Commander

...I don't think any of you guys can wrap your heads around how huge that word count is. Nanowrimo considers it an accomplishment to write around 80,000 words which is usually considered a book. 130,000 words is generally considered the length of a good sized story (sometimes considered a thick book). That aside, the amount of words here is considered normal for a story heavy RPG so don't let that scare you away from this game (hell, I love really long stories). I'm also wondering how you haven't gone crazy yet from the sheer amount of text needed.

Well, now that it’s been a while, I think we can all agree Fates is pretty much the weakest story rivaled with Fire Emblem Awakening. I feel like there are like five things that just weren’t handled properly and everything but Hoshido’s story was extremely rushed (especially conquest): Children in this game (they were riding on Awakening when they should’ve made Gaiden chapters imo to give more backstory) Kamui is a self-insert, which IS tries to play off as perfect despite some terrible choices Everything just feels too safe (Safe writing is usually boring since you should always take risks) Most of the Royals lack character IN THE MAIN STORY to the point they aren’t even there (remember all those big moments of Elise in the endgame of conquest. I sure don’t). The events in the story just don’t connect at all (some feel completely random and filler). (Not really one but I feel like adding it) Stop treating pre-promoted units like complete crap. Give them actual supports with characters other than the Avatar. Remember, I’m just a writer with a few years of experience vs a guy, likely with more years of experience, who would be getting paid and should’ve noticed a lot of these when going over the story. So I just thought about it for 20 minutes and somehow salvaged the mess of Conquest just by making a few changes (literally I made sure to keep most of the plot flow and maps untouched). I’m not making an award winning plot here, just something a bit more enjoyable. I’ll put it in spoilers so that people who haven’t played Conquest won’t get spoiled as I’m going through the whole plot here. Just note I’m going to glaze through the first part since not much changes. Prologue - Chapter 7: Chapter 8-12 Chapter 13-16

There is a lot I could say here, I mean quite a lot, but you just annoucened that you were on a month long hiatus that people, like myself, probably were completely unaware of. I haven't been keeping track of this game, but that feels a bit rude while people are waiting for a game. That's just me though so take that however you want. It'd also be nice to see a pic of progress or a scene in the game to kind of let people know you're making progress. A picture is worth a thousand words. The biggest point that needs to be clarified is what kind of programmer you need and how much of their time do you need. If it's simply a couple little programs that are too advanced for your team that need done, that's one thing (examples here are important), but it's another if you need them to log a few 100 hours of their life to help make this game function.

I see this question come up time and time again, but nobody seems to give an exact answer and it's always divided. While you can EV train, Reborn was designed around the fact that EVs are spread out unevenly between Pokemon so that almost any Pokemon can be used at any time allowing for a variety of teams. Obviously, a Blaziken is going to break the entire game with or without EVs and a Pokemon like Corsola and Blissey is going to be pretty worthless even with perfect stats. Yes, I called Blissey really bad as its a hassle to even use due to the lack of TMs. For the most part, it'll either make the Pokemon do a little bit more damage or take a little bit more hits. Speed, on the other hand, is probably the one which will make the game easier because its so important. Most Pokemon on the opponent's side will go down in two hits (this can also be applied to your side as well). If you attack first, the opponent's Pokemon goes down, but if they attack first, yours is going down. That alone can change the potential difficulty of the game into a complete joke. This could also be applied to Hardcore, but I did focus on making it difficult to use cheap strategies on the leaders. So in a nutshell, EV sets alone won't break Reborn, but the game may feel a lot easier because there's a whole thread dedicated to beating leaders along with walkthroughs of everything the bosses have and do, you've probably beaten the game already so you can prepare easily for the leaders, and the fact that Pokemon Reborn is designed as a game for people who kind of know how to fight with Pokemon, but they don't need competitive experience to play it. It was also designed so that any Pokemon could be used to enjoy it (within reason of course). The same exact argument could be said for the Hardcore mod I made. Yeah, it's a bit more difficult to get easy wins, but after enough people play it, I'm sure they can exploit every fight one way or another. EVs probably wouldn't affect the difficulty that much, but I certainly didn't design it to become a grindfest like that (I am actually against spending hours to grind). I pretty much designed it for people who feel Reborn is a bit too easy, but it's something that sticks as close to the Reborn feeling as possible. tl;dr: EVs can make the game easier, but there's quite a bit on what makes a Pokemon game easy or difficult. I usually just say, "Make the game as hard as you want," since there's so much you can do to make the game harder (set style, no items comes to mind).

I just want to add that there really isn't an incentive for someone to put Reborn on a mobile phone. It's just such a small group especially considering the amount of work that could be required to make this happen. It's very different from modding where you can tweak minor things with relative ease and add things or translating the game (since there's a ton of text in Reborn). You'd have to worry about functionality as well as possible lag crashes due to Reborn's structure. I hate to crush people's dreams, but the chances of Reborn ever appearing on mobile is about as slim as beating a level 50 amiibo blind-folded with only one arm in Smash.

I really need to just make a new thread so people stop asking where the link is at. Aright guys, I pulled an all nighter in which I got a little update done to see how it works out. I really feel bad about pulling his name now, but I officially have completed everything that Jamaka said he would do and didn't...such as changing Corey's Pokemon's overworld sprites during his suicide as well as the whole Oshawott event which has been beaten to death. That's not the big focus of this update though. There have been some glaring issues (baring the fact I give way too much experience) such as the lack of any TMs as well as the possibility of only being able to use Seaking as your water type which, in return, makes a couple Pokemon downright worthless (cough*Blissey*cough) to the point they shouldn't even be considered. Since Episode 16 is going to be delayed, I decided to test this out and see if people like this better or if it makes the game way too easy (which I doubt). Anyways, here's the link and the change log for 2.1: Mega: Link Mediafire: Link Change Log:

I notice some of you are getting a little impatient, but Reborn isn't going to move any faster if you keep sitting around and more or less try and think of ways to speed it up. Making a game takes time and even 5 months for a single episode could be considered fast...especially when there aren't that many people working on it and real life happens and can happen at any point. The best thing to do is look at something else to kill time. I mean we have the whole hardcore mod thing along with a huge list of potential fan-games that need support and love so there's plenty of similar things to go around. (And yes, I do enjoy feedback or anything on the hardcore mod). Heck if you like Reborn's story, I probably could point you to a couple games that may give you similar vibes that aren't even Pokemon. I know a big majority of us (including me) are waiting patiently and behaving because that's just who we are. It also might be because a few of us are insane and/or trapped in Ame's basement. But yeah, Episode 14 (and maybe 12) took a very long time until it came out and I think there were points people believed it'd never be finished. Of course that one map from where the battle with Blake all the way down to Ametrine City is humongous.

So I just finished Hidden Truths (though I haven't finished Revelations...I did spoil a little bit of the plot, but seriously, this is such a good dlc). It honestly is one of the weirdest, but definitely one of the better ones. If you liked the Forgotten Future (or whatever that Awakening DLC is) you'll love this DLC. I beat both on one attempt, but I certainly wouldn't say the maps are a walk in the park. The two royale fights really aren't worth your time, but I'd say Ghostly Gold and these are definitely must buy for all paths (Boo Camp is worthless outside of Conquest).

Gaining experience from catching Pokemon is honestly a minor thing except if you caught an overleveled one as the exp yield from grinding will more or less make up for that. I wouldn't really worry about that as we've spent almost 18 years without it and haven't died. I'm probably a year or two off, but you get the idea.

@ SS (...I just realized what that spells so I put a space...), There's nothing wrong with anything you did there, but I was just giving merely pointers to make it look a bit more mature and professional. Articles and the likes generally stick to being more mature and straightforward vs an original work which can range to just about anything. That's just my general basis though sometimes throwing a little laugh here and there can help keep people's attention. I also tend to throw a lot more "negatives" in my comments when first talking to someone to get a better idea what to give feedback on and focus on more. Likely if I read something else of yours, I'll avoid going in depth on stuff like repeated words and uncertainties only briefly mentioning them just to give you an idea. ------------------------------------------------------------ @ Rustytengo (and probably anyone else who wants feedback/criticism) I'll be blunt: the more info you give me, the better and more useful feedback I can give. If you tell me ahead of time about things you want me to look at because you don't feel you do them quite well, I can certainly look deeper into it and focus on that versus just reading the section 3 times (yes, I do read something three times...though the second and third are a lot of skimming) and giving my overall thoughts on it. I mean I'm fine with giving an overall generalization of what I think, but it saves me time sometimes when reviewing something since sometimes I can also skip something. I suppose I should give an example in case someone wants to review a RP post of mine for the heck of it: Just due to time constraints and often lack of motivation, my details in the posts I make are severely lacking. I could say that if there weren't pictures of the character and the Pokemon, it'd be very difficult to get an image of them they're so half fleshed out. I also know for the Ymora RPs, there were times it felt like I forced a 'mon in just to include them for that tiny segment with was to kind of show their view and personality. It's more or less a bad habit of only being in control of one character instead of the mastermind behind the whole world and story since I pretty much write novels with a bunch of characters who come and go (some of which only have small times to develop). I also want to mention that this doesn't mean that you can't talk about the things I mentioned, but it's more or less to make people aware that I know it's an issue, but I have some reasoning behind it.

Alright, I could probably go into a lot of discussion here about criticism, but how about I just let the critic takeover and discuss. I'm actually going to make a few different symbols to refer to what I'm talking about in the original section so that I don't have to repost the passage 100 times: Look at all the color there. Isn't it beautiful? I just want to start off with that you really did give a good message and got the point across, but the biggest issue is that there's a lot of subjective material in it. Hasty generalizations are bad, especially if you want to give a good impression. The worst culprit in this section was the term the yellow I highlighted at the start of the passage. If you're building a bomb that's supposed to set off at 10 minutes, but you make it go off at ten seconds, I sure hope someone would tell me I'm doing it wrong. Writing is the same way. I want to know if I'm doing something wrong so that I'm aware and can fix it. If you want someone to understand what you're saying there, maybe provide an experience and what you did about it. The next thing I want to cover is the term open minded in the emphasized part at the start. I like the whole phrase but I'm picky about open minded and how little you told us about why it's so important in your section. When I think of the term alone, it could be saying to accept criticism no matter who it's coming from. Understanding is covered in this section, but you never told us why we should listen and think about the criticism as a whole. Not all feedback is both good and bad, but from my understanding, you should be willing to accept you have faults and use feedback and criticism to improve or get around those weaknesses. I'd love some more on what you do with criticism here. My biggest pet peeve here had to be the use of probably. Critics in writing exists, not because they want to point out faults, they want to help you and ones are more familiar with will really guide you and give you advice. When I first read somebody's work, I generally just go into very broad and wide things as criticism can take a long time to pick out details. After I get to know the person's writing style better, I may negate certain areas and just plainly focus on what they want and need to work on. If a person is good at editing and finding typos, I won't spend time mentioning and correcting them which allows me to have more room for both constructive and positive feedback. I can confidently say that writing critics do want to help you in writing. There may be exceptions, but this is a good spot to use a generalization vs doubt. Don't ever throw doubt where you don't have to. "It's okay to feel sad or disappointed" From up front, there is nothing wrong with this phrase. This is more opinionated, but I feel like this isn't okay, but you can't always help it. Your greatest critic is yourself and you must learn to control it. There's also the issue that there is no right or wrong in writing which is also why criticism can be subjective. Sometimes a critic is wrong, I'll admit I've been wrong before. Sometimes after a bit of elaboration, instead of doubt and sadness, what someone says is wrong, was just written in an odd way, but with a few touches could be golden. This would've been the place to elaborate more on what you mean by open minded because this is not a simple black and white subject. Another minor nitpick is repeated words. The use of you and enjoy 3 times in each of the sentences I noted kind of stick out. Whenever I have a habit of using a word way too much, I put it on the ban list. The hardest thing I ever did was a chapter with first person perspective without the use of "I". It may feel difficult, but you'll force yourself to vary your word choice a bit more. The last little bit I want to talk about is that emphasis of ALONG. Generally, I say stick to italics for emphasis as capital letters seem like shouting. I don't care for them personally though as I feel they shouldn't ever be needed unless it's supposed to stick out like a sore thumb and usually be the first or only thing people read. It's a minor nitpick, but not using cap words makes you look a bit more professional. I'll end this critique on a high note. I really liked the line and use of "The point of criticism is to better ourselves" along with that tiny paragraph at the end. You did get that point across which is the whole point of that section. It's a really good message especially remembering to include it's all about having fun. Sometimes I feel people forget that causing doubts and worry if their writing is any good.

I actually do agree with you. That's even why I put in things in criticism that can be talked about so casually such as a favorite character. Generally through, I welcome any type of discussion on anything I do so long as its the truth. I've seen people fear saying stuff as it might make them look bad, but I gained a reputation of being the one guy to go to as he was completely honest. But I pretty much enjoy everything on equal terms, but I like really long comments because they're easy to go back to and fun to respond. You could give me 50 comments on anything I write and I would respond to every single one as writing is a passion. And I know Dobby said that criticism can be hurtful, but I actually was part of a community that sometimes backlashed against criticism as it was considered "hurting others and putting them down." Since this is more about the reader, I decided to not include anything about when to take and ignore criticism because surprise, surprise, that might make someone think giving criticism is completely pointless, which it's not. Criticism from a writer's POV is a really big topic in and of itself which if people want me to do more of these, I would certainly cover it. And Huk, yes, please pin this. I kind of was expecting that because yeah, it's a post I want people to go to if they don't know what to say on something they read and get the writer's perspective. (I'm also going to add Aqui's post in the OP since it's better written than anything I could add).

It was originally going to be called saving the world, but I felt setting was a better pun there given they're the same thing SS, you may feel like a hypocrite at first (don't worry, I've struggled with word choice, but I have a dictionary just in case and I have ways to use simple words in unique ways), but you wouldn't believe how much it helps. I was really weak at details at first because my brain sometimes just couldn't grasp visuals which is a major problem.

Can I just say that those windows are some of the most beautiful graphics I've seen in a Pokemon game. No, I'm dead serious about that.