What annoys you about hacks?

[Cartmic]

My apologies to the both of you, it was not my intention to attempt to sound smart. You are right that my post was off-topic, I shall have it deleted.

 

[Skizzieren]

The level of difficulty is a huge thing that people don't get quite right in their hacks. There have been countless times where I have been testing out a beta/alpha/final version, and I have been enjoying the story, tiles, dialogue, scripting, and mapping. Then, I'll run into a huge roadblock in the game because I simply can't progress through routes due to my under-leveled pokemon compared to the wild and trainers. This is also usually a problem with gym leaders. I'm guessing that this problem comes from the fact that people tend to think that higher-level pokemon will make it more "challenging," when in reality it just makes it more frustrating to play.

 

[soilder148]

That I can barely find any good tools to hack Crystal Version, which is my personal favorite. Don't know why its hated on so much....

 

[Haru]

Bad Spriting and Lack of Graphical Appeal makes a game almost unplayable for me.

 

[Crystal Spirit Version]

Hmmm. I would say immature ones and bad storylines o;

 

[AMT]

FAKEMON.

And when hackers never finish their hacks. :(

 

[Cypher DS]

Developers who level up and toughen up the trainers, but neglect to boost the wild pokemon levels accordingly. I'm looking at you, Shiny Gold X, version!

 

[MegaKuriboh]

FAKEMON. I HATE THEM.
Also bad sprites, I'm currently playing Ruby Destiny Reign of Legends (Yes, I know it's really old but still) and sprites like Monferno, Staraptor, etc are freaking horrible.

 

[Shucklin]

Names Names Names Names Names! So many of them are bad! Also some people get soo creative it's bad. try and think like nintendo

 

[Divider]

The most annoying thing about a rom hack is the lack of different concepts of play style. It seems hackers are just lazy now. Some 11 year old kid stumbles upon pokecommunity, says "i ish gonna makes one a too" posts this big thing about it (without researching naturally) recruits newbie scripters and spriters and then 2-3 months later... project is dead.

...

BUT I HATE WEAK GYM LEADERS AND TRAINERS! I CAN BEAT FIRE RED AT LVL 45? THERE'S 55 LEVELS OF NO FREAKING PURPOSE!!!!!! Trainers should be TOUGH, Gym leaders INSANE, and for the love of GOD REMOVE RATTAA FROM YOUR ROM!!!! PUT MORE THAN 3 POKEMON IN ONE FREAKIN ZONE!!!!!

I've been working on my rom hack for months, no thread for it. Why? Cause I'm not about to dangle a big cake infront of you all when I still can't figure out these damn tilemaps / sprites.

 

[Ice-cold Claws]

Agreeing with some of the arguments here.

Also bad sprites, I'm currently playing Ruby Destiny Reign of Legends (Yes, I know it's really old but still) and sprites like Monferno, Staraptor, etc are freaking horrible.

This.
I always see promises of "DPP sprites inserted!!!" but all of them turn out the wrong way. You see...
DPP sprite border: 80x80
RSE sprite border: 64x64
So when a DPP sprite manages to fit in 64x64, they just leave it like that. Thus Combee is as big as Charizard.
When it doesn't fit, they shrink it directly, resulting in

sprites like Monferno, Staraptor, etc are freaking horrible.

Don't be lazy, hackers. I DON'T want to see a Groudon-sized Bidoof or a humongous Cynthia-lookalike in the game I'm playing.
And if you're changing most of them to DPP sprites, do the job thoroughly. I will not tolerate my Dragonite being dwarven when compared to Gastrodon.

**************
One of the most overlooked aspects when hacking, is storyline versus replayability.

In the official games, once you finish the game, you can play it again. Which means a different gender, different starter, different team, different routes to take (like GSC), beating gym leaders in a different order (RBY or GSC), and more exploring of sidequests (trick master, contests, bike road time run, collecting ash, feebas).

Many hackers disregard this part of the game, and think: "I must make it more interesting!!ADD STORYLINE!!!" The game then loses replayability.
Let me use the example of RB: Rescue Rangers. (No offence to DJG, I still look up to you as a hacker.) You start as a Pikachu (minimal gender differences). You get two companions (no choosing, it's Chikorita and Torchic). You walk through a specific path to advance in the prefixed storyline. Only halfway through the game do you get to recruit Pokemon.
The experience is nice for the first time. But once you finish playing, you will dump this game in a corner. Why? Because there's no reason to replay it. If you do, you will have to go through the same freaking stuff for the first half of the game. The only notable differences you can make are: your name, stats, movesets. That's it. This annoys me.

IMO a truly engaging game is one that magnets you into replaying it over and over again after you've finished. They don't force you to mash A through one script after another- they're a form of breathing space from everyday life, allowing you to enjoy your time. This is what I'm looking for in a Pokemon hack, or any game in general.

 

[Sephiroth2009]

If you don't like something about a hack, why conintue to play and complain?

 

[droomph]

I think what bothers me most is the fakemon.

I know that there's lots of good ones, but most turn out bad because the person who is designing them are design them with the mentality that "I want to be famous just like Game Freak". For example, Pokémon Quartz. Really, why else would you sell it for money? And then everything looks horrible, boring, or a mixture of both (to me at least).

 

[marcc5m]

I think what bothers me most is the fakemon.

I know that there's lots of good ones, but most turn out bad because the person who is designing them are design them with the mentality that "I want to be famous just like Game Freak". For example, Pokémon Quartz. Really, why else would you sell it for money? And then everything looks horrible, boring, or a mixture of both (to me at least).

You do realize that Quartz was stolen and sold by pirates, not Baro, right?
And you do realize that when Quartz was made, a lot of people were new to hacking, including Baro, right?

QUARTZ FTW.