Post by v)Luminesce(v on Nov 2, 2016 6:28:44 GMT
Pokémon games often take a given roster of Pokémon, and then simply distribute them around available locations. This is not how people usually encounter animals. These can often be more sparse. They are not all concentrated into progressive areas so that you can capture them.
Hence, a better approach here would be to draw on the general frequency that one encounters creatures. If you walk through an area, estimating a rough frequency for encounters should be straightforward. One can hence emulate this aspect roughly on a map, through a combination of 'tall grass' placement and frequency, and then test this. One would hence have a map resembling this location on some level.
An area, especially an urban one, has a mixture of free spaces and blocked areas. These form a certain pattern. This should be considered, for such a game, in point of how they affect the interaction with creatures. Do creatures tend to be encountered near these 'walls' or obstacles? For instance, if they perch in trees or on walls, or scramble around on these. Do they stay in separate zones demarcated by the walls? And so on. This can hence give us a rough view of how to map the area.
While in most forests insect life is often notably concentrated in the plant-life and so on, Viridian Forest was instead a bunch of massive insects patrolling the paths. This is unlike most forests people are familiar with, so in a sense they hence have to impose their own sense of forests onto it to make it seem like a feasible zone. Many would call such creatures snakes, etc., instead.
Moves determine build, but the design of early creatures is often more directly relevant, as it can signify the general direction of the design. Caterpie, though seemingly a squirming creature, is forced to use a normal tackle and String Shot, while moves like Wrap might suit it better - if OP in the early games. It is accompanied with the similar Weedle, whose design is an arrow, which accompanies a division between Bind and Wrap. Many of the glitches in those games involve when players are trapped in an uncontrolled sequence - the Old Man catching tutorial, the long-range trainer glitch, the Safari Zone sequence, etc. Not a surprise, as the games are structured around a notable example of these sequences - battle, and being challenged to them. These glitches are also the easiest to find within gameplay (reloading games during the saving process is similar, but not something within the game, and it does concede that you can turn off the game while doing it), and hence the most commonly referenced and noticed. When one of these sequences appears, it is worth considering in detail. Powerful moves like Paralysis also function in part by manufacturing these, by slowing down the opponent and possibly rendering them without control, and hence the Dig-Paralysis glitch is also similarly manipulation of a forced sequence. It does however rely on some luck, as Paralysis does not always prevent motion.
We could represent a map at this point as a sequence of 'walls' and open spaces. One may even make a rough sketch like this:
+_______+
|---------/////|
|-------///////|
|-//-----//////|
+_______+
Along with a general wall on the right, there might also be a small tree or so on the left. It could be for instance a valley near a mountain. However, how would it relate to the creatures? They could have a relation to the blocked area on the right, like climbing it. They could roam quite freely, as there is a blocked area to the left that would usually relate to them in some way, in this context. Hence, they have a polarity to move between, but they are also concentrated around one area, the 'hills.' Hence, we see that the function of these walls is to map out the general dynamic of creature interaction and movement in this area. This is the aspect that one must replicate, to have a map analogous to a location.
The rest is then up to the pathos of the area, without generally altering the map's lay-out so far. Hence, one may bar off certain areas, like if one were feeling particularly romantic (or were from Celadon) a small flower garden, in order to communicate a certain pathos. In the process, they would not form additional walls in the orthodox sense, just be built upon the basic terrain. This stage can be important, especially in ROM Hacks you make by yourself. These hacks can more freely deal with personal themes, without having to adjust to avoid crediting these also to others participating directly in the Hack. Hence, be cautious with them elsewhere. In any case, this stage is hence also important. To summarise, this general skeleton of the map is to be reached by emulating creature dynamics in the area, even if every detail of the area is not included, and then the open areas especially can be altered for other effects.
Finally, then, after 'tall grass' and so on is appropriately planned, we only need to discern the precise nature of the obstacles. A tree is a freely inhabited zone. A cave or mountainous area nearby (in a grassy area) is more akin to a place which creatures could climb up but which isn't a specific area which they inhabit. This could represent the walls of a tunnel, for instance. These could be arranged accordingly. Finally, once this is laid out you should have a map like this, where 'm' is mountain, 't' is tree, and 'c' is coincidentally pond:
+_________+
|-----ccc---mm|
|-----ccc---mm|
|----------mmm|
|-----t----mmm|
|---t--------mm|
+_________+
Hence, one has the general area, and need only add the 'tall grass' regions.
Finally, however, which creatures are encountered? To do this, we should look at the general functions of the creatures involved, so far as they interact with the location. Creatures that fly around it could imply a Flying-type. Bug-types are a useful fall-back, and hence should generally be quite important to such games. Creatures that stay around the Ground might be Ground-types, or just Normal-types. Normal-types might be appropriate to designate creatures that are brought in there temporarily, like pets potentially. Once these are in place, we need to discern the specifics of which type of Pokémon of the type to include, using an image of how these creatures relate to the region.
Different creatures can be associated with different arrangements of 'tall grass' and obstacles. Squirrels are usually associated with locations like a tree with tall grass around it - though they can show up on the grass, they can then return to something above that. Hence, if there were a squirrel Pokémon, they could emulate creatures who do this. That is, unless these were generally Flying-type. If the creatures interacted with the obstacles in this way in your area - even if they don't always, or it's atypical - then you could replace them with a squirrel type. A narrow water path with many rocks and such along its edges would suggest a crocodile. In general, then, seek to emulate the general interaction of the creatures with the obstacles of the area, and then distribute the grass accordingly. You can finally arrange the rest of the open area to further reflect either the creatures you have chosen or the ones in the location you based it on, and then should have an appropriate map. You might also adjust for time of day. People should preferably be placed where the creatures did not tend to be found, although this usually adjusts - creatures tend to avoid human crowds. The closer they are, the more domestic it might seem.
Be careful with battles in tall grass. Past a certain point, they can interrupt the sense of danger to tall grass, where wild Pokémon could and do interfere. If such dilution or domesticising of these areas is your aim, for instance to have it seem less concerning to people playing it, then this could be useful though only to an extent. If not, then keeping them apart should help preserve this sense of a threat, without some sense of cognitive dissonance. In general, an uncrowded but slightly elaborate and presumably often traversed Route in the games is best associated with night-time. Various other periods like evening can also be communicated here, through less clear arrangements of this.
This can lead to different effects in specific regions. The Lavender Tower as a whole can be crowded, but might become scary and night-like if you stick between a couple of less crowded areas which don't feature things like rival battles either. However, its design is less clearly night-time. However, places will tend to 'come alive,' especially given a day-night cycle, at a specific time in-game. In the earlier games, which were less coloured and hence less specific about times of day, this could still be influenced by the time of day outside or that of the player. R/S weakened this somewhat by removing this element, along with a drastic change in aesthetic. It still features a few locations which allow for this variation, like deserts or undersea, but this is still partial. In FR/LG, they are mostly absent. People generally have quite a different pathos about a place at day-time and at night-time, so this element is important to note.
If you establish that a certain obstacle can be interacted with, like a sign or gravestone, places are likely to seem more crowded than if they are not. If players tend to skip this kind of thing, time-periods might seem slightly different to them. Using slightly darkened tiles in FR/LG might help to restore some sense of direct adjustment to things, without which the general R/B area only awkwardly fits into the game, and the transitions to places like Lavender Tower are muted. In any case, such elements are worth considering and noting. Try to manage transitions appropriately between different kinds of zones.
Hence, after setting out the location, with appropriate creatures and times, you should be done. You can finally add more exotic types if there is space, like Rock or Ice, to alter the atmosphere. Types like Steel could be used to cement as it were the sense of the terrain - if there is steel, etc., involved in it - and once this is done for a sense of atmospheric threat.
One might want to reduce the amount of Pokémon across the game, and instead have Pokémon which are varied versions of those previously encountered, for instance. This can create a sense of exploration and directly finding uncanny locations. If one merely strung together a bunch of different locations to tell a story, what one would have would usually be more akin to a fantasy or 'RP' setting, so one should note this and adjust accordingly. Still, locations can already be notable if designed with attention to detail.
Hence, adding a location can easily, in such a game, be done by drawing on the creatures present in the location. This then has to be mapped around. Finally, this can be improved and observations about it made, which might help elsewhere in your hack.
Does anyone have any further questions?
Hence, a better approach here would be to draw on the general frequency that one encounters creatures. If you walk through an area, estimating a rough frequency for encounters should be straightforward. One can hence emulate this aspect roughly on a map, through a combination of 'tall grass' placement and frequency, and then test this. One would hence have a map resembling this location on some level.
An area, especially an urban one, has a mixture of free spaces and blocked areas. These form a certain pattern. This should be considered, for such a game, in point of how they affect the interaction with creatures. Do creatures tend to be encountered near these 'walls' or obstacles? For instance, if they perch in trees or on walls, or scramble around on these. Do they stay in separate zones demarcated by the walls? And so on. This can hence give us a rough view of how to map the area.
While in most forests insect life is often notably concentrated in the plant-life and so on, Viridian Forest was instead a bunch of massive insects patrolling the paths. This is unlike most forests people are familiar with, so in a sense they hence have to impose their own sense of forests onto it to make it seem like a feasible zone. Many would call such creatures snakes, etc., instead.
Moves determine build, but the design of early creatures is often more directly relevant, as it can signify the general direction of the design. Caterpie, though seemingly a squirming creature, is forced to use a normal tackle and String Shot, while moves like Wrap might suit it better - if OP in the early games. It is accompanied with the similar Weedle, whose design is an arrow, which accompanies a division between Bind and Wrap. Many of the glitches in those games involve when players are trapped in an uncontrolled sequence - the Old Man catching tutorial, the long-range trainer glitch, the Safari Zone sequence, etc. Not a surprise, as the games are structured around a notable example of these sequences - battle, and being challenged to them. These glitches are also the easiest to find within gameplay (reloading games during the saving process is similar, but not something within the game, and it does concede that you can turn off the game while doing it), and hence the most commonly referenced and noticed. When one of these sequences appears, it is worth considering in detail. Powerful moves like Paralysis also function in part by manufacturing these, by slowing down the opponent and possibly rendering them without control, and hence the Dig-Paralysis glitch is also similarly manipulation of a forced sequence. It does however rely on some luck, as Paralysis does not always prevent motion.
We could represent a map at this point as a sequence of 'walls' and open spaces. One may even make a rough sketch like this:
+_______+
|---------/////|
|-------///////|
|-//-----//////|
+_______+
Along with a general wall on the right, there might also be a small tree or so on the left. It could be for instance a valley near a mountain. However, how would it relate to the creatures? They could have a relation to the blocked area on the right, like climbing it. They could roam quite freely, as there is a blocked area to the left that would usually relate to them in some way, in this context. Hence, they have a polarity to move between, but they are also concentrated around one area, the 'hills.' Hence, we see that the function of these walls is to map out the general dynamic of creature interaction and movement in this area. This is the aspect that one must replicate, to have a map analogous to a location.
The rest is then up to the pathos of the area, without generally altering the map's lay-out so far. Hence, one may bar off certain areas, like if one were feeling particularly romantic (or were from Celadon) a small flower garden, in order to communicate a certain pathos. In the process, they would not form additional walls in the orthodox sense, just be built upon the basic terrain. This stage can be important, especially in ROM Hacks you make by yourself. These hacks can more freely deal with personal themes, without having to adjust to avoid crediting these also to others participating directly in the Hack. Hence, be cautious with them elsewhere. In any case, this stage is hence also important. To summarise, this general skeleton of the map is to be reached by emulating creature dynamics in the area, even if every detail of the area is not included, and then the open areas especially can be altered for other effects.
Finally, then, after 'tall grass' and so on is appropriately planned, we only need to discern the precise nature of the obstacles. A tree is a freely inhabited zone. A cave or mountainous area nearby (in a grassy area) is more akin to a place which creatures could climb up but which isn't a specific area which they inhabit. This could represent the walls of a tunnel, for instance. These could be arranged accordingly. Finally, once this is laid out you should have a map like this, where 'm' is mountain, 't' is tree, and 'c' is coincidentally pond:
+_________+
|-----ccc---mm|
|-----ccc---mm|
|----------mmm|
|-----t----mmm|
|---t--------mm|
+_________+
Hence, one has the general area, and need only add the 'tall grass' regions.
Finally, however, which creatures are encountered? To do this, we should look at the general functions of the creatures involved, so far as they interact with the location. Creatures that fly around it could imply a Flying-type. Bug-types are a useful fall-back, and hence should generally be quite important to such games. Creatures that stay around the Ground might be Ground-types, or just Normal-types. Normal-types might be appropriate to designate creatures that are brought in there temporarily, like pets potentially. Once these are in place, we need to discern the specifics of which type of Pokémon of the type to include, using an image of how these creatures relate to the region.
Different creatures can be associated with different arrangements of 'tall grass' and obstacles. Squirrels are usually associated with locations like a tree with tall grass around it - though they can show up on the grass, they can then return to something above that. Hence, if there were a squirrel Pokémon, they could emulate creatures who do this. That is, unless these were generally Flying-type. If the creatures interacted with the obstacles in this way in your area - even if they don't always, or it's atypical - then you could replace them with a squirrel type. A narrow water path with many rocks and such along its edges would suggest a crocodile. In general, then, seek to emulate the general interaction of the creatures with the obstacles of the area, and then distribute the grass accordingly. You can finally arrange the rest of the open area to further reflect either the creatures you have chosen or the ones in the location you based it on, and then should have an appropriate map. You might also adjust for time of day. People should preferably be placed where the creatures did not tend to be found, although this usually adjusts - creatures tend to avoid human crowds. The closer they are, the more domestic it might seem.
Be careful with battles in tall grass. Past a certain point, they can interrupt the sense of danger to tall grass, where wild Pokémon could and do interfere. If such dilution or domesticising of these areas is your aim, for instance to have it seem less concerning to people playing it, then this could be useful though only to an extent. If not, then keeping them apart should help preserve this sense of a threat, without some sense of cognitive dissonance. In general, an uncrowded but slightly elaborate and presumably often traversed Route in the games is best associated with night-time. Various other periods like evening can also be communicated here, through less clear arrangements of this.
This can lead to different effects in specific regions. The Lavender Tower as a whole can be crowded, but might become scary and night-like if you stick between a couple of less crowded areas which don't feature things like rival battles either. However, its design is less clearly night-time. However, places will tend to 'come alive,' especially given a day-night cycle, at a specific time in-game. In the earlier games, which were less coloured and hence less specific about times of day, this could still be influenced by the time of day outside or that of the player. R/S weakened this somewhat by removing this element, along with a drastic change in aesthetic. It still features a few locations which allow for this variation, like deserts or undersea, but this is still partial. In FR/LG, they are mostly absent. People generally have quite a different pathos about a place at day-time and at night-time, so this element is important to note.
If you establish that a certain obstacle can be interacted with, like a sign or gravestone, places are likely to seem more crowded than if they are not. If players tend to skip this kind of thing, time-periods might seem slightly different to them. Using slightly darkened tiles in FR/LG might help to restore some sense of direct adjustment to things, without which the general R/B area only awkwardly fits into the game, and the transitions to places like Lavender Tower are muted. In any case, such elements are worth considering and noting. Try to manage transitions appropriately between different kinds of zones.
Hence, after setting out the location, with appropriate creatures and times, you should be done. You can finally add more exotic types if there is space, like Rock or Ice, to alter the atmosphere. Types like Steel could be used to cement as it were the sense of the terrain - if there is steel, etc., involved in it - and once this is done for a sense of atmospheric threat.
One might want to reduce the amount of Pokémon across the game, and instead have Pokémon which are varied versions of those previously encountered, for instance. This can create a sense of exploration and directly finding uncanny locations. If one merely strung together a bunch of different locations to tell a story, what one would have would usually be more akin to a fantasy or 'RP' setting, so one should note this and adjust accordingly. Still, locations can already be notable if designed with attention to detail.
Hence, adding a location can easily, in such a game, be done by drawing on the creatures present in the location. This then has to be mapped around. Finally, this can be improved and observations about it made, which might help elsewhere in your hack.
Does anyone have any further questions?
