom Town - This town is set in the style of the old Japanese era, and is home to the second gym, where you will find Blossom and the Forest badge.
-Dark Forest - None of the routes in this hack will be easy, and each has it's own little twist.
-Twilight Ranch - A sprawling ranch abundant with Miltank, here you will find thatched farm houses, barns and the Tailow Delivery Service.
-Avalanche Pass - Heading up into the snowy mountains.
-Avalanche Summit - Reaching the top of Avalanche Mountain you will find Snowflake, the leader of a remote and wintry gym, defeating her will earn you a Blizzard badge. Through this routes there is access to the Ice Wasteland, though you will have to wait until later in the game to discover what lies here.
-Avalanche Falls (East and West) - A forested path south of Mount Avalanche, where the ice melt builds into huge torrents that thunder over down the cliffs.

- Opal Bay YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSgb7UqtGEU

- More updates as the hack progresses, first beta will include roughly 20% of the story-line and 3 gyms. We expect this shall be finished sometime over the summer.
- If any one has any questions feel free to message me or post in this thread. Alternately, if any has any hacking experience and wants to put it to good use by joining the KCAT HAX team get in touch with info regarding what you can do, we will expect proof. Don't worry if you aren't accepted, it may be that we already have someone that possesses the same skills you do. A revised list of the skills that would be useful to us can usually be found in each of the latest updates. These can be viewed towards the end of the thread.

 

[BlazeVoltX]

It's cool! If u want i can Beta Test it!

 

[marcc5m]

The style is...unique. But please tell me you're going to change the rest of the tiles and the overworlds?

 

[ShadowGrey]

It's cool! If u want i can Beta Test it!

Sounds like a plan my friend, If we keep going at this rate the Beta should be ready in weeks. Prepare yourself however, we don't plan on making this an easy game.

 

[ShadowGrey]

The style is...unique. But please tell me you're going to change the rest of the tiles and the overworlds?

Yeah, we wanted to go for something a bit different, to try and make it stand out. All the overworlds are yet to be changed, we are focusing primarily on scripting, spriting and mapping at the moment, as overworlds are an easy yet tedious task.
With regards as to changing the rest of the tiles we are unsure, some we believe are fine the way they are and would not detract from the rest of the hack if they remained so.

 

[TCB]

I like how the tiles are supposed to give off that 'old age' vibe, gives it a really nice touch. On that however, if you could, just touch upon it a little more (like the grass tiles, it kinda clashes with the bright green there...)

Anywho, I love your concepts and Fakemon, wish ya luck!

 

[Flowerchild]

This screenshot is mostly good, however, the trees look a little weird because there's such a difference between the upper and lower parts. Also, flowers usually look better when placed diagonally, not right next to each other.

The mapping isn't so good in this one. There are way too many rocks, and the staircase is too small. The lower houses look, in my opinion, very ugly. No human would want a house like that.

Grass in towns? Gah. Also, same problems as the preceding screenshot.

Love that. :) The brick road goes very well with the new tiles you've inserted.

Bit too many flowers, I think. The fountain looks a bit out of place with the new tiles.

I assume that the upper part is a Route, and the lower a Town? Very good, I like the gate a lot.

What's Nurse Joy doing there?
Also because of the walls, it looks like the stairs don't go anywhere.

Nothing to say here, except it also has the stairs error.

It seems a bit too crowded for just a small building like that.

Cool tiles.

Not much to say, can't wait to see the player backsprite.

 

[teejermiester]

I love the style that you have, as long as you continue with it since you made it in a different 3D plane than the original tiles, so it clashes really badly (Don't worry, I have this problem too). As long as you remake all tiles (which is a pain) it will work out. The tree you made/inserted doesn't fit the general 3D plane either. If you understand what I mean.

Oh, and an expanded storyline would be awesome!

 

[ShadowGrey]

I love the style that you have, as long as you continue with it since you made it in a different 3D plane than the original tiles, so it clashes really badly (Don't worry, I have this problem too). As long as you remake all tiles (which is a pain) it will work out. The tree you made/inserted doesn't fit the general 3D plane either. If you understand what I mean.

Oh, and an expanded storyline would be awesome!

Can you explain more about the 3D planes? We have four of us on the team and not even one knows precisely what you mean. Also, the tree shall be revised.

 

[ShadowGrey]

This screenshot is mostly good, however, the trees look a little weird because there's such a difference between the upper and lower parts. Also, flowers usually look better when placed diagonally, not right next to each other.

->Tree problem noted, two out of the few posts picked up on it, we shall look into it. Also adjacent flower problem noted, shall get onto that aswell.

The mapping isn't so good in this one. There are way too many rocks, and the staircase is too small. The lower houses look, in my opinion, very ugly. No human would want a house like that.

->You have to really see a full map shot to understand this town, the rocks were placed because it is built into a mountain side, we might remove a couple if it looks that bad. Staircase width shall be increased. Concerning the houses, our building spriter spent a long time creating and inserting all our tiles, and, if the building is 'ugly' it might just be because that was the look she was going for. Opinion noted however, if we receive more of the same it shall be looked into.

Grass in towns? Gah. Also, same problems as the preceding screenshot.

->Know your facts, this shot is of a route, not a town. The building you see is an un-warped rain shelter which hides a trainer from site.

Love that. :) The brick road goes very well with the new tiles you've inserted.

->Good to know we've gotten something right ;)

Bit too many flowers, I think. The fountain looks a bit out of place with the new tiles.

->This just happens to be a flowery peaceful kind of town, the flowers will stay, they add to the overall effect quite nicely, you will understand once the Beta is released.

I assume that the upper part is a Route, and the lower a Town? Very good, I like the gate a lot.

->Now this is actually a town, or rather a ranch, the grassy patch you see is a meadow and the only place in the hack where you can catch Caftank and Miltank. Dislike it if you must, but we are trying to make a hack with a little originality.

What's Nurse Joy doing there?
Also because of the walls, it looks like the stairs don't go anywhere.

->Stairs to nowhere noted. Also none of the Overworlds have been edited yet.

Nothing to say here, except it also has the stairs error.


It seems a bit too crowded for just a small building like that.

->It's a shop, people are shopping, hush now and leave them be.

Cool tiles.

->Interior tiles from the ranch.

Not much to say, can't wait to see the player backsprite.

->We have a backsprite we're quite proud of, but you'll have to wait for that ;)

 

[Pokemon Master N]

Wow this looks awesome!
How are you supposed to play it? Do you copy the save file?

 

[ShadowGrey]

Wow this looks awesome!
How are you supposed to play it? Do you copy the save file?

Thanks. There will be an IPS patch for a Fire Red rom as the first beta release, expected late December.

Banners:

Houndour, Houndoom and Houndusk.

Cacnea, Cacturne and Cacterra.

Carvanha, Sharpedo and Barakedo.

 

[chrunch]

The upper part of this screenshot needs some work. It's basically a big empty field with grass, and that doesn't look good. :(

Your other screenies look nice though, but you might want to work on the mapping. Have you got any screenies of scripts that you could show? Good luck! :D

 

[blooster23]

This seems like a really good hack!
I like how you added Hoenn, Jhoto and Kanto, but don't you think it's a little too much? As in the level when you get to the last region. Don't you think it'll be too high of a level? Oh well, it's just my opinion.

Love the Carvanha banner! I'm so going to pick him as my starter when the beta comes out! :D

 

[BlazeVoltX]

Sounds like a plan my friend, If we keep going at this rate the Beta should be ready in weeks. Prepare yourself however, we don't plan on making this an easy game.

Sure, can't wait to test it!:D

 

[teejermiester]

Wait, are you adding Kanto and/or Hoenn? I thought it was just Johto since there's no connection to Hoenn... And Kanto I for some reason didn't think about lol.

 

[ShadowGrey]

This seems like a really good hack!
I like how you added Hoenn, Jhoto and Kanto, but don't you think it's a little too much? As in the level when you get to the last region. Don't you think it'll be too high of a level? Oh well, it's just my opinion.

Love the Carvanha banner! I'm so going to pick him as my starter when the beta comes out! :D

The general idea is to get as much out of the hack as possible, and provide you lot with as much game play as possible. The Johto region will definately feature in the hack, however the roms don't have space for much more than that, especially considering Corvon itself is quite a big region (around 15/16 towns and cities). After that we will just cram as much in as we can. So don't be surprised if the hack ends up with perhaps a few cities from other regions for example Viridian, Pallet and Rustboro.
Saying that we have found that the leveling curve in this hack climbs at a much quicker rate than most other games/hacks, because we wanted to make it more difficult. As an example we had a test run up to the first gym, which is in the second city, our Houndour was level 17 when we finally beat the gym leader, we expect a full team of Pokemon to be somewhere in the region of 70-80 when you reach the Champions League. (This is also why we are raising the evolution levels with the starters).

 

[blooster23]

Thanks for clearing that up.
I have another question, did you balance the starters stats and maybe give them a few better moves? Because in my opinion a Houndoom is stronger than Sharpedo and Cacturne.

 

[Tcoppy]

Hm, this hack seems really unique.I like it how it's suppose to have an ''old'' feeling to it.For the tiles, some houses look good, some look bad, and I'm okay with grass in towns as long as I am not forced to pass it.I like how your doing pre-evos and evos, especially with the starters, it's somewhat unique.Which leads me to the starters, the Houndour and the Carvanaha line look good and look somewhat like each other but Cacterra doesn't look right.It kinda looks nothing like Cacnea and Cacturne and more like Bigfoot covered in leaves (Maybe you guys rushed, I dunno).

I still like this hack however, and it's not even on it's first beta yet so who am I to judge.Good luck :)

 

[ShadowGrey]

Thanks for clearing that up.
I have another question, did you balance the starters stats and maybe give them a few better moves? Because in my opinion a Houndoom is stronger than Sharpedo and Cacturne.

No problem, Yes the starters have been balanced, with the grass tree having slight advantages in defense, same goes for the water tree and speed, finally the fire tree and attack. Also each of these starters stats have been boosted somewhat to make them a key part of your team, and so that they are actually useful.
Also the fact that each has a dark attribute balances the typing so that only grass, water and fire typings decide weaknesses strengths etc.