Alternative Title: Uncle USEC's Wacky Pokemon Fun-Time LP.What is this LP about?Thanks to the efforts of Alkhemia,
a universal Pokemon randomizer has been discovered. This nifty program can randomize:
The Starter Pokemon choices.
The Wild Pokemon you encounter in grass, caves and other places.
The Pokemon that Trainers use against you.
The base stats which define the potential of each Pokemon.
The elemental types of each Pokemon.
The abilities of each Pokemon, in games where they exist.
The moves that Pokemon learn by gaining levels.
The contents of each TM which can be taught to Pokemon to give them additional moves (HM moves are not changed to make sure you can still beat the game)
The ability of each Pokemon to learn each TM or HM move.
The "static" Pokemon which you either are given, fight on the overworld, or are sold.
The names of trainers & the classes they belong in.
The moves taught by move tutors, for games within which they are significant enough.
And the best part? The program can even spit out a file or string of characters, allowing other people to make the exact same random ROM. In case you wanted to race or battle other people. I think you know where I'm going with this.
How will this LP be run?Long Story Short: We'll all vote on a Pokemon game to randomize, I'll submit the files/presets so that other people can generate the same ROM, and then... Well, it's up to you guys. You could make a full-blown LP, do a Nuzlocke run, investigate the new typings/movesets, or just play the game normally and tell everyone about about your experiences. This is going to be a community LP, where everybody comes together to create something awesome (or at least try to).
Do I have to use the file/presets?Nope. Feel free to take the randomizer for yourself and run with it!
Net BattlesFor convenience reasons we'll (mostly) be going with the Gameboy/Gameboy Advance Pokemon games, which opens up something neat. Namely, a couple of the emulators come with netplay. Now I haven't exactly fiddled around with this feature, but if the two ROMs are exactly the same, I don't see why it wouldn't work. Obviously some serious testing will have to be conducted, but if everything works properly we could have a little Pokemon tournament going on. Or at the very least a free-for-all. We'll formalize the rules once it's confirmed that netplay works. If you want to volunteer for testing, that would be great. I can't exactly do it by myself, can I?
Nitty-GrittyTechnically we could have random versions of all the different Pokemon games, but for now let's stick with one specific game and perhaps branch out later. As mentioned before we'll be sticking with the pre-Gen IV games (though the randomizer works will all the generations), which means that we'll have to pick between Red, Blue, Yellow, Silver, Gold, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed and LeafGreen. I'll make a poll for the thread, but needless to say we'll not be starved for choice.
The Universal Pokemon Randomizer also has several options to choose from. I'll
highlight the choices that I think are the best, and then if nobody objects I'll just go with them so that we don't bog down the thread with constant voting. Note that numbered points are mutually exclusive (an either/or choice). The (numerous) options are:
General:- Update Type Effectiveness [Y/N] (Updates R/B/Y's types to match the rest of the games. Obviously only works for R/B/Y)
- Update Moves [Y/N] (Updates moves to their Gen V stats whenever possible.)
- Remove Trade Evolutions [Y/N] (Replaces trade evolutions with level-up or stone-based evolutions. Obviously we'll want this ticked in case netplay doesn't work)
- Lower Case Pokemon Names [Y/N] (Exactly what it says on the tin. PIKACHU becomes Pikachu, etc. Looks best in Gen III games.)
- Give National Dex at Start [Y/N] (Only for Gen III, since they have the two types of PokeDex. Needed for FR/LG, since it's needed for some Pokemon to evolve.)
Other:- B/W Exp Patch [Y/N] (Gives exp in a manner similar to the Black/White games. Defeating higher level Pokemon with lower level ones gives more exp, or something like that. Only works for the Gen I/II games though.)
- Race Mode [Y/N] (Basically makes it easier to ensure that everyone has the same randomized ROM by including a check-file. The only downside is that the program won't generate a log file, which displays information about the randomized Pokemon [ie stats, typing, movesets])
- No Game-Breaking Moves [Y/N] (Exactly what it says on the tin. Game-breaking moves will not be assigned to randomized movesets. Helps bring a bit of balance to the ROM.
Pokemon Base Statistics:- Unchanged (Obvious what it does)
- Shuffle (Shuffles the stats [ie Attack and Speed are swapped])
- Random (Follow Evolutions) (Stats are chosen at random, but will still fall within the Pokemon's original stat total, so legendaries will always be powerful, and Magikarp will always have terrible stats. Additionally the evolutionary lines will follow a general stat distribution.)
- Random (Completely) (As above, but the evolutionary lines will not follow a general distribution. So evolving a Pokemon could cause it's stats to change drastically, as a big F- you to the player.)
Pokemon Abilities:- Unchanged (Yawn)
- Randomize (Completely changes the possible abilities that a Pokemon can have.)
- Allow Wonder Guard [Y/N] (Only for the Randomize option. Adds Wonder Guard to the list of abilities that can be randomly chosen. Will probably lead to some horribly overpowered Pokemon.)
Starter Pokemon:- Unchanged (Keep the original starter Pokemon)
- Custom (Set the starter Pokemon yourself. Obviously we'll need to choose the starting Pokemon if we're going with this option.)
- Random (Completely) (Exactly what it says on the tin)
- Random (basic with two evolutions) (The starting Pokemon will have two evolutions, just like the default starters. Prevents people from getting stuck with a single-evolution starter or one that's already super-powerful. Note that certain baby Pokemon fit into this category.)
Pokemon Types:- Unchanged (So you'll always know the typings of all the Pokemon. But that's not why we're here, is it?)
- Random (Follow Evolutions) (All Pokemon will have random typing, but the evolutionary trees will have similar typing (ie. a base type and a secondary one added later on)
- Random (Completely) (All Pokemon will have random typing. Period. Opens the game up to RNG dickery when evolving Pokemon.)
Pokemon Movesets:- Unchanged (Meh)
- Random (Preferring similar type) (Movesets are random, but will generally respect the typing of the Pokemon. Additionally all Pokemon will get a reasonably accurate move at low levels.)
- Random (Completely) (All moves will be random. That Grass/Physic Shedinja? Yeah, it can bust out Surf at level 9. Really opens the door to RNG dickery.)
Trainer's Pokemon- Unchanged (They'll have the same Pokemon as the base game.)
- Random (Completely random. One of the more interesting options.)
- Type Themed (Picks a type for each trainer and then gives them a theme for each type. Additionally gyms and similar places will all have a random type-theme, which I think is neat.)
- Rival Carries Starter [Y/N] (Your rival will carry his/her starter throughout the entire game, though their other Pokemon will be chosen the same as other trainers. We'd probably want this if we're going with random starters of some kind.)
- Try to use Pokemon of similar strength? [Y/N] (The game will try to give trainers Pokemon of similar strength to the ones they had before, though it'll give out weaker/stronger Pokemon if dictated by other rules. Obviously only an option if the trainers have their Pokemon randomized.
- Weight Types by # of Pokemon in them? (If we're going with Type Themed, then the number of trainers of each type will roughly match up with the number of Pokemon of each type. Reduces repetition, but expect to see a lot of Water/Normal/Flying trainers.)
- Don't use Legendaries? [Y/N] (Self-explanatory. Trainers will not have legendary Pokemon if we randomize their Pokemon.)
- No early Shedinja? [Y/N] (Shedinja is the only Pokemon who naturally has Wonder Guard. If we're not randomizing Pokemon's abilities, then it'll be pretty much impossible to defeat if you can't hit its type effectivenesses. Turning this option on means that only trainers above level 20 will have Shedinja (which is when you should be able to hit it).)
- Randomize Trainer Names [Y/N] (For Gen II and up, the names of all trainers will be randomized. In all the generations, the gym leaders and the Elite Four will have random names. [In Gen I only they had names. The generic trainers did not.])
- Randomize Trainer Class Names [Y/N] (Randomizes the class names of the trainers to new ones (ie. Youngster could become Misfit).)
Wild Pokemon- Unchanged (Why the hell would you choose this option?)
- Random (Completely.)
- Area 1-to-1 Mapping (Every Pokemon in a given area will be replaced with another Pokemon in its slots. Means that each area should have a random handful of Pokemon, similar to the actual games.)
- Global 1-to-1 Mapping (In every place a Pokemon appears, it will be replaced with another Pokemon. So if Magikarp is replaced with Sharpedo, then any place where you could find a Magikarp, you would instead find a Sharpedo. Note that this rule is very restrictive, so we can't have additional rules with it.)
Additional Rule- None (Adds no other rules. Do I really have to say that?)
- Catch 'em All Mode (Should ensure that every Pokemon can appear in the wild, though it's not guaranteed.)
- Type Theme Areas (Every area will have a type associated with it. So it's pretty similar to the original games, though you could end up with Fire types in Surfing encounters.)
- Use time-based encounters? (Obviously only for Gen II. Treats the night/day/morning encounters as different areas, so different Pokemon will appear at those times. If unchecked, night/day/morning will have no effect on which Pokemon spawn.)
- Don't use legendaries? (Obvious what it does. I'm kinda against it, but eh.)
- Set minimum catch rate? (Sets the minimum catch rate to 45, to ensure that every Pokemon will at least be as challenging to capture as the starting Pokemon. Won't affect any Pokemon whose capture rate is above 45.)
Static Pokemon- Unchanged (The static Pokemon (ie trades, gifts, purchases etc.) will remain the same.)
- Random (Legendary <--> Legendary Normal <--> Normal) (The static Pokemon will change, but the Legendaries will swap with Legendaries, Normals with Normals.)
- Random (Completely) (All static Pokemon will be changed. So you could find a Mew at the game corner. Or fight Magikarp instead of Mewtwo. I like this option for the silliness, if you can't tell.)
TMs & HMs- Unchanged (Keep everything as before.)
- Random (Each TM will teach a different move, though one that's still unique for each TM. HM moves are unaffected (and won't appear as TMs) to keep the game winnable.)
TM/HM Compatibility- Unchanged (All Pokemon will learn the TMs/HMs they could before. Note that it's by TM number, so if those are randomized you could end up with some odd combinations.)
- Random (Prefer Same Type) (Randomize the TMs/HMs that a Pokemon can learn based on type. So Fire-type Pokemon have a high chance of learning Fire-Type moves from TMs. Note that the chance for a Pokemon to learn a wrong-typing move from a TM is 1/4, so Surfing Pikachu is likelier then you think.)
- Random (Completely) (Each Pokemon has a 50% chance of learning a TM/HM.
Move Tutors- Unchanged (I'm out of witty comments.)
- Random (Each Move Tutor slot will have a new move, a unique one not covered by TM/HM moves.)
Move Tutor Compatibility- Unchanged (Every Pokemon can learn the same moves as before. Seems to override the random choice in the Move Tutors selection.)
- Random (Prefer same type) (Same as for TMs. Pokemon have a higher chance of learning certain moves based on typing.)
- Random (Completely) (Move Tutor Moves will be completely random, with a 25% chance for each move. Sounds like fun.)
EDIT:
We have finally picked a ROM! We're going with Pokemon Emerald, with the following presets (Click the Use Presets button in the top-right corner if you're following along):
Random Seed: -569666716614709329
Config String: ZiFBCPsA/gABAQRMAxwKCgtFbWVyYWxkIChVKZoRHHHNl6/Bpp4PZw==
The starting Pokemon are Nidoran, Whismur and Totodile.
At the risk of losing your interest after reading that huge wall of text, I'm just going to add one more thing: If you want something clarified, I'll do my best. If you want something added to the OP, I'll probably add it.