idea Pokemon Ideal Black 2 & True White 2 - Seeking Partners!

[aninymouse]

Hey, all!

My name's Aninymouse and I've been dabbling in Pokemon ROM hacking for quite some time. Though I've edited all the way from Gen 2 to the present, I've never yet seen a project come to completion and release. However, this time I plan on finishing what I've started. I don't have any fancy graphics to show you yet, or even any YouTube videos, but I'm going to show you my vision for my version of Pokemon Black 2 & Pokemon White 2.

The goal of True White 2 & Ideal Black 2 is to simply offer a more robust experience overall, while retaining the basic gameplay of Black 2 & White 2 that we all enjoy. Think about prominent projects of the past, like "Perfect Platinum"; this project will have a similar scope. Below, I'll outline my initial desires for this hack. Things might get added on later if I learn more tricks or get some help!

CHANGES

>Pokemon

>>Availability - My goal is to have the only version exclusives to be Black or White Kyurem. All 649 Pokemon should be here.

>>Types & Stats - Some Pokemon will be of different types. Base stats will most likely stay the same unless I have a good reason to change them.

>>Abilities - Many Pokemon will have different abilities, some will more easily be found with better ones.

>>Moves - Each Pokemon family will have at least one new attack to use. Some moves will be improved or altered.

>>Hidden Hollow & Dream World - Expect these Pokemon to sometimes be very surprising.

>>Evolutions - All Pokemon can evolve without trading. You won't be left out in the cold if you have trouble finding other players!

>>Wild Held Items - Many rare items will be at your disposal.

>>Miscellaneous - Some gender ratios and other information will be altered.

>Towns & Maps - Many shops will carry a wider variety of items to use.

>Storyline - While the bulk of the story will remain unchanged for now, some dialogue will be changed.

>>Trainers - Trainers will generally have more Pokemon, and of higher levels and higher difficulty.

>>Gym Leaders - The Leaders will definitely be much more rewarding. Far too easy on Normal Mode in B2W2.

>>Pokemon World Tournament - Most teams here will recieve tweaks to keep things interesting. Regional divisions will remain reasonably easy to allow for BP grinding, while the World Leaders, Champion League, and Type Masters divisions will all be fairly challenging!

>Other Changes

>>Items - TMs and other items might change location to ease pokemon raising, or what have you.

>>TM & HM - Several relatively useless TMs may change; for instance: Ally Switch, Incinerate, etc.

>>Types - I think two to five changes to the "Type Chart" will vastly improve competitive balance and spice things up!

>>Challenge & Assist - I'm wanting to research ways that Challenge & Assist Mode Keys can be allowed from the start without infrared. If RAM editing & AR codes are the only way, well, so be it.

This is just my starting list. Feel free to suggest changes! I love hearing other people's ideas!

If you'd like to partner up and get involved in a growing project, just contact me on the forums or email me at aninymouse@hotmail.com. Obviously, I'd like to use the USA version of the game for this, but until October there are a lot of things that can be done on the Japanese version in the meantime!

Edited August 12, 2012 by aninymouse

[aninymouse]

About the Type Effectiveness Chart

While I may in fact leave it alone since there is usually not a huge demand for such changes, I can't deny that there are a few glaring flaws in the current Type Chart that has remained unchanged since Gold & Silver. I'll provide some ideas that I have been pondered for a while. While I may use all these ideas, I may use none of these or only a few. Nevertheless:|

Perceived Issues With Current Chart

*Poison is horribly weak offensively - While Poison gets decent neutral coverage, it is definitely only used as STAB or if it is the only option. Since it only hits Grass super-effectively and Steel-types are immune to it (who doesn't use Steel-types?), it just plain sucks. Even Normal is better offensively.

*Water is unbalanced offensively - Discounting Water Absorb, Storm Drain and Dry Skin, the only types that resist a type with offensive Base Powers from 95 to 150 are Grass, Dragon & Water. The problem with this is that most Water-types carry attacks that tear Grass-types & Dragon-types apart.

*Dragon is broken offensively - Only Steel resists it, and every Dragon has at least one attack to get past said Steel-types. There are no true counters to several Dragons - something that only Uber Legends can usually claim. The problem is twofold: Dragons naturally have larger-than-average base stat totals, and Dragons ALL have access to TWO massive attacks with 120 and 140 BP, each hitting on opposite ends of the damage spectrum! Truly, Outrage & Draco Meteor together have overpowered this type. Even Steel-types tremble before Haxorus.

*Ice is horrendous defensively - Ice is such a horrible type to have on a Pokemon that any Pokemon with the Ice type is always worse because of it. Only rarely can Ice-types be used competitively in any but the lowest tiers. Four weaknesses hurt, but more than that is the total dearth of resistances. There's nothing to make up for it! Some argue that this is because Ice is so powerful offensively, however, only defensive properties are intrinsic.

*Electric attacks prove a principle - For instance, though Electric-type attacks have powerful BP and neutral coverage, the immunity of Ground is usually enough to balance it out. That is, until Thundurus Therian Forme came along and proved that, with enough muscle, the lack of types resisting Electric can lead to massive imbalance. Now, I realize that the number of Electric-types approaching the power level of Thundurus is very few, but that doesn't mean that Electric isn't potentially unbalanced. Look at Dragon: it wasn't until Outrage AND Draco Meteor showed up that people started to think of Dragons as overpowered. And so, the question becomes, "Do we balance the chart for the chart's sake, or do we take into account all factors?" I think the answer would be the latter, so I'm not sure if it's worth changing or not.

*Type attributes just don't make any sense - Granted, this is trivial. Many aspects of the Steel-type seem to be utter nonsense, though they aren't necessarily broken or unbalanced. Why would Fighting-type attacks be super-effective? But then you have to realize that if you start trying to fashion the type chart after real life physics and biology... a lot of the type chart doesn't make any sense. If Ghost-types are immune to physical assaults like punching and kicking, then why would a bug poking it with its pincers be any different? Why can a Ghost be poisoned at all? The list goes on. You really have to draw a line in the sand and say to yourself, "This is a video game, nothing here is real, nothing here has to make any sense." Otherwise, the type chart just becomes a jumbled mess. Make a small handful of changes, and the game will play very similar to the Pokemon we all know and love; Make too many drastic changes, and you end up with a different game that only resembles Pokemon. The same delineation has to be made with altering Base Stats, too: change one or two Pokemon and the player can justify it; totally re-write the Base Stats of Pokemon and the player feels like a stranger in a land of doppelgangers.

Other Factors

Other types have strengths & weaknesses, but they are definitely more manageable. Grass-type attacks are perhaps the only other issue.

Edited August 12, 2012 by aninymouse

[MarinoKadame]

Can you add more type or can only use those you have right now ? Because I think the game is missing some types that need to be added, some are even in the trading card game. Something like Cyber, Light, Crystal, Shadow and Cosmic types. Cosmic is more like Clefairy, Deoxys, Unowns, Elgyem, Lunatone, Solrock, Jirachi and Sigilyph. Cyber is mostly for Porygon line and later robot like pokemon having an AI. Crystal for now only Crystal Onix come to my mind could be named Glass or making Glass type a separate one. Light is from trading card game it's the opposite of dark type. Shadow is mostly like Pokemon .

[aninymouse]

I'm not totally opposed to adding in new "versions" of old Pokemon. After all, it was discovered that you can add alternate forms to any Pokemon in BW. I do think, however, that adding in new types for just a few scant Pokemon is kind of lame.

"Cyber" Pokemon... never mind that Porygon's story makes little sense, why create a new type just for those 3 Pokemon? They're known for changing their type, anyway, with Conversion. The very nature of something being "Cyber" is for it to be immaterial - a simulation existing only in computer technology. Just like things on your computer screen can never become corporeal, "Cyber" Pokemon wouldn't be real Pokemon, either. Thinking of Porygon as a plastic robot makes a lot more sense.

"Crystal" types just seem like a way to divide up the Rock type. There are no Crystal Onix in the games, mind you. Pokemon like Gigalith, Sableye, Starmie, Dialga, etc. all attribute their gemstones to the Rock type through the move Power Gem. And even though there are more "Crystal-like" Pokemon than any other group you mentioned, what good is a type with only 1 attack? What other attack could be Crystal-type? It'd be very shallow. If anything, adding gemstones to the attributes of Rock-types helps differentiate them from Ground-types.

What kinds of physical attributes would a "Cosmic" Pokemon have? Something being "Cosmic" or not only has to do with where it is found, not so much what it's made of. Pokemon aren't "Desert-type" or "Forest-type," so why should there be "Cosmic-type" Pokemon? There's no real-world creatures to base such a type off of, anyway, so where do you go from there?

"Light" types, to me, never made much sense since the way of goodness is not to seek battle but to seek peace. Pokemon of the "Light" would probably be opposed to wanton battling. While "Shadow" Pokemon seem to be captive of an evil outside force, creating a "Light" type requires acknowledgement of a higher power of good, i.e. God. What's the motivation, then? Evangelize wild Pokemon? What's the goal beyond that? It's clear that Pokemon, as a fantasy story of myths and diversions, is not quite ready to tackle the fundamental questions of existence lest it cease being a fun way to spend free time and become a pseudo-religion.

Now, "Shadow" Pokemon are an easy-to-understand lot: Pokemon that have been corrupted by something bad. While some Pokemon might be inherently bad-natured, like Dark-types, "Shadow" Pokemon convey a further corruption by an outside force, usually outside the control of the Pokemon themselves. While we, as players, live in a world choked with evil and corruption, it is easy for us to identify with characters being corrupted and controlled. It's the nature of evil, and it doesn't really need a face - evil is alive and well in all of humanity. It is Good that is sublime, specific, exclusive and even holy. Anyone can be evil. Thus, "Shadow" Pokemon make a lot more sense. After all, it has thus far been humans that have created the "Shadow" Pokemon, not the Pokemon themselves. But what set of guidelines are there for the kind, sort, extent or authority behind mankind's goodly values? There must always be a higher power, or else "Light" is just a different-colored "Shadow." If you or I define what is "Light" apart from God, what happens when you or I disagree on what "Light" is? See the dilemma?

TL;DR No, sorry. I don't think your suggestions for new types will work in my version.

However, I have long pondered if there was any room for other, new types to be added. If anything, I think Ground & Rock could stand to be merged into the "Earth-type." Really, there doesn't seem to be any room for new types, since there isn't really any kind of life on Earth that isn't represented in some form already in Pokemon.

[MarinoKadame]

Solarbeam could be light type like many other moves, light type could be just a type for support a bit like ghost moves do status effects. For crystal it's not really rock since it's resistent to water and weak to fire, I just think crystal onix was just a prototype of Steelix, they just scrapped the idea of crystal. You could see crystal as glass. For cyber not only porygon could be used for this, you have Genesect and Beldum that can fall into this even maybe magnemite and voltorb.

[Luxio]

I like your idea of BW2 hack various things only recommendations, opinions and questions:

- Really good idea is to capture all the pokemon, I wonder if you will add the legendary overworlds for some particular place, change the types could cause problems with connection to other pokemon games bw, the other changes (skills, attacks ) does not change much except for the effect of the attacks, other changes in the rom not cause problems.

- I can only add some new way to a Pokemon.

- Viewing the many changes that you add, what programs you use to edit these games?

[aninymouse]

You'll definitely be able to catch and evolve everything yourself. I'll add as many proper locations and events for legendaries as I can manage. Might have to talk to some people about that one; I've never done it in Gen 5, yet.

I think what I'll do is I'll make a "clean" version for people who hate changes to Pokemon themselves, or who want to battle with regular Gen 5 games.

What do you mean "add a new way?"

I'm one who uses whatever means necessary to create a finished product. For most things, though, I just use hex editors since that way I know the exact changes being made (in case of errors in programs). I do enjoy using tools when they're available and trustworthy, however, if only because looking at endless seas of hexadecimal gives me a headache after a while.

[Luxio]

Sorry, but is that because I know little English use the translator.

way = forms

[aninymouse]

Are you asking if you can help with making new Pokemon forms? If so, I'd be happy to partner up with you :]

I'd love to put some alternate forms in the Hidden Hollows, but since those are Pokemon events, it can get a bit tricky.

[Luxio]

Not me I'm not very good hacking. Although I am spriter. Although if you would i assist with modifying wild encounters or creating sprites.

I had also thought lately bw2 hack sequel style, had thought of a new story (and I have), new players, new rival, modify palettes of pokemon shinys (adding classics like dialga primary).

Tell me if you like my ideas. And if you want my help.

[aninymouse]

Sounds like some good ideas to me. Why don't we discuss ideas sometime? :]

[Luxio]

I've been thinking about more within the ideas.

History: After the events of BW and BW2. A new trainer begins his adventure in Aspertia city along with his best friend (his rival), receives his first Pokémon Bianca hands, while this follow the story. It's been three months since Ghetsis did his to catch Kyurem, now in jail but someone has taken his place and also controls secretly plasma the white team. To achieve the dual goals. N still in the game, helping us to pass obstacles and telling the team plans evil. We stop the mysterious boss to not get the power of the Great Dragon.

(The story is made based on the single edit overworlds, mugshot, sprites, pokemon teams and text editor to fit)

Name: I liked your idea of ​​the name, but if applied my story, only if you like, would be simple. Black and White 3.

Starters: The Unova are good, but for a change, take a poll vote giving the top three starters from all regions. I really like this idea, but it is an option.

Character: New heroes (I found a very good boy, but I need a girl), new rival (and I found it and I'll be the authors).

Leaders: The same as always, only the modification surprise champion (only necessary to change sprites, text and Pokemon team, because only runs once) (Is Cheren)

Capture all 649 Pokemon: Like I said, I can not order me to put all pokémon. The classics like Shinx, Pidgey ... I placed them. The initial missing from Natural Sanctuary. And the legendary small as Mew, Celebi and Jirachi with 1% will be catchable somewhere in Unova.

Legendary: This I can not do myself, I can only come up with where to place them. Although I have ideas that one is Shiny.

Forms and color changes of the pokemon shinys: I thought I modify palettes. Pokémon with different palettes shinys would Dialga, Palkia, Giratina (all three active Dialga vane style), Pikachu (Classic Blue), Victini (Blue, I have the right to put my favorite), Reshiram, Zekrom (Palettes loaded, ie black and white orange and blue), Kyurem (shiny blades, become the normal, the plan is to capture in the game and the Shiny Kyurem merge add an active form of color) and Genesect (Change palettes for each form, fire = red, blue = water ...). On forms propose adding only 2. Spiky-eared Pichu and The leyend of one dragon, based on the story that was one Reshiram and Zekrom and Kyurem was the instinct of these two, then I'll give the story soon. On these ideas I just missing genesect, kyurem, Pikachu, Giratina and the dragon sprites (which I'll give you the details).

There will be the same differences between editions as bw2.

And to this we add your ideas in the first post, except as types.

Translation: In order to understand better the story would have to replace some text, a few, I can I take care of a Spanish version.

Tell me what you think, everything is made to be easy to hack but to complete. Tell me your opinion about my ideas, if you want help with the hack and if you want to contact me send me an email to (and then I will connect to hotmail).

Ciao :smile:

Edited October 21, 2012 by Luxio

[aninymouse]

Well, no offense, but I'm not interested in doing "Black & White 3." It does sound like a cool idea, and I'm sure you'd do great leading a project like that. I just want to focus on improving the game in ways I know I can manage; I don't want to bite off more than I can chew, so to speak.

I'm not a big fan of mixing and matching starters from different generations, unless there's a good reason to do so. If it were up to me to pick different starters, I would want 3 Pokemon that make sense together. There's also the problem of the images always showing Snivy, Tepig & Oshawott, since nobody can figure out how to change those images. Thus, it will look cheesy.

Having a Spanish version would be exciting! I think it's a little early for that, however, since I'm just getting started.

[MarinoKadame]

You have a way to get older starters like they done in Yellow version, this way no need to farm in grass for 1% of chance of catching one.

[aninymouse]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of hanging around in the grass for a 1-2% chance for something to pop up. Maybe for something like Victini, but not for something as common as a starter.

Victini in Victory Road seems like a good fit to me, by the way. Haha. The B2W2 Victory Road is just so bland and boring by default. Definitely needs tons of new monsters!

[Skarmorylande]

Uhm, If you can like get on like a PO Server so we can discuss this that would be great, Imma try to host one. Thanx

[aninymouse]

Can you just shoot me a PM if you want to talk privately? I have no reason to install PO, and forums are kinda designed for communicating... I'm online infrequently, so this method makes the most sense for me

[MarinoKadame]

For the starter you could do something like the monkey trio give away, except you do like Yellow version where you could have all the starters that npcs gave you, they could ask for an item or a certain event like save someone lost in the forest or anything you can think of.

[aninymouse]

I'd like that. Yellow Version was how I first got into Pokemon, and I really liked that aspect of it. Heck, I really liked pretty much everything about Yellow.

I think, in a perfect world, I'd like to make White 2 the super-tricked-out version, and keep Black 2 the "compatible with regular Pokemon games" version.

So, in a Gen 5 game with no real restrictions, what kind of changes would you like to see? When I edit Pokemon, I always like to improve them in some way. Whether it's giving them attacks, types or abilities that make more sense or make them more viable, or upping the stats of certain Pokemon like Wailord, Tropius, Garbodore or Scolipede (since it seems stupid for the enormous Pokemon to have terrible stats), or just totally revamping the whole package (like turning Diglett or Dugtrio into mushroom Pokemon... maybe!), I really like to have fun with edits. Double Aggron's weight, give Steelix 130 base Attack, make Chingling and Chimecho Steel-types, give Donphan Speed Boost, make Gardevoir a female-only species, put Heatran in the Mineral egg group, let Heracross learn Fly & Sky Drop, and for crying out loud... give Flare Blitz to Flareon, haha.

What kind of changes are you wanting? I always like to ponder new ideas.

[MarinoKadame]

Make some not that great pokemons better. Like Luvdisc, Dunsparce, Unowns and some leftover pokemons almost no one use. WOuld be great to change some of them to new type since normal is weak to fighting attack and most of time normal pokemon are not really used compared to others, since who is weak to normal attacks ? No one, too bad you can't add new types yet I think, would be great to have jigglypuff turning into a sound type, same with whismur. It's just some pokemons are never used because they are weak and most of time because they are normal type.

[aninymouse]

Yeah, I really think Normal-types could use a boost in general. It really hurts that their STAB attacks are usually not very high BP, since they cannot get super-effective hits, as you mentioned. As well, their attacking stats are usually not too great, either.

Of course, everyone thinks of Snorlax, Slaking, Togekiss or Blissey when they think of powerful Normal-types, but I think long-forgotten Pokemon like Exploud, Tauros or Wigglytuff could be improved, etc.

Edited September 16, 2012 by aninymouse

[MarinoKadame]

Would be great to add a new type to some of those normal pokemons, maybe add Psychic for Jiggly, Cleffairy family, like be a Normal/Psychic, only problem will be they will be weak to 2 type instead of only one, bug and dark weakness, resist to psy immune to ghost rest would be neutral. Too bad that you can't add new types yet, since jiggly could be Normal/Sound instead. Maybe we will find a way to add types with a script like we were able to add all pokemons to Firered. If you want you could try to add fakemon, some pokemons would need an evo to be stronger.

[aninymouse]

No fakemon for me. I've got enough on my plate already

However, I've planned to add new "forms" to select Pokemon to make certain trainers tougher! You know, so a Pokemon can be really powerful without making all Pokemon of that species like that. Like a "boss character."

To give you an idea, I was going to give Red a beastly Pikachu. If I can get it to work, I have plans to do this kinda thing for several other trainers, too.

[MarinoKadame]

Maybe a Electric/Water Pikachu that know Surf for Red ? Much like the Yellow forest pikachus. Somehow in this forest they made the pikachu gender different, since Pika is a male that know surf and Chuchu a female that know fly, while in yellow forest the male know fly and female surf. Oh and can you change some pokemon gender sprites ? Most of them have no real difference since it's so tiny to see it.

[aninymouse]

Thoughts as I play through White 2 for the first time:

Distribution of wild Pokemon

* I love how many new areas there are to explore in the sequel!

* Some of the new areas are really expansive... like Castelia Sewers, Reversal Mountain, Relic Passage...

* Unfortunately, some of these great, big, new areas have only a few types of Pokemon.

* This means that as you're exploring in these areas for 20+ minutes, you get sick and tired of the place.

* These new areas should be places of excitement and adventure. You shouldn't have to feel like, "Get me outta here!"

* With shaking grass and dark grass, there's no excuse for some outdoors areas being so boring, either. Victory Road is an insult.

* When I'm going to add new Pokemon to an area, I will never completely remove the ones that are already there. This way, the Pokedex & Habitat is always somewhat accurate.

* Some Pokemon that people generally disdain, like Skitty & Delcatty, will become rare. More popular Pokemon, like Boldore, will be slightly more scarce, but will not be very rare.

* It seems like a shame that seasonal changes were implemented, and yet they seem to hurt more than they help. Messing with the DS clock is such a nuisance.

* I think each season ought to be more unique! At least, if you're stuck with them, there ought to be a point to them other than Cubchoo and items you can't get. Like... there's no advantage to Summer or Spring!

Pokemon trainers

* Skyla was such a pushover! Gotta make her tougher.

* Pokemon breeders ought to have Pokemon that give the same EVs, to help with EV training during the main story.

* I think Gym leaders ought to have more Pokemon in Normal Mode, like Challenge Mode: 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5

* I think Challenge Mode will allow Pokemon of other types to be used in Gyms, keeping you on your toes.

Level-up moves

* Some Pokemon have too few attacks early on, like the starters, Mareep, Pidove, Riolu... great Pokemon, almost no attacks.

* Before, when there were only 150 Pokemon in Unova, this wasn't such a big deal. Now they doubled the number, and it shows. Samurott, Serperior & Emboar all suck, honestly. Gotta fix that.