Make the game even Faster

[MaximoMidnight]

Hello Resetes,

I hope you're doing well! I wanted to reach out because I genuinely admire the incredible work you've already done with text speed improvements like "Even Faster Joy" and enhanced text speed options. Your attention to quality-of-life features really shows how much you care about the player experience.

I have an exciting suggestion that I believe could take your already outstanding work to the next level. Since you've already demonstrated such expertise in optimizing text speed, I was wondering if we could explore making it even faster as an optional feature?

In Radical Red, there's an instant text display option that works brilliantly. What if we could implement something similar, along with these streamlined features:

Core Features:

• Instant text display option
• Remove animation delays entirely
• Skip unnecessary text (like "A wild Pokémon appeared!") and jump straight to the battle menu
• Most importantly: Eliminate the constant EXP Share notifications

The EXP Share messaging is particularly tedious - after every battle, we get told that remaining EXP was distributed, which honestly isn't information most players need. The ideal flow would be: start battle → defeat Pokémon → gain EXP quickly → others gain EXP silently in background → only show notifications when a Pokémon levels up.

This would transform the grinding experience completely! No unnecessary information, no waiting, no animation delays - just pure, efficient gameplay that lets players focus on what they love most about the game.

I truly believe this would be the most modern and appreciated quality-of-life improvement possible. Your existing work already shows you understand what players want, and this feels like the natural evolution of those excellent features you've already created.

If there's any way you could see this being implemented as an optional feature, it would mean the world to many players who share this vision. You have such a talent for these improvements - I'm confident that if anyone could make this work elegantly, it would be you.

Thank you so much for considering this, and for all the amazing work you've already contributed to the community!

Best regards

[resetes12]

Those are nice suggestions, but there are a few things I would like to point out for each suggestion:

1. I don't know if there's enough space in the saveblock for an "Instant" option within the "Text speed" option. My current way of introducing new features is adding them to the end of the saveblock, so I'm sure old saves are compatible. Messing with the other options might move the space and break old saves. I believe I didn't add it before for that reason, but I can try adding it to see if it fits within the saveblock data.

2. I don't know which animation delays you are referring to. The game already includes a "Fast Battles" option in the options menu. "OFF" means that you need to press A or B to skip the delay (which is not Emerald's default, but all players love mashing the A button to go faster, so that's the bare minimum for me), and "ON", which auto-skips the delays.

3. That's an interesting idea. I'm not a big fan, as I believe the game is fast enough for most people when all the correct options are set, but I might think about it. I personally believe that the intros are really fast with "Fast battles" on, and "Battle anims" off (which is what I select when I want to grind).

4. This idea, however, I don't really like much. I, again, personally believe that players need to get notified if they have EXP. Share on or not after each battle, so they can plan on turning it on or off as needed. The game only shows one message, and while it's true that it would make the game faster, pressing A after each battle doesn't really save much time.

However, a good compromise for 3 and 4 would be keeping the message as is, but removing the need to press A, so the game auto-skips it with "Fast Battles" on, for example. Or something similar.

It can also introduce new issues, as introducing an instant text option and using "Fast Battles" on would mean that the game would skip all texts, and you would never be able to read them since they instantly show up and disappear (which nearly happens with the fastest option, but there's just enough time to read most notifications, but you have to be a fast reader).

[MaximoMidnight]

Thank you so much for your detailed response and for taking the time to explain everything so thoroughly!

Regarding your recommendations (Point 1 & 2):
I've tried "Fast Battles ON" + "Battle anims OFF" as you suggested, and it's definitely much better! However, I noticed that stat change animations (like when using moves such as Leer) are still displayed. Is this intended behavior, or could these also be sped up with the fast battles option?

Your compromise idea (Point 4):
I think your auto-skip solution for EXP Share messages with "Fast Battles" enabled is brilliant! However, I discovered an interesting issue: when I have a level cap active and EXP Share on, and I battle with one Pokémon that hasn't reached the cap yet alongside one that has already reached it, I still get the "remaining EXP was distributed" message even though the capped Pokémon can't actually receive any more EXP. So the game says EXP was shared when it technically wasn't. Not sure if this is a known issue or something you might want to look into?

Instant text option (Point 3):
I completely understand your concern about readability with instant text + fast battles. That's exactly why I think having it as an option would be perfect - players who find it too fast can simply choose a slower setting. The flexibility to choose would be ideal!

Technical limitations:
I really appreciate you explaining the saveblock constraints and compatibility concerns. While I don't fully understand the technical details, I completely respect the challenges involved and your commitment to maintaining save compatibility.

EXP Share notifications:
You're absolutely right that some players need those notifications to manage their EXP Share usage effectively. Your compromise solution really addresses both needs perfectly.

Thanks again for being so open to feedback and for the thoughtful explanations. Even just the auto-skip improvement would make grinding so much smoother!

[resetes12]

I'll see what I can do.

[MaximoMidnight]

@resetes12

I found a ROMHACK which has exactly the features i talked about! Maybe it serves as inspiration? It was really a coincidence and I must say it's fantastic that you can customise the combat speed and text speed exactly as I described

https://www.pokeharbor.com/2024/08/pokemon-recharged-emerald/