aninymouse

Since I'm away from home for a while, I can't do any more work... just... plan, and brainstorm. However, I figured it might be fun to throw out some more of my "Rethink the Pokemon" ideas. I never got very far in BW. I think I beat N and caught Reshiram and then kinda quit. The wild Pokemon were just so boring... and there wasn't anything afterwards to do besides fight Alder and the Battle Subway. I've never been a big Battle Tower/Subway fan; you get about 20 wins and then ridiculous hax buries you under OHKOs and criticals, haha. So, in BW2, I'm taking my time and really soaking up Unova to its fullest. I really appreciate that they've given you so much more room to roam before the Elite Four. For instance, last night I figured out for the first time that you could get to Abundant Shrine as soon as you get to Route 14. I thought for sure it was blocked by the band of singing fellows in the gate house. No, it was just put far out of sight. But once I got to Abundant Shrine, I started thinking about Ninetales and Bronzong again. There' something special about Ninetales. It's not just another Fire-type. The majestic aura, the white color, the powers of mystery. I think that while Ninetales has surged once again in popularity lately, it has only been due to Drought. I see in Ninetales the potential for something really special... something that only makes sense in Unova. At first, I wanted to start with swapping the shiny palette with the normal palette. Like the picture above, the shining silver fox is simply captivating. The reason I wanted Ninetales to be a more pure white, however, was because I wanted to convey that it now has a unique yin-yang instability inside itself. I see Ninetales as a Pokemon of seasons. A Pokemon that thrives in its environment. Black 2 is a world where civilization is the focus. It's a cooler world, where the desert is tamed and the volcanoes are pooled with water, much like Sootopolis. White 2, however, seems to be a world where nature has the upper hand at times. It's a hotter world, where the desert ruins evoke memories, and volcanoes rage in fiery fury. I think that Black 2 Ninetales will focus on hiding itself, while White 2 Ninetales will focus on making itself seen. I propose this: version exclusives. I'll elaborate a bit later.

I'm not trying to scare you... You asked, "How did you find me?" And I answered, in confusion, that "you posted in a public forum." In other words, how could I not find this thread? It's right above mine, haha. That's all. We don't have to work together if you don't want to. It was just a suggestion. But I think it could be cool.

...what? You posted on a public forum? I'm just saying that your project seems like a different version of what I'm doing. I'm not saying that to get you to stop what you're doing -- no doubt we have different visions on things. I'm just making an observation that you and I seem to have similar goals. Maybe we could work together?

Sounds like you & I are doing a lot of the same things.

http://spriters-resource.com/ds/pkmnbnw2/sheet/48050 Everything from Bulbasaur to Arceus, and then Watchog, Herdier, Liepard, Pansage, Pansear, Panpour, Pidove, Zebstrika, Boldore, Woobat, Drillbur, Audino, Gurrdurr, Tympole, Throh, Sawk, Leavanny, Scolipede, Cottonee, Petilil, Basculin R, Basulin B, Krookodile, Maractus, Crustle, Scraggy, Sigilyph, Tortouga, Garbodore, Minccino, Gothorita, Duosion, Ducklett, Vanillish, Emolga, Karrablast, Alomomola, Galvantula, Klingklang, Elgyem, Litwick, Axew, Cubchoo, Shelmet, Stunfisk, Mienfoo, Druddigon, Golett, Pawniard, Bouffalant, Braviary, Mandibuzz, Heatmor & Durant. http://spriters-resource.com/ds/pkmnbnw2/sheet/48049 Volcarona, Munna, Musharna, Patrat, Krokorok, Darmanitan Z, Zorua, Zoroark, Deerling, Lillipup, Haxorus, Jellicent M, Jellicent F, Roggenrola, shiny Haxorus, Cinccino, and the legendary Pokemon. Pokemon families with no overworld sprites at all: Deino, Cryogonal, Tynamo, Ferroseed, Foongus (Pokeball overworld), Archen, Yamask, non-Zen Mode Darumaka & Darmanitan.

No, it wouldn't. We're talking TWO BYTES per Pokemon, and they're all in Pokedex order. Easy as pie. The problem is that the flag or trigger or checksum that looks for Incense items isn't in this narc, so really this only helps if you want to edit Pokemon that don't use Incense... For instance, if you wanted to make Tropius the male counterpart to Meganium, you could make Tropius hatch into Chikorita. Or, if you wanted to make Luvdisc evolve into Alomomola, you could make Alomomola hatch into Luvdisc. Instead of making Phione evolve into Manaphy, you could just make Manaphy hatch into other Manaphy. Or, say if you wanted to cut out a Pokemon entirely that you don't like (leaving it unused, unavailable, and inaccessible to all but local trades or negotiation GTS trades), you could edit evolution data, wild data, trainer data, Pokedex data, and egg data to totally segregate something like, say... Raichu from Pikachu; or you could get rid of a middle evolution you didn't like, and make Slakoth evolve straight into Slaking; or perhaps there's a Baby Pokemon you despise, and you want to act like Igglybuff never happened... Those are the kinds of uses I see for this. Not saying I'm going to do any of these for my own project, but just throwing out ideas.

Some of the functions of PPRE never got finished, like TMs. The Trainer editor ought to work, however... do you have the latest version of PPRE?

Haha, the real question is, does that tool save any time over conventional hex editing of that data? Looks fantastic, though.

A Pokemon with a perfectly diverse move pool and no stats (Wigglytuff) is just as useless as a Pokemon with great stats and no move pool (Escavalier). Both must be in balance. There is a time and a place for editing both. Arbok doesn't need new attacks; it already has a diverse and effective move pool. It needs stats. That is my stance. I don't like replacing Intimidate for Sheer Force since intimidation is Arbok's schtick. I do appreciate you opinion, however, thank you

A category that has been totally absent from Pokemon up 'til now has been Rock-type Special Attackers. Rock is a fantastic offensive type, but unlike every other type, both types of offense are not represented. Each of the other types has, in some capacity, a few Pokemon who attack mainly with Physical, Special, or both kinds of attacks of their type. Rock has 2 attacks that are Special, but both are weak. AncientPower is a joke at 60 BP (without Technician), and the 70 BP of Power Gem is hardly better. To make matters worse, Omastar has the stats, but can't (and shouldn't) learn Power Gem or Technician. Only ONE Rock-type with decent SA learns Power Gem: Probopass, who is hardly an offensive threat. Well, no more. Oh, sure I'm going to up the power of Power Gem. POWER UP! But that's not enough. There has to be at least one Rock-type out there that can strike some Special fear into the hearts of Pokemon everywhere, and... Probopass isn't going to be an offensive powerhouse. Say hello to the new and improved Gigalith. Yes, I said Gigalith. Gigalith is a pretty cool-looking Pokemon. He looks lough as nails, and he does hit pretty hard Physically, but his move pool is tiny and there isn't anything special about him. Well, Gigalith also has giant crystals growing out of its body. As well, his Pokedex entries ALL mention Special Attacking, often in Bright Sunlight and with SolarBeam (which he learns already). Let's up the ante, shall we? Right now, Gigalith has these stats: Rock Sturdy / (Sand Force) HP: 85 Atk: 135 Def: 130 SA: 60 SD: 70 Spd: 25 BST: 505 (Same as Golem, who he replaced) My version of Gigalith is like this: Rock Solar Power / Flare Boost / (Sand Force) HP: 85 Atk: 95 Def: 130 SA: 135 SD: 90 Spd: 25 BST: 560 This is a RARE example where completely re-imagining a Pokemon can positively effect the metagame, bolster its usage AND make total sense. In fact, this makes much more sense than my ideas on Spinda or Kecleon since it is based on the Pokemon's own in-game information. Solar Power is a no-brainer and combos well with SolarBeam, not to mention it is even mentioned in the Pokedex entry itself. Flare Boost makes sense to me, since Gigalith gets his power from sunlight, and setting himself aflame is going to boost his light-based powers greatly; this also more than makes up for the neutering of his Physical attack by burn. Sand Force stays as a decent option for powering up in Sandstorm, boosting his Special Defense as well. Gigalith becomes monstrously powerful, but still has 5 weaknesses and is pitifully slow. It is now a Pokemon that captures the imagination and boldly makes a name for itself. To accommodate this large shift in theme, Boldore's stats will also be changed, and the level at which Boldore evolves will be somewhat high, say around Lv.45. A few new level-up moves help carry the new theme of Special attacking, such as Stored Power, Overheat, Flash Cannon, SolarBeam, and Aurora Beam (which I've made a Normal-type attack, since it really has nothing to do with Ice at all). He still gets Earth Power by move tutor.

Even if you give Dragon Dance to Arbok (which is a good idea, I think), it still doesn't help it all that much. For instance... a Poison-type using its STAB puts itself at a disadvantage, unlike any other type out there. Whereas Grass is a pretty horrible offensive type, it at least hits the ubiquitous Water and Ground types super effectively, or at least for neutral. There's Pokemon with Sap Sipper who can get in your way, but the ability is rare and is pretty much reserved for low to mid tier Pokemon. Whereas, when a Poison-type like Arbok uses, say, Poison Jab, it not only has to worry about all those Pokemon who resist it, but all those (again) ubiquitous Steel-types are immune to it as well. That's a lot worse than Sap Sipper. And then, take into consideration that Poison Jab only has a measly 80 BP. Gunk Shot, with 120 BP, only has 70 Acc.; in all practicality, unreliable and unacceptable as a main form of offense. And yet, if Arbok wants to threaten anything seriously, it has to gamble with Gunk Shot, since all of its stats are so low. Its defenses are so low, even with Intimidate, that it will die very quickly, and it needs at least 2-3 turns to faint the average opponent... So since I'm using Arbok as an example... If and when I choose to alter the base stats of a Pokemon, I usually try to do as little as possible. I'm not trying to make Arbok into an unstoppable killing machine, I'm just trying to make it a Pokemon that you would actually use at all. I know I haven't used an Arbok seriously since Pokemon Silver, and I ended up ditching him because he was so useless. So, what would it take to make Arbok worth using? A small HP & Attack boost and a decent boost to Speed. Arbok already has access to Coil, which helps it immensely with Gunk Shot (which I will raise the accuracy of itself), and in general. The problem is, after using Coil once, Arbok is easily outsped, remains unable to kill anything, and is subsequently taken out. Right now, Arbok has these stats: 60 HP 85 Atk 69 Def 65 SA 79 SD 80 Spd (438 BST) If I changed them to... 72 HP (+12) 97 Atk (+12) 69 Def 65 SA 79 SD 118 Spd (+38) (500 BST) ...suddenly Arbok looks really appealing! Suddenly, a Pokemon this fast (and yet still frail and not overly powerful) becomes an actual consideration -- something to regard, instead of something taken as fodder. 500 BST is not a high BST anymore. It's a pretty middle-of-the-road benchmark. Nothing outlandish. I don't feel like I'm doing anything crazy, here. I mean, if you're going to edit the Pokemon in any way -- moves, abilities, types -- what makes base stats off limits? As long as it's tasteful and well done, who's to complain? Arbok is a Cobra. Cobra are fast! If anything, it's fun to play in a Pokemon universe where horrible Pokemon of the past have a shot at being decent. I know I get bored of each new Generation coming out and there being less and less shaking up of the status quo. In Gen 2, we got tons of changes: genders, breeding, egg moves, time of day, move tutors, 2 new types, evolutions of many forgotten Pokemon, Weather In Gen 3, we got: Abilities (which was, admittedly, a huge addition), expansion of move tutors, Double Battles In Gen 4, we got: Physical-Special-Status categories (benefiting all Pokemon), evolutions of tons of forgotten Pokemon, expansion of TMs But, in Gen 5, we just got: 3 Abilities per Pokemon instead of 2, and Triple & Rotation Battles (which function much like Double & Single Battles, respectively) Nothing truly new in Gen 5, just expansions on themes that were already present. In other words, most of the bad Pokemon from Gen 4 are still bad Pokemon in Gen 5. It's high time for some new blood, I think.

...lol Okay. I opened the file in Tinke as well, but I assumed the 00000000 I saw was part of the file itself. Then the file I was looking at was correct. Then there must be another file that governs the need for incense in breeding, otherwise all Snorlax would just hatch as Munchlax... which we know isn't true. There has to be some kind of variable.

There are 684 files in a/0/2/0. The last 35 are the Pokestar Studios creatures. This means that there are 649 actual Pokemon on the list - one for each Pokedex number. Formes do not have their own entries. Each file has a dead-simple format: 00 00 00 00 XX XX, where XX XX is the National Dex number of the Pokemon that will hatch from the Pokemon that corresponds to the file. It might be important to note that 0.narc will need to be unpacked into the 684 individual files in order to edit the hex correctly. Then, as per usual, you must re-pack the files into the narc file before re-inserting back into the rom. And of course, be careful with the Pokestar Studios creatures... they have no level-up moves, no back sprites, and no icons. Ah, haha. It just occurred to me that the narc I may be using may be from BB VW, since the pointers are already directed to the appropriate baby Pokemon (Snorlax begats Munchlax, and not Snorlax, etc.). I'll check another narc tomorrow to be sure I extracted a clean one. Then again, I'm not sure, since I've never once seen this data before. Maybe the need for incense is controlled in an overlay...

Now it makes sense. So basically, if I just add zeros equal to the number needed for 24 attacks to any Pokemon learn list I want to expand, the tool will operate correctly. However, if I just want to replace one move for another, I shouldn't have to do that, right? Or perhaps the program will crash when loading any learn list with less than 24 attacks?

What a shame. I usually pay my beta testers about $8.50/hr. har

Thank you very much. I'll look into it tomorrow

I tried using the moveset editor out of curiosity, but there doesn't seem to be any way to load a rom or narc. The option is grayed out, and says the option is for the full version only... I've tried clicking all over the place and reading the help file, but nothing makes any sense. Can't get it to work.

Onix & Steelix are part Ground-type because they live underground. Jus' sayin'.

This is a topic that is almost never discussed. Let's say that in Gen 5, you wanted to be able to put a male and female Mantine in the daycare and receive a Mantyke egg -- without the Wave Incense. I've heard that to edit this, you may have to change data in two different places. However, this has never been explained to me. Do any of you have any clues as to how to edit which Pokemon eggs are found at the Daycare?

Yeah, I get that, but Torchic definitely seems like it would fit as a wild Pokemon. Not all of them do, really. I could see passing out ones like Bulbasaur or Chikorita. They don't really seem to fit in the wild very well. I dunno. It's all subjective.

Sure! Post or PM your ideas, and we can work together. For instance, an idea I liked was to put Weepinbell & Carnivine somewhere in the Route 8, Moor of Iccirus area. Reason being, carnivorous plants always grow in bogs and freshwater swamps. I always thought Route 8 & Moor of Iccirus were missing their true potential as a robust ecosystem. Also, I always thought wild Torchic would do really well at Flocessy Ranch. There aren't many Fire-types early on, for one, so why force people to use Tepig? Granted, if you're playing White 2, you can get Magby later. And Growlithe, in either game. But hey, who complains about too many options?

You can't create new areas. Route 10 & Challengers Cave don't exist is B2W2, and so they fall into the "create new areas" category... which means you can't do it. Well... theoretically it's possible, but only someone with a lot of knowledge & skill would know how to add all the code in that would be required... and there isn't a Gen 5 map editor yet, either. Trying to "look" at a map that's broken down into a huge "paragraph" of numbers in nigh impossible in itself.

Since we can't change the type chart yet in Gen 5, some balancing is required to really make some types more viable. Nearly everyone agrees on this, so the question is often just, "to what extent are you willing to go?" Poison-types have always been some of my favorites. I'm not sure why, but that is the case. Poison-types also have been among the worst types of all in every generation, from Gen I to Gen V. Part of the problem lies in the sheer numbers. While Poison-types have some good resistances, and their attacks have decent neutral coverage, and the added damage of the Poison ailment is always a help, Poison-type Pokemon just don't measure up. For instance... *No Poison-type Pokemon has a BST over 535. *To compare, only Ghost's most powerful, non-Uber Pokemon has a lower BST than Crobat (Dusknoir: 525), but even then, There's Giratina. Poison is the weakest type, stat-wise. *Of the Poison-types with a BST over 499 (the arbitrary mark that seems to separate the weak from the strong), there are only Crobat (535), Tentacruel (515), Roserade (505), Muk, Gengar & Drapion (500). *Out of all the Physical Poison-type attacks, only Gunk Shot has a BP at or above 100, and it only has 70% Acc. Most Poison-types can't even learn it. *Of all the Special Poison-type attacks, Sludge Wave is the strongest at 95 BP. Not too shabby with 100% Acc. But let's face it, not all Poison-types use their Special Attack. Not many can learn it, but most can learn Sludge Bomb at 90 BP. My solution, of course, is to both bump up some of the BST for Poison-types, but also to bump up the damage that Poison-type attacks do as well.

A mistake: Dream World Duskull & Dusclops evolve into a Dusknoir with no ability.

A cool idea for Spinda that I had was to make it into a psychoactive drug Pokemon. Hear me out, here. I'm no proponent for drug use, but I was inspired by how Honey Badgers can eat poisonous snakes, get high off the poison, and walk away like nothing happened. My idea was to edit Poison Gas so that it effects all Pokemon on the field (like Hail or Sunny Day, only not continuously over 5 turns), essentially allowing Spinda to easily poison itself without resorting to a Toxic Orb (although that can be used as well). Making Spinda a Psychic-type doesn't seem too out of the ordinary, considering the spiral eyes and odd mannerisms and proclivity to confusing others or itself. Well, Spinda also will have access to Venoshock, a high Special Attack, and access to the ability Poison Heal. But that's not enough! Spinda also has Facade... but what about STAB? There's the beauty of it. I gave it Psycho Boost and edited the effect to be like a Psychic-type Facade. As a bonus, Spinda can learn Refresh in case it gets burned or paralyzed before it can poison itself. In this way, Spinda carves out a unique niche. His second ability is Toxic Boost, of course, to allow for mixed attacking; however, he will be dying rather quickly due to taking full damage from Poison. I plan on editing Kecleon's sprite so that it appears mostly transparent in battle. It will also be the game's only Normal/Ghost type, having access to Shadow Force in addition to its usual attacks. Its ability will be either Clear Body or Wonder Skin, since Color Change is probably one of the worst abilities ever made. Even Illuminate it better. I think Prankster would be a great Hidden Ability. Scolipede... one of my favorites from Gen 5. Scolipede is by far the biggest and chubbiest of the insects, but his stats and abilities that Game Freak gave him seem to be far too underwhelming. What I did was I reduced the number of abilities for this family from three to two (one normal ability, one hidden). Venipede will have Battle Armor. Whirlipede gains Speed Boost (say hello to Roxie for me). Scolipede gains Thick Fat and a considerable boost in stats across the board, in HP, Attack, Defense, and Special Defense. I also increased the level at which it evolves slightly to compensate for Scolipede being a total beast. It's always a treat when a Bug-type can stand toe-to-toe with a Fire-type... and the Ice resistance is a nice touch.