Amethyst

Seconding the above. I am -actually- looking for the refutation to my previous points and reasoning behind the popularity of the A choice because like I said I'm very surprised that so many people would be attached to grinding, and I do want to know why. Hilda says she'd rather grind than use scales; even if they become more common, would others agree? I don't, because they're already not a limited resource and nothing is gained by not using them. The change from grinding > scales seems to just save players a lot of time via a more interesting alternative. But my opinion is not the end-all here.

The couple times I listed are right before, non?

...That could be fun, actually. You guys are right, even though it hasn't had a role in the story, Absol's been Reborn's thing even before there was a game. Perhaps the Absol you catch later happens to appear after beating Corey, after saving Cain on Azurine... so on.

Sounds like Charlotte herself. c: *success*

See, this is the kind of stuff I'm going for: I'd much rather players find strong partners in this sort of way rather than them picking a Pokemon they know they already like (and have probably used 842 times before) and spending two hours grinding it up. Another goal of the game -is- to promote diversity, and Dobby's anecdote is an ideal case. Now the problem with our events-- and yes, even some wilds, which will also change-- is that in order for them to even be eligible to create this sort of scenario, they gotta be grinded up. In short, the current level of the events creates a scenario where two of the game's goals are in direct opposition to each other. I'm a little floored that A has been such the overwhelmingly popular option though. I only included it on the poll as a status-quo formality-- I expected a few people to pick it, but honestly I didn't think there would be any contest as to whether they should come at a low or high level; it was mostly to ask if they should be evolved or not. Now, just comparing B and C alone, I have an answer to that. But, with twice as many votes on A, I do want to discuss what exactly about grinding it is that players like. I am not very willing to change the goal of reducing grinding, basically because, as said by dondon, not to mention, it's boring as shit. So, let me review this thread and summarize what I understand to be the observed benefits of grinding: Gets all the dex entries Rewards hard work Feeling of raising a 'baby' Gets moves without heart scales EV Training along the way Adds gameplay time Worth it if the player likes the Pokemon Creates a bond My thoughts on each: Gets all the dex entries: Solved if we go Option B with our poll question Rewards hard work: I don't agree that grinding is 'hard work' so much as it is tedious work. To reward tedium is to encourage tedium, which is inconsistent with our goal. Feeling of raising a 'baby': This feeling is better-fulfilled and better-rewarded by breeding the Pokemon in question, on which increasing its level will not have a meaningful impact. Gets moves without heart scales: Fair, but I would much sooner increase the availability of heart scales instead (the Luvdisc rate has already been set back to 50% for E15), rather than create events that encourage or necessitate grinding. I believe that searching for those for half an hour is more entertaining than slaughtering Unown for two hours. EV Training along the way: Another valid point, although EV training is also in itself tedious (something Gamefreak acknowledged with the introduction of Super Training). Our ability to create such minigames for that is limited, but I'm interested in exploring alternatives to this to help sort out EVs on Pokemon that have run through the story, such as making EV-reducing items readily available at a certain point. Ideally any Pokemon should be able to be EV trained on-the-go. Adds gameplay time: with no added gameplay. Time spent is worthless if it's not interesting (looking at you, Bravely Default). I would much rather players spend 20 hours on a game and have a blast every minute of it, than have players spend 120 hours on a game and large parts of that time be a grindfest. Worth it if the player likes the Pokemon: This is not a benefit to grinding so much as a common echo in defense of it that I want to address. Per the aforementioned goal of increasing diversity, we're trying to encourage players to use Pokemon they might not normally want. So while raising Scraggy is totally worth it to the numerous Scrafty fans, other players won't see the twenty levels they need to raise it as being worth their time. On the contrary if they have happen to have a Scraggy that could be Shade-ready with just a few levels and some TLC, it requires much less of an investment on their part to at least give the poor thing a try so that they might decide 'hey, this is pretty boss, let's keep using it'. Creates a bond: I'll refer back to Dobby's anecdote and similar cases as the ideal version of this. Similarly I question if this 'bond' is a result of the Pokemon's capabilities, or a result of the fact that the player has already committed to putting so much time into raising the Pokemon in question that they feel like not-doing-so would be a waste. So in short I accept that given the current set-up being able to set moves and EVs along the way of the grind -is- a boon, but those are both elements that can be improved within the content of the game itself, and I intend to do so. Do others disagree with my points on this, or are there other benefits to grinding that we would be losing by setting event levels higher?

Actually this has already been added for E15.

Excepting duplicates, Normal- Lopunny Fire- Ninetales Water- Vaporeon Electric- Rotom Grass- Whimsicott Ice- Froslass Poison- Crobat Fighting- Mienshao Psychic- Gardevoir Ground- Gliscor Flying- Mandibuzz Bug- Volcarona Rock- Amaura Ghost- Misagius Dragon- Dragalge Dark- Absol Steel- Mawile Fairy- Sylveon

Interesting. This does work. Thanks. I'm not entirely sure why I had been lead to believe this was not an option (improper documentation in the past? maybe this became workable with a recent version? maybe i'm super bad? who knows) but this makes my life a lot easier, and invalidates half of this thread. Editing the OP/Poll accordingly.

The axe has fallen. Thanks for your input, everyone!

So it turns out Pokemon was not designed to have a million casual events, or to have the story extend well beyond the ~level 50's. Oops. So there's a couple different issues that need to be talked about regarding the usability of event Pokemon in-game. For problems like these, there isn't really a best solution, and in fact, there may not even be a good solution, so, I'm leaving it to you guys. Let's face it, some of the event rewards kind of suck, like when you get a Growlithe that's ten levels behind the rest of your team at that point in the story, or a Piplup that's... 40 levels behind your team. Like, why? And why bother? Well, many players won't. It's just not enjoyable to have to train up a new teammate three thousand levels higher to be able to use it, and requiring players to do so isn't consistent with the game's goal of reducing the necessity to grind as much as possible. So, back to the why, I'll talk about why it's like this in the first place. ...Because the alternative is just really awkward. That's the bottom line. That said, I acknowledge that awkwardness is preferable to tedium, which is why many of these events will have their levels increased with E15. However, we need to acknowledge the alternatives suck, and pick the lesser of the evils. So let's take an example like Piplup. There are three options: A) You get a level 15 Piplup, which is understandable, but raising it sucks. You get a level 50 Piplup and have to ask what kind of nutjob has been cramming Everstones down its throat for the past three years, and have to level it twice (oh noooo), before moving on with life. C) You get a level 50 Empoleon, which is awesome, but it also doesn't make sense because who's just going to part with the high-level evo form they raised? Plus you have to breed for the lower forms, and you don't get to feel like you've raised it. The pros and cons of each are pretty much that simple, but avoiding those weird parts of B and C is what lead me to put such events in at their current levels. Worth? I'll let you decide. --- The second half of this has been solved thanks to madf0x.

This is very perceptive of you and refers back to a tenant of sociology, the looking-glass self. "I am who I think you think I am." This can hold true in a number of circumstances, but the good news therein is that it means YOU have control over that. You just have to learn to exercise that power. Just because some anxiety is normal doesn't mean that it's unavoidable.

I'm kind of unofficially referring to the script patch Kuro posted with the save file change as 14.7. it also included AI improvements.

Probably not, once we get it to listen to us in the first place. As of 14.7 single's AI is looking decent. Doubles... has work to do.

I am a few steps ahead of you...

The only thing on her team that's guaranteed to return is her ace, Froslass. Not even Abomasnow is safe.

As of 14.6.2 doubles should be 100% organic crash free.

What has to change is the AI. The field won't burn if rain is up, and she's got 8-turn prankster rain-dance on her lead. When we get leader-specific AI, we'll reassess.

Don't count me out just yet.

The E9 banner was just some in-game graphics of relevant characters in that story section. It was also the first episode banner we had.

it's not asking about physical appearance. it's a meme right now. my aesthetic is a PS2 controller plugged into a broken Pullip doll and washed up on a beach of crimson water.

Yeah, he's super just fine. Or at least the body-double I replaced him with is. No one will suspect a thing, so hush!

So is Skrelp though. I had been considering the Water egg groups as an exception too, but looking through them, I don't really see it being defensible for a lot of these choices-- I feel that it would needlessly complicate an already somewhat unclear mechanic. So I'm going to pass. ...Besides, Dragalge's not outspeeding anything any time soon anyway.

Ah... No, that's a 14.6-specific error. Good catch. Will be fixed for 15, sorry.

If you ever need to start the episode from a specific place I generally make an effort to communicate that with the release. In this case, it should be just fine. Glad you're enjoying the game, and welcome!

That Ciel design looks amazing tbh. I don't know how well it would work for her kind of shows, but I can totally see her taking that up if she did ground performances