I’m working on a ROM Hack that’s designed to feel like an introduction to competitive (doubles) Pokemon for players who have played the main-line games but have never tried VGC. What features do you think are a must? (And any thoughts on what I’ve currently been working on)
This game is primarily going to be for my friends but I’ll probably release it somewhere when it‘a done too. It‘s based on Fire Red and the story isn’t changed much, I wanted to keep it feeling like a core game but with some added silly/meta jokes occasionally thrown into random NPC dialogue.
I’ve currently made it up to Cerulean in my edit. Every Pokemon’s move-pool is oriented to be a viable competitive set with abilities and held items to go alongside it. They will learn other moves as well (all ones they would naturally learn) but you‘d typically be fine to keep everything as it is (I’ll likely make the full move-pool for each mon based on their Champions moves once I’ve got the core game done, just to give more flexibility).
Typical competitive items can be purchased from Pokemarts (in addition to balls, obviously), with more items becoming available as you get through more gyms, although you can often catch a Pokemon with an item you currently can‘t purchase too.
Trainer fights are all double battles with most using 2-4 Pokemon, but more significant trainers (gym leaders, rival, major Rocket fights, or other “end of area” style trainers) use a full team of 6, same as the player. And there’s a Nurse Joy halfway through each longer section who can be used repeatedly.
Wild Pokemon are increased in level to be about 2-5 levels below the trainers, one thing I find annoying in the actual games is when I catch a new Pokemon and it’s like 10+ levels below anything I already have, older games are often especially bad for this.
Exp gain for all Pokemon is standardised to “slow” (you’ll still be the same level or 1 or 2 higher than NPCs usually, it’s just because: more pokemon per trainer + higher level wild Pokemon = more exp per route), I found this made the game feel much more typical relative to levels of the main series games. I did also give players an “easy mode”, in the sense they can use Rare Candies that are provided in bulk at different parts of the game (but the game warns the player to probably not overuse them) as well as a lucky egg and exp shares so you can really customise how grinding works best for your game experience.
One change I’m not too sure about was introducing mega evolution very early, it’s such a huge part of Champions that I felt it made sense. Brock uses a full rock team, I gave him a Mega Aerodactyl (it‘s weirdly not as difficult to deal with as you’d think) and then gives the player a mega ring after beating him (enabling the player to use Mega Beedrill immediately (and future megas as they obtain more mega stones)
Currently I’m just intending to use the original 151 in my dex, and trying to avoid overlap in pokemon across different routes (I’ve also made the starter options all available as low odds encounters, so that players can build a solid fire/water/grass core early).
Currently EVs/IVs and Natures are not covered in this, though I’ll likely add these retroactively.
Most dialogue is changed to a silly light hearted joke or to genuinely useful advice (one of my friends when play testing the early part learnt that paralysis halves your speed, for example)
I know I wrote a lot but to anyone who read through it all, do you have any thoughts on what I’m currently doing or things it looks like I may have forgotten? Or just something you think all good ROM Hacks should include. Any advice is appreciated as it’s my first time doing this!