Commander

Demice, I really honestly wish training and team designing was really that simple, but unfortunately it isn't. The biggest influence on how good a Pokemon will be is by it's nature as it's honestly the most influential believe it or not. EVs I generally treat as that extra punch to make certain mons stronger or bulkier but it's really hard to notice 252/252/4 spreads instead of let's say a 252/128/128 split. IVs on the other hand don't really make that much of a difference unless they're super low or super high. This is where games different from the metagame as almost all of your opponents will have a speed advantage in which I generally add a little bit of bulk since 2 slightly weaker hits are often stronger and effective than a single super strong hit. So if you infest all of your EVs into straight up attack for a mon with some good bulk behind it, you could in reality just have let it be one shotted vs having all your evs being spread. Though Glass Cannons do not need bulk evs since they're going to be one shotted by almost anything anyways (unless there needs to be a few to survive a certain degree of attacks). My knowledge doesn't come from numbers but from experience in running a full range of mons with different kinds of spreads as well as plenty of enemy team designing. You can read and throw numbers at me all you want, but pretty much I will tell you that people who keep and eye and avoid super weak/hindering EVs, IVs, and natures, though not focused on it, are almost going to be just as fine as those who focus on perfecting them since the difficulty between those two ranges is nonexistant.

Generally if an event Pokemon is missable (like Whismur or Cacnea) it'll be found in the wild eventually. I believe Cricketot is found in the wild in North Adventurine Forest (I know it's one of the forests but I forget which one) and is quite common.

I don't really like discussing a situation like this as it merely is a debate about two evils, but neither side is really evil. Nintendo probably doesn't enjoy shutting these things down (though there are situations where they may seem like it) and this is one of those few understandable situations. Let me start with Nintendo's side in this situation before you go all out on saying what they're doing is wrong and it's ridiculous. Nintendo is a company (more specifically GF) that develops games to make money. Fan-games are non-profit which is generally fine and why that line is generally not crossed. Suddenly a free game using their materials is getting so much population it could reach Sun & Moon levels of fans and discussion. The news was spreading like wildfire and if you treat fan-games like ROMs and emulators, something at that level could cause a mess or deeply impact their profits especially since they're doing what GF does from scratch making new Pokemon and all. I'd likely take action, not because I'd be against someone making a fan game, but more so methods to stop/reduce the surge in popularity and discussion so my game would maintain almost the same level of profits. Nintendo also has some of the most prized franchises in Video Game history with a legacy unlike anyone else so you can't really blame them for being a bit overprotective sometimes. Doesn't always mean it's right though. Fan-games, especially Pokemon, indeed break the copyright infringement rule but with so many other illegal stuff going around on the internet, you can only stop so much so it's merely best to leave the harmless stuff alone (which nintendo doesn't at certain points). I'm not saying people shouldn't make fan-games since there are plenty of reasons and good ones to do so, but to accept the terms and prices that can come with doing so.

I'm going to give the shorthand version of it in that you use a few of the buttons in the typing thing to kind of make it look like that so more or less experiment on your own. Just go down to reply options and click preview if you ever want to see what a post looks like before posting it.

There are people like me who literally go: Screw EVs, IVs, nature, and abilities because I don't need them. I barely had any trouble and most of my EVs and IVs were defense in my Episode 15 run of course a lot of the mons I used got pushed back a little ways so you'd have to work to use them (though that Trapinch took forever to get). Speaking of that Altaria, I actually had a bit of trouble with that (the rest of Ciel was easy) because it kept sing spamming me before knocking my mons out. That...and I was really underleveled all the way through reborn. Like 68-70 for my end team underleveled. But yeah don't worry about perfectionism since that hardly effects the difficulty (sure it might make it easier but the actual difference isn't worth the effort) as the Pokemon choice has a much greater impact on difficulty. That is also why you should always carry a mon with Sturdy as well since it does wonders.

I'm afraid to answer anything on the subject for the sake of this turning into a big discussion. It's Ame's call what to do (though I probably have a very good idea what the answer will be) with Reborn and all we should do is generally respect that decision and not linger on it.

The only difference between 2.1 and CoM is that I changed the Ciel fight (and the CoM postgame), but if there was ever a need to worry about saving inside a certain location or avoiding one I would generally tell you. The only place that gives errors is if somebody saves in Shelly's gym and tries starting up regular reborn. And that should never be an issue unless a certain old map gets revamped or updated.

Well...Serra without her field advantage is really, really weak but doubles Serra if she outspeeds you, you are royally screwed from my hilarious montage of getting destroyed. She's one of the leaders who relies way too much on her field and the AI is not her friend. Sirius took a while to get to good level in difficulty though Sigmund is way more competent for some odd reason. I'm going to be interested in what happens during the next leader unless you cheese it and do the singles fight instead.

Baldr, I absolutely agree with you that items really just drag a battle on. It literally would only take about 10 minutes to do a separate, but it shouldn't be that hard to turn it into a separate mode on the actual Hardcore. That one is just a basic edit of the challenge mode script merely to read different fights for the game. Since I made CoM I have everything set up scripting wise so if someone wanted to disable items, they'd simply need to make an Or statement and add a switch in. I have some free time so I'll add that list in my things to do. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So to summarize my progress: everything is done but a randomizer (and the thing above) which is being dropped not because it didn't work, but it broke everything else in the process so it'll be a long while before I figure that mess out if I ever do. Nostalgia mode and the Corey mon quest were my bigger focuses anyways. Let's just say I'm going to have to give Trev or the Beta tester a text file in how to get it so they don't screw it up since I'm not going to make good mons easy to get. Still going to be roughly a week or so before I upload anything, but soon. In the meantime, enjoy this pic of me getting destroyed by the one and only hax queen. Nerfing this fight to manageable levels is not fun. That mamo is the bane of my existence.

The mega ring is very easy to disable (for the player) so I'm not too worried about when and where it gets implemented. Since I've had plenty of experience messing around with Megas, I can honestly say they aren't as strong as people think to the point I never thought "Oh, I wish I could give so-and-so more than one mega." Well...maybe only giving a pulse fight team a mega, but that'd be it. A mon better suited for a field effect is far stronger than a mega anyways. I'm going to take a guess that it'll either be available in this episode or episode 18 as I feel that's the right time to include it to bring those weak mons back into action. We've kind of reached the point where the super strong stuff really isn't worth the time to train unless you feel like breaking the game. But in all honestly everything is kind of a mystery so anyone's guess is as good as mine. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- @Marcello: I've actually looked back at some of the older reborn episodes and it's amazing how much better graphically (and gameplay wise) each episode gets.

I think there's like an almost unanimous poll that Kiki is the easiest gym leader in hardcore and everything in her episode bar ZEL is really easy. As for the difficulty, I designed the game's difficulty based on a team with 0 IVs, 0 EVs, and super potions up until Samson, along with shift mode to get a feel for the difficulty and how well performing they were. Shade wasn't supposed to have a Mega (I did originally plan for Mist Corey to have a Mega Beedrill, but that was way too insane), but it was a Banette that I just for the life of me could not get to work well. So that whole thing was basically a YOLO in which I gave his Gengar like 0 IVs and negative speed iirc. His revamp team is much better than the old one which is still on my youtube channel. Solarence actually planned for Kiki to have the first Mega and it being Mega Cham. Cal and Victoria are kind of exceptions since that's the only Cal fight and that's probably the last Victoria fight for a long time. I generally try to pick out a Pokemon that'd best suit the leader without being OP but as you'll see sometimes I throw a left hook so you'll never know. And yeah, I suck at designing fire type teams for some odd reason. Edit: I dare you to fight Fern on Route 1 on a Rainy Day if you think Amaria will be bad.

If need be, you can place a request in the Hardcore page in the Fan-game expose along with discussions of modding it (depending on the quest I may deny it for reasons or make it private) along with discussion of other mods that have hardcore involved with them until a proper place is established for discussion on all mods. KisuoX has made it quite clear he does not welcome discussions on mods not made by him and I'd rather not get dragged into something. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On a different note, the Insurgence level system mod is bugged in which any Pokemon at the cap gains 1 exp point per ko whether or not they participate in battle. While it's not a major issue, it can get very annoying should someone grind-a-thon in the game.

I feel sorry for the spriter who has to make Alola Exeggutor since it'd have such small details to fit on the screen (though it'd probably be shorter than the actual thing a smudge since it's ginormous). And again, Gen VII is going to be an all or nothing situation as it's been clearly defined with the mons. There is almost zero reason to do the forms first since we don't know what exactly to expect. Z moves aren't happening. Don't care what I have to do to stop Ame, but they are not happening as I have enough broken things you guys get to deal with already. In all serious though, it's very possible to implement it's going to grind down to whether or not it should be implemented. If all it's purpose is for a stupidly hard hitting move, then it'd just sacrifice strategy for power for both player and opponent alike. Though it looks as if it's tied to the whole mega situation so we'll have to wait in see what it is before being too quick to judge.

Oh boy I can honestly say I've played both roles for many series so I'll just list the ones I'm a veteran and ones I'm a newbie: Veteran: Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Legend of Zelda, Mario Series minus the classic mario bros, Legend of Heroes, FInal Fantasy, Xeno series, Kingdom Hearts, Animal Crossing, and probably a crap more. Newbie: Hyperdimension, Tales of Series, Persona, Dragon Quest, Metroid, and again probably a lot more. I'll start with Pokemon since I can honestly say it's not the main games that are my problem. Gen I was not the best gen at all and I could argue 3-5 were for many reasons. Gen VI is on par with Gen I tbh since both gens were very lacking in many areas. What make the RBY games so successful was how simple and fun it was using those cute little mons to kick butt. Most of us didn't even know what we were doing which just added to the fun since there was so much freedom. It was also something you could talk about to almost everybody, just like with Pokemon Go today. Gen VI is my least favorite Gen (I'll admit I didn't like V until B/W2 which redeemed its faults...still a good gen though) because they took what we all liked about Pokemon and threw it in the trash. Sprites are gone after almost 20 years of buildup. Difficulty has been simplified and dumbed down (all leaders only having 3 weak Pokemon, really?), and the huge postgame is...nonexistant. ORAS just didn't hold the candle to what Emerald was either. That is combined with basically the removal of all those spinoffs which is what made Pokemon so good. A new gen was just an introduction to a whole big collection of stuff to come. Now...we've gone from V to VII with almost nothing but the MD series. I worry Gen VII will be just as hollow of a shell of a gen as VI due to all these changes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Now for Fire Emblem. Awakening and Fates are not terrible shitty games as people sometimes address them. Awakening had a poor storyline, but it's design was made so well to attract such a broad audience and its sandbox design was ingenious. Map design and story are lackluster but there's many diamonds in the rough with it to be worth playing once. Fates fixes all of Awakenings problems in terms of gameplay to the point it works very well. The removal of the weight system is the only glaring issue with newer FE games. Then there's fates which is all over the place. Conquest was well done other than the low budget story. Birthright isn't too bad of a game either but it runs pretty much as an average game with just a bland story, and then there's Revelations where they did not quality check this game at all. It's just an example of when a company become overambitious and it stings them in the ass since there's so many inconsistencies. I can see why somebody would see it as their favorite since there's so much to do while vets could absolutely hate the changes that come with it. Heirs of Fates is the exact difficulty a Fire Emblem game should be and with time and effort how well it can be pulled off. A lot of people such as myself expect a subpar story from FE that has it's moments and interesting characters, but it all grinds down to map design and gameplay. Quite a few fates maps actually are in my top 10 favorite FE maps. It's just the whole Hoshido vs Nohr is in reality Newbies vs Veterans in terms of what FE should really be but neither side is truly right. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm just going to bring some closing remarks that how well games age really shows how good they are. Look at Legend of Zelda Wind Waker, that game is over 10 years old and still can compete graphically with modern games. Nostalgia is also a beautiful and evil thing when talking about older games since times and expectations change. I hate FFVII which is a lot of people's favorites since I didn't play it in that era. I felt is was far immature in the writing and the whole praise sephiroth just got old fast. Nowadays, I try digging around for old gems and have really expanded my RPG gaming library to the point I can say I'm an RPG gamer. I still remember the days where I was so closed minded that I wouldn't play anything other than nintendo. Now I'm willing to pass up on the NX since I have plenty of other series to occupy my time. Just goes to show you that keeping an open mind lets you explore so many new games you'd never know you'd enjoy. Now excuse me while I go play my second run of Cold Steel before the sequel comes out in a month.

I accept that challenge. So glad you didn't say Hardcore.

Interesting run, but as an FYI he did have a Haunter and Raticate which the latter will save you from so many headaches that are about to head your way in the demon we call Julia. Gonna call it right now that you will deeply regret picking a water starter instead of a grass one (though you did beat both Julia and Florinia with a water mono which was golden).

Gan-Mac...being Gan-Mac The Kadabra looked at the little Chikorita thinking about how he should word his thoughts. "While I may be a Psychic type, my powers are far weaker than most of my brethren. The only assistance I could bring is putting one or two of them out of their misery if it must be. However...that will have to wait." He looked over towards a bird. In the olden days, it wasn't uncommon to see one approach as a method of keeping contact with survivors. Even a loner like himself would pass on messages of danger. Once again he pressed his finger to his head, this time looking at the bird. "I don't know who you are but if you have business with me, speak now." He figured the bird meant nothing by its presence, given how different the Sky Pillar was from the rest of the world, but these days you could never be to sure.

Let me put it this way: you are already in the red zone by using Pokemon in the game so remixes with the creator's permission is the best course of action, and if you're going to use official songs...it's going to grind down to how far you want to go in the red zone. For Hardcore, I ride in the shadows of Ame's work and will never truly reach popular levels so I don't worry about my selection. However, I use GlitchxCity themes to be consistent. Ask permission and if you get an okay it's completely safe so long as you give credit. Just tread lightly when using official stuff though.