Pokémon Soul Silver and Heart Gold.

[Dmitry]

Hey Sets I've got a Pikachu with fly if you don't want to sit around hoping to get one. Wouldn't want anyone to go through that lol.

[GentaiShinigami]

So, my wife just started up Heart Gold for the first time (we've been finishing off the other Gen IV games first) which came straight from Amazon sealed inside a Nintendo bag with the pre-order item. The game has a save file already on it though... Character name is Heart - Female, and it has 43 minutes, 1 pokemon seen (starter - Chikorita) and 0 badges. WTF is this shit? @_@ Did I somehow get a Gamefreak test cart? I doubt anyone had this retail before me as it was still sealed in the bag with the sticker from nintendo covering it (so it'd rip the sticker if you opened the bag), and it was shipped 5 days after release day (amazon had to order more cause they were out of the preorder bonus and mine shipped on the day they got the first new shipment in). It's not a huge deal, but it's seriously bugging me. Anyone else had this happen or have any idea wtf is going on aside from being a test copy that somehow didn't get deleted/got put back into the production line? My copy of Silver which shipped the same way at the same time is normal btw.

[Maguspk]

So, my wife just started up Heart Gold for the first time (we've been finishing off the other Gen IV games first) which came straight from Amazon sealed inside a Nintendo bag with the pre-order item. The game has a save file already on it though... Character name is Heart - Female, and it has 43 minutes, 1 pokemon seen (starter - Chikorita) and 0 badges. WTF is this shit? @_@ Did I somehow get a Gamefreak test cart? I doubt anyone had this retail before me as it was still sealed in the bag with the sticker from nintendo covering it (so it'd rip the sticker if you opened the bag), and it was shipped 5 days after release day (amazon had to order more cause they were out of the preorder bonus and mine shipped on the day they got the first new shipment in). It's not a huge deal, but it's seriously bugging me. Anyone else had this happen or have any idea wtf is going on aside from being a test copy that somehow didn't get deleted/got put back into the production line? My copy of Silver which shipped the same way at the same time is normal btw.

Sounds like Amazon pulled a Gamestop and just repackaged a used gay as new... that is lame.

[GentaiShinigami]

Sounds like Amazon pulled a Gamestop and just repackaged a used gay as new... that is lame.

I thought about that but I dont think that is possible. It came sealed in a bag direct from Nintendo and sealed by nintendo with a special sticker over it. Amazon doesn't even have the materials to repackage it like that. Also, it wouldn't be very likely to get a repacked used game 5 days after release that only has 43 minutes on it, and the pokewalker, box, manual etc all look untouched (manuals usually get finger grease marks). If it wasn't sealed by Nintendo I would probably agree it is a used copy, but it doesn't seem likely the way it arrived. It's new enough in my eyes either way. Nothing had been touched at all aside from the game having a save on it already so not like I'm pissed or something. More just wondering how the hell it got on there.

[Algoth]

I thought about that but I dont think that is possible. It came sealed in a bag direct from Nintendo and sealed by nintendo with a special sticker over it. Amazon doesn't even have the materials to repackage it like that. Also, it wouldn't be very likely to get a repacked used game 5 days after release that only has 43 minutes on it, and the pokewalker, box, manual etc all look untouched (manuals usually get finger grease marks). If it wasn't sealed by Nintendo I would probably agree it is a used copy, but it doesn't seem likely the way it arrived. It's new enough in my eyes either way. Nothing had been touched at all aside from the game having a save on it already so not like I'm pissed or something. More just wondering how the hell it got on there.

I'm not saying it's impossible that it's a "test cartridge", but it's a lot more likely that it's just a used copy. If they really would've just tested it on the assembly line, they probably wouldn't have played it for almost an hour and then saved. >.>

[GentaiShinigami]

Well, I just got off the phone with Amazon. They said it's impossible it was tampered with or repackaged by them if it came with the Nintendo sticker in the Nintendo bag. She offered to replace it, but there's no point I can just delete the save game. Not like the cart has cooties.

It's rocking a female trainer with Chikorita anyway which is what my wife wanted so hell she might as well just rock that save game. Maybe it has some sweet NOA haxin going on lol.

Chick at Amazon was nice though, and gave me a $10 credit to my account since I didn't make them RMA it and all that junk. W/e I got Heart Gold for $20 now instead of $30 so I'm not complaining.

[Draylo]

Yeah Amazon is really great, they never have messed up any of my orders but that is surprising. Have yet to get a flying and surfing pikachu >.< must get.

[GentaiShinigami]

I'm not saying it's impossible that it's a "test cartridge", but it's a lot more likely that it's just a used copy. If they really would've just tested it on the assembly line, they probably wouldn't have played it for almost an hour and then saved. >.>

Doesn't matter in the end. I just wanted to investigate how the save got there. I'll stick to my belief though that it's not used in the traditional sense. It may have been used (well it has, but I mean someone not affiliated with producing the carts), but it was definitely before it got to Amazon that it was used which means between Nintendo warehouse and Amazon warehouse. The evidence is too much to say that Amazon just repackaged it. They would have had to issued the game with 1-day shipping, sent the RMA box the next day with overnight, then had 1-day return shipping on the RMA box to make it back to them in time to ship it to me. Then they would have had to get a new bag and a new nintendo sticker and package it back up on top of that. It's not like it's worth something extra even if it's a test cart though. It is impossible for me to prove that it came with that save on it.

Edit: Small edit, the hours on the game was 40 exactly. She saved on accident after playin for 3 minutes.

[GentaiShinigami]

Geez took me 4 hours of soft-resetting to get a freaking Modest Cyndaquil. "Likes to run" so it's good enough for me. I only got this one Modest one, and no Timid in that time frame...

Edit: Nevermind found an answer in a Youtube comment of all places.

[Rokku]

I have still caught neither a surfing or flying Pikachu, but I now have 3 light balls. Curse you RNG.

[GentaiShinigami]

I have still caught neither a surfing or flying Pikachu, but I now have 3 light balls. Curse you RNG.

/comfort

Have been having some fun times with my RNG the last couple of days too. ~50 Feebas all caught in the wild, and only one had a nature I wanted lol. Then the whole Cyndaquil thing this morning...

[Algoth]

/comfort

Have been having some fun times with my RNG the last couple of days too. ~50 Feebas all caught in the wild, and only one had a nature I wanted lol. Then the whole Cyndaquil thing this morning...

Why not just breed with Everstone+Ditto for a nature you want?

[GentaiShinigami]

Why not just breed with Everstone+Ditto for a nature you want?

With Cyndaquil I can't because I just started on Soul Silver and wanted the starter to actually be good as I progress into the game. In Feebas's case it's because it took me 4 hours to find a tile he was in, and at that point I just started spam fishing+throwing poke balls which all got sent to the PC (a normal pokeball always caught it and I could catch faster than I could breed them so meh why not). I figured ~50 would be plenty to get a few good natured ones, and that I'd just trade off extras to the wife+friends+people on here. Didn't exactly work out like that though. >_<

[Algoth]

With Cyndaquil I can't because I just started on Soul Silver and wanted the starter to actually be good as I progress into the game. In Feebas's case it's because it took me 4 hours to find a tile he was in, and at that point I just started spam fishing+throwing poke balls which all got sent to the PC (a normal pokeball always caught it and I could catch faster than I could breed them so meh why not). I figured ~50 would be plenty to get a few good natured ones, and that I'd just trade off extras to the wife+friends+people on here. Didn't exactly work out like that though. >_<

Ah, ok. I used to breed so many Pokemons on Pearl that eventually I just went out and caught Ditto of EVERY NATURE... sure, it took some time, but it was well worth it. Now everytime I need a specific nature for a Pokemon, I just start the first breeding generation with a Ditto that has the nature I need, equipped with Everstone obviously.

I didn't SR my starter, or even bother to check natures/abilities of the Pokemon I ended up using. It's more fun for me because this way I have to work around their weaknesses. I know, without checking, that my Ampharos for example has a very poor Special Defense IV, but it's okay, she's my glass cannon anyway. :D
I like not stressing out natures/abilities and such on my playthrough, because the metagame is pretty much nothing but stressing about IVs, EVs, natures and abilities.

[GentaiShinigami]

Ah, ok. I used to breed so many Pokemons on Pearl that eventually I just went out and caught Ditto of EVERY NATURE... sure, it took some time, but it was well worth it. Now everytime I need a specific nature for a Pokemon, I just start the first breeding generation with a Ditto that has the nature I need, equipped with Everstone obviously.

I didn't SR my starter, or even bother to check natures/abilities of the Pokemon I ended up using. It's more fun for me because this way I have to work around their weaknesses. I know, without checking, that my Ampharos for example has a very poor Special Defense IV, but it's okay, she's my glass cannon anyway. :D
I like not stressing out natures/abilities and such on my playthrough, because the metagame is pretty much nothing but stressing about IVs, EVs, natures and abilities.

I'm kind of half and half. On one side the perfectionist/collector in me enjoys trying to "maximize" them out, and then the other half of me misses the simplicity of the game prior to knowing all of the "hidden" stuff and even the not so hidden things like what each characteristic and nature means. Makes it feel like instead of "hell yes! I caught -insert rare poke-" it's "aww man, I caught -poke-, but it has a crap nature+ability!"

It's still the same 'ol fun time once I get one with proper nature/ability/whatever, but there is a crapload of extra set-up time involved chasing down proper pokemon, and then EV training them before leveling them and such. I don't even do competitive play (never fought outside of PvE ever actually). It just bugs me knowing that it could be better if it had this ability or that nature and that all I gotta do is go toss some pokeballs to fix it or breed a few eggs etc etc.

Cyndaquil is the first starter out of 3 games I ever SR for though. Leaf Green I played as a total nub with pretty much zero knowledge of the game or it's workings. Then I got Platinum and ended up reading a LOT about the workings of it once I was a little ways into it. Then for Soul Silver there is no hope for me! XD

[Rokku]

In honesty, very few people outside of using simulators like Shoddy and the like actually use "perfect" pokemon in the cartridge games. It's nearly impossible to breed out something with perfect 31 IVs in every stat, much less some of the IV combinations for Hidden Power Ice/Grass (took me hours upon hours of SRs back when to get the perfect combos for 60 power). You're much more likely to see pokes with a 31 in 3-4 stats tops, and then odd numbers in the others.

[Algoth]

I'm kind of half and half. On one side the perfectionist/collector in me enjoys trying to "maximize" them out, and then the other half of me misses the simplicity of the game prior to knowing all of the "hidden" stuff and even the not so hidden things like what each characteristic and nature means. Makes it feel like instead of "hell yes! I caught -insert rare poke-" it's "aww man, I caught -poke-, but it has a crap nature+ability!"

It's still the same 'ol fun time once I get one with proper nature/ability/whatever, but there is a crapload of extra set-up time involved chasing down proper pokemon, and then EV training them before leveling them and such. I don't even do competitive play (never fought outside of PvE ever actually). It just bugs me knowing that it could be better if it had this ability or that nature and that all I gotta do is go toss some pokeballs to fix it or breed a few eggs etc etc.

Cyndaquil is the first starter out of 3 games I ever SR for though. Leaf Green I played as a total nub with pretty much zero knowledge of the game or it's workings. Then I got Platinum and ended up reading a LOT about the workings of it once I was a little ways into it. Then for Soul Silver there is no hope for me! XD

I've read more about 4th Gen metagame than I care to admit, but I still like to play the main storyline in Pokemon games a bit RP-ish. :D
The first gen and second gen games were a big part of my childhood so this game is making me very nostalgic. But, after I'm done with the "storyline", I'll get back to metagaming. I'm not saying metagaming isn't fun, I mean I love it, it's just that it's more fun to "pretend" for at least a little while that the Pokemon are your companions who try their hardest, instead of just looking at them as an assortment of numbers. I know, that sounds a bit geeky, I'm sure there's some middleground for some people, but not to me. :D

[GentaiShinigami]

In honesty, very few people outside of using simulators like Shoddy and the like actually use "perfect" pokemon in the cartridge games. It's nearly impossible to breed out something with perfect 31 IVs in every stat, much less some of the IV combinations for Hidden Power Ice/Grass (took me hours upon hours of SRs back when to get the perfect combos for 60 power). You're much more likely to see pokes with a 31 in 3-4 stats tops, and then odd numbers in the others.

Yeah, I don't even bother trying for IV's usually, and most certainly not perfect spreads lol. There are only 7 nature+all 31 IV PID's in the game (iirc). Don't think it's possible to have every nature have all 31 IV spread (wild PID's mind you - breeding circumvents this with the way IV's are handled, but even then both parents having 31's across the board will only give a 1/60000ish chance at a all 31 baby from what I remember reading on Serebii). Just things like having a crappy ability or nature detrimental to what I'm trying to raise on the poke bother me. I'm usually happy with right nature and ability. If I'm really pushing I'll shoot for good IV's in the attack stat and/or speed, but rarely do I bother with that on wild pokemon.

Breeding for certain Hidden Powers is out of the area of things I'd bother trying for. It's just too much to try and get every IV to fall in line with a certain formula to get the certain HP you need. Sure I'd like to have like Ice HP on my Sceptile, but not worth all the work it'd take especially when I don't do competitive play. The odds of the nature ending up right AND getting the IV's right (and ability in dual ability poke) are so much worse than getting a shiny. >_<

[Algoth]

In honesty, very few people outside of using simulators like Shoddy and the like actually use "perfect" pokemon in the cartridge games. It's nearly impossible to breed out something with perfect 31 IVs in every stat, much less some of the IV combinations for Hidden Power Ice/Grass (took me hours upon hours of SRs back when to get the perfect combos for 60 power). You're much more likely to see pokes with a 31 in 3-4 stats tops, and then odd numbers in the others.

I don't think anyone realistically even tries to get 31 in every stat. For most part, you'll want 30 or 31 in your main attack stat (ATT or SP. ATT), Speed (unless it's so low you might as well not bother) and then HP.
For defensive Pokemon it obviously the other way around. Defensive stats are good for offensive Pokemons as well, obviously, but it's more important to max your speed and and attack in most cases.

Breeding for perfect stats is virtually impossible, unless you are willing to do several generations, because the egg will always inherit 3 of the parents IVs. Which means, that if you don't have at least 3 different perfect IVs on the parents, you can never breed one that has 31/31/31/31/31/31 spread. And even if both parents have three perfect IVs, you can still get unlucky and the egg inherits the crappy ones. If you do get lucky and the egg inherits three perfect IVs, you are still rolling for the remaining three. And if the parents have perfect IVs in every stat, why the hell are you still breeding? :D

[Rokku]

Pretty much. Which is why you either spend hours upon hours using selective breeding and then manipulating RNG for certain things in D/P/Pt, or you do some breeding, get a pokemon with 2 31 IVs in good stats and the right nature, and then EV train them.

People make a big deal out of it, but honestly EVs make a much, much larger difference than IVs do. It's just a min-maxing thing. To be honest, the odds that something like a 15 IV difference in HP (31 HP IVs vs. 16 HP IVs with the same EV spread) is going to make the difference between an OHKO and a 2HKO are slim to nothing.