Hello there!
I'm making my own hack game of Pokemon Fire Red. I'm basically taking a copy of FireRed, stripping it to next to nothing, and putting my game on top. I'm going to be using the 2nd post for progress reports, so check there if you'd like to see what I'm up to! And for more screenshots, please visit PkmnVerdigris on photobucket!

It's called Pokemon Verdigris!

The setting is the new Alyar Region, featuring 11 new cities! A varied landscape with all sorts of interesting features, from the amazing Coulee Dam to the fantastic Sky Bridge connecting Arylide to Ecru! And because it's my game, you get my favorite baddies: Team Rocket! Of course, they're up to no good. Only one person knows the true consequences if their plans succeed, and it's neither you nor them! This game is (loosely) set just before the main events in the first Pokemon movie. Giovanni reigns supreme, Team Rocket is terrorizing the region, and Mewtwo has disappeared to where ever it was Mewtwo went.

One of the basic things about my hack is that there are 4 starters to choose from! Three of them offer special bonuses to make the game more interesting, but they're hidden. (Not hard, don't worry!)

Now, one lets you read minds!

This allows you to learn all sorts of things, from the location of secrets, to deeper details on the story's plot. Because come on, when do people REALLY spill everything they know to total strangers?

Another Pokemon lets you go out at night!

There's a lot of strange things that only happen at night... things that only this Pokemon will allow you to find! The kind people at the Pokemarts have included an upstairs resting area for you to sleep in. (If you're lacking the correct starter though, you'll sleep the night through instead of waking up!)

The third is for the adventurous types!

This third special starter allows you to access extra dungeons and areas off limit to the others! This is the only Pokemon able to give you the Cut and Flash HMs!


Other features:
Sequence breaking available! Don't want to fight Gym Leaders? Ok, don't! Want to ignore Team Rocket? Alright! Want to follow the river from shore to reservoir lake? Do it! Although if you don't fight the Rockets they won't be at their next dastardly location until you've beaten them and forced them to move on.

Eevee evolves to Espeon with Sun Stone, Umbreon with Moon Stone.
Feebas evolves with Water Stone.
Onix, Seadra, Scyther and Porygon all evolve via happiness.
Poliwhirl will evolve into Politoed at 40 if you don't use a Water Stone first.
Clampearl evolves to Huntail with Sun Stone, Gorebyss with Moon Stone.

Only one "fakemon", the Squirtle family gets black sunglasses.


I've got a pretty good thing going here, I think, but I could use the help of the VDex community to help me flesh out some details! I've got a lot of things I'm working on, but I'd love, love, love it if people would help me with ideas.

Now, for some things I need help with!
I need some help coming up with npc/trainer chatter, if anyone feels so kind as to help :)




Older form below spoiler


Thanks for looking!! If you have anything to comment, please post away! :D

5/20/12-

5/21/12


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5/23/12


5/whatevertodayis/12


5/28?/12


5/31/12


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6/5/12


6/7/12

7/31/12
Threw things under spoilers. FOUND OUT HOW TO MAKE POKEMON (wild, trainers, given, found) SHINY! :D FINALLY! Gave sunglasses to the Squirtle family, broke Wartortle's front and Blastoise's back OTL Will re-fix Thursday because I'm not home tomorrow. Actually, may work on it tonight unless I keep playing with Shinys. FREE SHINY PIDGEY FOR EVERYONE! Haha, wouldn't that beat all, I figure it out and give Pidgeys. I bet you'd all hate me. I'm thinking really ONE SHINY EEVEE FOR EVERYONE! :D And now I can make that trainer with shiny Pokemon! I'm frazzled about one thing though, I'm going to post and see if I get replies.

Thanks for posting! It's totally open, I only wanted 2 posts.

*scribbling notes furiously*
Night shop! I LOVE IT! :D And thank you kindly for the comments I hope you don't mind if I steal use some of your ideas! And I never knew Manectric could be taught Flamethrower, I learned something about a Pokemon today :) I thought I'd have to whip out A-Trainer and force a TM into it!

I should add this to the first post, that this game is set at approximately the time right before the main events of the first Pokemon movie. Giovanni reigns supreme, although Mewtwo is not in his possession.

Sounds really cool! Thanks for sharing with us! I look forward to learning more about it and eventually seeing the final version!

1. With mind-reading, what would you like to learn about or find? Extra plot details? Humorous thoughts? The location of Giovanni's Treasure?
All of the above! Maybe there could even be a mini sub-plot that can only be accessed by reading the mind of the right person, with an extra place to visit/pokemon otherwise really rare, etc?

2. With night-access, what night time events would interest you? Items? Extra story events? Roaming night-time Pokemon?
You can never go wrong with items! And the roaming night-time pokemon sounds interesting too!

3. With bonus dungeons, what would you like to find in them? Extra baddies? Items? Rarer Pokemon?
Definitely sounds like a great place for some items and rare pokemon! Extra baddies would be a plus too. :)

4. Would you like me to create a trainer after you? If you'd like, please post the name, gender, trainer type (cooltrainer, bugcatcher, ect), and 2 or 3 Pokemon you'd like to have. Or just post the name and I'll add you in somewhere :)
Sure! Supernerd Morr(anr) would seem suitable. :D Eevee, Lapras, and Dragonaire would be awesome! :)

5. I'm thinking of removing Great and Ultra Balls in favor of an unlimited, free supply of Pokeballs. Would this be good, or terrible?
That sounds reasonable, given the game's mechanic for catching 'mon. It would set it apart, as well - so I say do it!

6. There's a 1% encounter rate feature I'd like to make use of, what rare type would you like to be able to find with relative ease? Be reasonable, "Deoxys" is not a reasonable answer. "Totodile" might be.
Hmm tough one. Not sure if this is something that you want to configure per area or have global-wide. If it's global, would it be possible to split the 1% to multiple 'mon, like all the starters or something similar? If it's per area, then the above suggestion of evolved forms of what's already there might make sense. If it's neither of those... then I have no idea. lol

7. Mewtwo- good guy or bad guy? Please share some of your opinions on the matter!
Bad guy! It seems to me that because of who it was created by, it would tend towards bad even without any outside influence. But then, I don't know all of the canon related to it since the first generation, so... beats me what actually makes sense canonically.

8. Anything else you'd like to share?
This sounds like a great project! Maybe I'll post about the project I've been working on lately, now that you've given me some inspiration! :)

1. With mind-reading, what would you like to learn about or find? Extra plot details? Humorous thoughts? The location of Giovanni's Treasure?
Treasures are always nice. how baout letting the player 'read' trainers battle strategy, or where they caught their rare pokemon.

2. With night-access, what night time events would interest you? Items? Extra story events? Roaming night-time Pokemon?
I like the idea of catching rare dark / ghost types. and in 'extra story events' you can add the option to break into Team Rocket secret base etc.
3. With bonus dungeons, what would you like to find in them? Extra baddies? Items? Rarer Pokemon?

4. Would you like me to create a trainer after you? If you'd like, please post the name, gender, trainer type (cooltrainer, bugcatcher, ect), and 2 or 3 Pokemon you'd like to have. Or just post the name and I'll add you in somewhere :)
y-yes *-*
I want to be a female aroma girl/ rich girl trainer, named Silvia. with a team of troll butterfrees:
Butterfree (attract, flash, psychic, toxic) - male, Jolly
Butterfree (poison powder, protect, morning sun, whirlwind)- female, Impish
Butterfree (attract, sunny day, solarbeam, hidden power Fire) - female, Mild

5. I'm thinking of removing Great and Ultra Balls in favor of an unlimited, free supply of Pokeballs. Would this be good, or terrible?
Interesting, but like others said, increase the catch rate of some pokemon.

6. There's a 1% encounter rate feature I'd like to make use of, what rare type would you like to be able to find with relative ease? Be reasonable, "Deoxys" is not a reasonable answer. "Totodile" might be.
Feebas, starters, and fully-evolved pokemon (only slow ones so the player can run away if needed)

7. Mewtwo- good guy or bad guy? Please share some of your opinions on the matter!
good for pokemon, bad for people!

8. Anything else you'd like to share?
The game sounds unique, good luck :D
and.. may I make a suggestion? how about changing the states of some pokemon ?
you know, just to make things like Dunsparce useable, and things like magikarp easier to level up. Shirogane made a list of pokemon tiers, by their states. you can use the list of the lowest tier to see which pokemon can use a slight boost.

Just WOW. If you want any testers I'd be happy to help. This looks like the best hack I've read about in a long time!
I'll answer those questions when I get on to a computer because my phone won't let me copy them into this post.
Good luck with your project! :)

1. With mind-reading, what would you like to learn about or find? Extra plot details? Humorous thoughts? The location of Giovanni's Treasure?
I personally love wisecracks from old people, and also possible hints on where they caught their rare Pokémon- maybe even battle strategies to easily counter or even utilise to our advantage..

2. With night-access, what night time events would interest you? Items? Extra story events? Roaming night-time Pokemon?
Similar to the GSC timeline, where you could Headbutt trees on different locations for different Pokémon. Also, set it such that some Trainer will only battle you at Night, like the policemen guarding the Daycare in the GSC series.

3. With bonus dungeons, what would you like to find in them? Extra baddies? Items? Rarer Pokemon?
Of course, a rare item and possibly Evolved Pokémon (i.e Lairons instead of Arons, Electivires over Electabuzz, etc.)

4. Would you like me to create a trainer after you? If you'd like, please post the name, gender, trainer type (cooltrainer, bugcatcher, ect), and 2 or 3 Pokemon you'd like to have. Or just post the name and I'll add you in somewhere :)
I'd like to be a Pokémaniac(female) by the name of Linda and my Pokémon line up will be Poliwag(female, Lax nature with Scald, Ice Beam, Hydro Pump and Hypnosis), Emolga(female, Sassy nature with Volt Switch, Toxic, Aerial Ace and Air Slash) and Zangoose(female, Jolly nature with Close Combat, Thunder, Night Slash and Razor Wind). :DDDD

5. I'm thinking of removing Great and Ultra Balls in favor of an unlimited, free supply of Pokeballs. Would this be good, or terrible?
Depends on how it works. Like many raised, if this was implemented then the catch rates must be adjusted in favour of this. Dusk Balls can also be made available but at a higher rate.

6. There's a 1% encounter rate feature I'd like to make use of, what rare type would you like to be able to find with relative ease? Be reasonable, "Deoxys" is not a reasonable answer. "Totodile" might be.
I'm a sucker for Starters, do make this happen.

7. Mewtwo- good guy or bad guy? Please share some of your opinions on the matter!
Good guy, definitely. Make him the guardian of Mew and players have to defeat him in order to catch Mew.

8. Anything else you'd like to share?
The idea itself is too perfect :D

This seems really cool! Can't wait for it to be finished! :D

1. With mind-reading, what would you like to learn about or find? Extra plot details? Humorous thoughts? The location of Giovanni's Treasure?
I think that all of the examples would be good. Also, hints for in-game puzzles would be cool as well. I also think that just random drivel that characters are sometimes thinking would be nice too. Like, it wouldn't be helpful or anything, but just interesting.

2. With night-access, what night time events would interest you? Items? Extra story events? Roaming night-time Pokemon?
I think that Pokemon more common to night would be pretty cool, as would extra story events. Items, I'm not too sure of, unless the items were available later in the game or were harder to get without night.

3. With bonus dungeons, what would you like to find in them? Extra baddies? Items? Rarer Pokemon?
I'd say more and stronger trainers, stronger/rarer Pokemon, and harder to find items. Like, even a post-game dungeon would be pretty cool.

4. Would you like me to create a trainer after you? If you'd like, please post the name, gender, trainer type (cooltrainer, bugcatcher, ect), and 2 or 3 Pokemon you'd like to have. Or just post the name and I'll add you in somewhere :)
If you wanted to, that would be the best thing ever! :D If you did, could I please be a Lass named Jen, with an Aggron, a Magneton, and a Skarmory, please? Or even if I weren't a trainer, it'd be cool too.

5. I'm thinking of removing Great and Ultra Balls in favor of an unlimited, free supply of Pokeballs. Would this be good, or terrible?
In a way, it'd be good, 'cause Pokeballs would be unlimited and free, but in a way, It'd also be worse, due to the fact that Pokeballs have a worse catch rate than Ultra Balls and Great Balls, so it'd be more tedious to catch a legendary Pokemon, or a Pokemon with a low catch-rate.

6. There's a 1% encounter rate feature I'd like to make use of, what rare type would you like to be able to find with relative ease? Be reasonable, "Deoxys" is not a reasonable answer. "Totodile" might be.
I'd say starters/Eevee/Porygon, etc. Baby Pokemon might be something to consider, as would 2nd evolution pseudo-legendaries such as Pupitar and Dragonair.

7. Mewtwo- good guy or bad guy? Please share some of your opinions on the matter!
I'd say that Mewtwo would be a good guy in a bad guy's skin. Like, throughout the game, he'd be portrayed as a bad guy, until there was some sort of shocking plot twist that'd be unavoidable no matter what sort of run you're doing that'd reveal that Mewtwo was good all along. Or something.

8. Anything else you'd like to share?
So far, It would be a game that I would play. Most definitely. Keep up the good work! :D

Thank you for your thoughts everyone! It's really helpful to me!

Things for sure adding:
Fossils underground
Optional fetch quests with Mindreading
Mindreading locates legendaries! Even ones only accessible by other starters ;)
Special Rocket Bases for each starter! Night base, Locked base, Underground base.


@EVERYBODY- I was worried about restricting access to legendaries based on starters. But would splitting up say, the trios, for the 3 good starters work out? And if you did choose the fourth (even though he's not special) that you'd be locked out of many legendaries?

@Wyndi - No worries about the starters bonuses! Your father basically says, "Take this and punch stuff, it has no bonus. Or go find a special one." You're told right off which power each has (once you find them, of course).

@Foxamivalth - I'm really kind of cheating on the whole night thing. You know A-Map has weather, right? I've made doubles of all the maps I want night time access to, and set the weather as "Cloudy". Darkens the map considerably, and I don't need to make new tilesets!
I made them separate from all other connections and accessible only through beds that only activate if you have the right Pokemon.

@Bryan - Since ROM sharing is "technically" illegal, I'm hoping to get a word of mouth, behind the screens way to direct people to the download link for the .GBA file itself. Patching's such a hassle to explain over, and over, and over... I'm not really certain :( I do plan to release in beta once I get all gamebreaker kinks out. Maybe to second gym or so.

So are you able to find any of the four starters in this game in the wild? Because if you're working towards pokedex completion, it's rather difficult to trade over ROMs/emulators?

The three starters have an ability right?
make the fourth one really strong, like an psuedo legendary - but no ability. So it makes up in pure strength? Does that make sensE? YOu gotta make the 4th one be somewhat appealing, expecially if it locks you out of legendary pokemon.

hmm. people can figure out how to patch if they really wanted to try the game, im ean most people who have played Hacks should know how to do it by now, right? :)
as for getting the file to us... im not entirely sure, PMing us wont work will it...?

@Jooce- So far, no. The scripts I've set up require the starter or it's evolutions to be in your party for the unique events to work. Now that you made me think about it though, how about after beating the Elite 4 (or whatever I'll call them) you'll be given all the starters? Then you can go back for everything missed! Of course, you can gameshark in the other starters, but that's totally cheating. I've been considering sneaking in a "Remove Pokemon" script for such a situation too, beware ;)

@Kismet- Ever been through Light Platinum's thread on thePokeCommunity? @_@ The same "how cn i play dis game?" was asked (and answered!!) every other page >.> Not to mention that LP had to be patched over only one specific rom or you'd only get a white screen. Anyhoo... Would PMs work? Or maybe a (very) detailed description on how to patch (with links to the rom) hosted on another site?

Ooh thats a nice idea, having access to the other starters after the elite 4.
i think i played Light Platinum once o3o but ive got heap sof Hacks to play so forgive me if i dont remember it ;;
I was going to suggest you host this on pokecommunity but yeah, you'll be bombarded with the questions again. You should just ignore them XD
Hmm. You could somehow find a way to patch onto a rom and then host the .GBA file via a sharing site... PM us the website and make us look for the title. Therefor you are not giving us the link, you're just telling us where it is stored? So that doesnt exactly infringe anything right??

Wow this is a really cool idea
Looking forward to watching progress on this hack o -o

As for input...

1. With mind-reading, what would you like to learn about or find? Extra plot details? Humorous thoughts? The location of Giovanni's Treasure?
I'm not completely familiar with the limitations for hacking FRLG, but you could implement things like finding out randomly generated passwords (for optional areas) from rocket grunts. It never made much sense to me that they would sometimes just flat-out tell you these things in the game after you beat them, when it was a verbal password rather than a key or something.
As others have said, it seems like the mind-reading starter is really made for puzzle solving side quests. I guess the specific bonus of this would be, more loot?

2. With night-access, what night time events would interest you? Items? Extra story events? Roaming night-time Pokemon?
I definitely like the idea of different trainers and NPC's being available at night. More of a night life in cities, for example, or back alley dealings :U
Or finding out about team rocket plots or meetings well before they happen. Espionage side quests!

3. With bonus dungeons, what would you like to find in them? Extra baddies? Items? Rarer Pokemon?
Rare pokemon, definitely. Mind-reader seems like it finds its niche in items already, and night-access in extra fights, so I'm voting for rare pokemon. This all of course depends on what direction you do take with each one - my guesses may be off :U

4. Would you like me to create a trainer after you? If you'd like, please post the name, gender, trainer type (cooltrainer, bugcatcher, ect), and 2 or 3 Pokemon you'd like to have. Or just post the name and I'll add you in somewhere :)
I just joined this site like two days ago :I
But if you have room somewhere...
Could I be a Gentleman trainer named Kane, with Mismagius, Honchkrow, and Ludicolo?
...I like nice hats. If I were a gym leader everyone would have to wear fancy hats.

5. I'm thinking of removing Great and Ultra Balls in favor of an unlimited, free supply of Pokeballs. Would this be good, or terrible?
As someone else said above, it kind of removes one of the most practical uses for money in the game :[
Unless you find another use for it, of course. The only other thing I ever spent money on in the games were the vitamins, to be honest.

6. There's a 1% encounter rate feature I'd like to make use of, what rare type would you like to be able to find with relative ease? Be reasonable, "Deoxys" is not a reasonable answer. "Totodile" might be.
I'm with everyone else on this - finding other starters at random would be awesome :O

7. Mewtwo- good guy or bad guy? Please share some of your opinions on the matter!
I don't have any ideas for this everyone else's were pretty good imo :x

8. Anything else you'd like to share?
Best of luck to you on this o -o Hacking a game is a lot of work
I've never tried it with a pokemon game before in particular, but it's a lot of work regardless of the difficulty. Godspeed and such