I have a question to the creator. Do you even play your own ROMHacks? That just suddenly came to mind and I'm interested in the answer.
Of course I do. Probably more than any one person, considering how many times I have to re-balance certain fights to get them
just right. It was a nightmare when developing RR/SS because that was back in the day when CFW didn't exist: every time i made changes I had to
- back up the save file for my OR/AS ROM on my Gateway
- build the entire *.3ds file
- wait for it to copy to the MicroSD
- restore the save
- test the thing
- hope it works and is well balanced, else goto 1
Wasn't fun. Give thanks every day to our hacking overlords for the ridiculously easy patch mechanisms we have now, tweaking and testing NS/UM was like a dream and I'm certain doing so for SnS/PuM is going to be just as quick.
Anyway, in non-testing situations, I'll occasionally do a run of my own hacks but I prefer watching others attempt it. It's not the same when I've
designed all the potential surprises that might come my way.
Can't wait for Supernova Penumbra
This time, I'll wait and not start the games untill your Hacks are there, the Vanilla Pokemon Games are just to easy and not fun...
Honestly, while I agree wholeheartedly with you about Gen VI, Gen VII if you follow some rules is a solid challenge, and I was impressed with how much I enjoyed Sun the first time through. The rules I use in my playthroughs of normal Pokemon games:
- No grinding against Wild Pokémon.
- EXP share off unless you are more than five levels under the opponent, then turn it on for a few fights to catch up.
- No use of minigames if they give notable bonuses (Super Training, Amie/Refresh, etc)
- Never use items in battle except for Pokéballs.
- ALWAYS USE SET MODE
And when testing my own ROM hacks, the only rule I break is obviously the EXP share one, since my hacks are built around EXP share's use.
I don't like Nuzlockes because I think the way you play when you're trying not to have any faints is
tremendously boring. Grinding, spamming Potions, never taking glass cannon Pokémon when you can avoid it... Part of why I got into ROM hacking is because I wanted to make a Pokémon game that actually tested your skills and knowledge of the series that felt as satisfying to beat as a Nuzlocke would, without the whole "actually playing a Nuzlocke" part.
However, I'm glad to hear you're excited to play my hacks! They will almost definitely be out
much sooner after USUM launch than Nova and Umbra were after SM launch. My workflow is pretty optimized and ready to go for the new games.