Tomas Elliot

Aruma was still pondering on the infos hr companions had given her, trying to figure out a gameplan. This is... Not good. Definitely not good. Let's try and recap: we have bulky offense, all-out offense, and a bit of support from a source that doesn't really have a sturdy body, or better yet, doesn't have a body at all... And then there is Fluffy. Aruma grabbed the Dusk Ball that was attached to her belt and showed it to the rest of the group. I cannot call her out right now, because she would cause a huge mess with her Sand Stream ability, and well, causing a sandstorm in an urban area isn't exactly the best way to sneak into a city unnoticed... So yeah, a Zangoose, a Mismagius, a Leafeon anda Tyrannitar: I am not going to lie, this is the worst team I've worked with in my entire life, we will need to think out of the box to sort this out... Aruma thought about it for a little more. You know what? I think I've got it: just follow me ok? I will enter the ground floor of target building and... Well, let's say I will provide a diversion: when you see the occasion, sneak upstairs and get rid of the acolytes of second floor. Basically, I will provide cover for you so that you guys get to second floor: from there onward, you just beat up as many people as you possibly can ok? As for me, I will just secure the ground floor and then join you... Everything clear? If there aren't questions, I say let's do it! And without waiting for an answer, Aruma stood up and marched straight towards the target building, leaving the rally point behind and assuming that her comrades of Squad 1 would follow her...

My replies in bold

Just clarifying that this is only a "scout" topic, to see if people would be interested and gather ideas. The actual sign-up topic will be started as soon as we figure out everything and we are ready to start... Should be next week if everything goes as planned!

Ok then, as soon as I myself figure out the details I'll PM them to you (this might take untill monday due to university business getting in the way), and then we will decide if we can get the job done by ourselves or if we need a third co-host. Meanwhile, if anyone else wishes to share ideas for improvement, comments, feedback and the likes, please feel free to

Guys it would be bad enough if we started arguing about this RP in this topic, but arguing in this topic about another roleplay really makes no sense... Let's stay on track! We have a city to conquer!

Well, it is not a matter of usual or unusual... It is a matter of roleplaying! Can imagine how boring a roleplay would be if each player was forced to stick to one move? Also, we would have warriors capable of transforming, each with a cute monster partner that only knows one signature move anc can evolve up to level Mega: lolDigimon...

Speaking of which: have we managed to officially confirm that the decreased endurance of weather we have heard about is caused by new game mechanics and not just Froakie's hidden ability? Because there are rumors pointing in both directions...

Well no, as I said the idea is to let every Pokemon use any amount of moves, to the discrection of the player. Remember this is not a videogame: this is a written RP, which means that the effects of the moves, both in terms of damage output and side effects, will bue determined more by the way you describe your strategy and your actions, rather than a fixed system. This being said, the basic idea is this: a Pokemon is capable of using, from the very beginning, all the moves that its species learns via Level Up, plus all the Egg Moves. You will also be able to teach your partner moves that its species can only learn via TM and/or Tutoring, but it will cost you Link points. Or at least, this is my idea, but if anyone can come up with something better...

lol. But seriously, all I was asking for was some feedback on the actual gameplay features of the RPs that I came up with in my last post (which I will admit is a bit long ;-; ), rather than on the game itself...

Aruma listened to the briefing, but one part of her mind was still trying to figure out a plan. The more she thought about that, the more the situation looked complex... From the depths of her bizarre clothing, she produced a map of the city. People of Squad 1, would you please have a look a this? When she was sure that all 3 her comrades were paying attention, she continued. This is actully an old map, but still it marks the locations of the Eterna Condominiums and the now-closed Pokemart. And as you can see, they are awfully close. And if it wasn't enoug, they are also awully close to the gym. So yeah, if something goes wrong and we need to flee, we will find the site of Squad 2's operation, OR will will end straight into the gym. We are between a rock and a hard place, so we cannot just go there and kick some metaphorical butt. We need a plan, and we need it now. And I ned to know something more about your battling mentalities and the abilities of your respective Pokemon partners to figure out one. She then realized that she was speaking like a boss, a person in charge of the mission, despite the fact that nobody had ever given her such an authority. She therefore quickly added O-of course, if you want to... B-but it really seems to me that it would be the most clever thing to do in order to prepare a good strategy, don't you guys think so?

Ok, thanks for insights Since I am in Squad 1 I will go post straight away EDIT: I thought Ttar was a Godzilla-esque thing? I imagined it to be far taller than that...

Landing Monferno's hits is no hope work: you know the candy shop? They sell Common Candies, which can reduce the level of your Pokemon... Just feed some of those to your Monferno untill it starts obeying again! Leveling Togepi a little more might also help, and... Well, since you named Trubbish, it could prove useful as a lead because it would be able to lay Toxic Spikes unopposed, and Cradily's stalling strategy is kinda ruined by Toxic Spikes... This being said, good luck!

Ok I will admit the tones I used gave away a bit too much the fact that I am a biased stall hater (I won't reply to your point according to which stall provides "diversity", because we would end up arguing over something that isn't the focus of this topic). But my point stands: every time a new generation, with new awesome offensive mechanics, comes out, lots of people proclaim that stall is dead. But it is never the case. And I am positive that Gen 6 will not be different: a lot of talking about how Mega Evolutions will turn the game in favor of casual kids who know nothing about strategy and just want to enjoy the sheer awesomeness, but in the end the YGO-esque competitive scenario will once again take over, and stall will still be there. So yeah, if you are a stall lover, don't worry: your fav playstyle isn't dead

I have read the briefing for mission one, and I have noticed that we are making it very very realistic... However, now I have a question: since we are doing it so realistic, my Ttar is about as tall as the building, so how am I supposed to fight up the four floors? Also, is there some space for individual initiative and/or strategy? This question is related to the previous one: since Ttar cannot fit into the building (not to mention the fact that causing a Sandstorm indoors is not... Advisable) I had planned to use it for some sort of diversion. Basically, Ttar attacks the building, the Conclave guys rush ut to see what the hell is happening, and my teammates attack them from behind catching them off-guard. I guess this would be too much to ask uh? We are doing the usual "Yay sandstorms and earthquakes at the third floor of a building, and the structure is unharmed!" thing right?

Rusty actually gave me a great idea: I could very well take inspiration, for the setting of this RP, from European Middle Age. Come to think of it: Pokemon Conquest is inspired to the real events of the life of Japan's most famous Warlord, Nobunaga Oda... Now, who is arguably Europe's most famous Warlord from the Middle Age? Charlemagne, right? So yeah, the various events of the RP could be inspired to events in the life of Charlemagne, with Warlords being inspired to important people from that time and the final boss being inspired to Charlemagne himself... I think it would actually be very interesting... Also, @Acquiescence: I am sorry to hear that you are so busy, but since I will probably find somebody else to co-host this thing with me, I hope you can at least partecipate as a normal player... Actually, partecipating as a competitor would actually require much less effort (and time) than co-hosting, so yeah... And now some stuff I was thinking about the gameplay, about which I would like to hear you people's feedback: 1) I was thinking that, like in PMD, each species could have all the possible abilities at once. For example, a Blaziken would have both Speed Boos and Blaze (which would actually cause Torchic to cost quite a lot, should you pick it as starter/perfect Pokemon ). However, abilities with out-of-battle effects, such as Pickup, would not exist. 2) Actually, items as a whole would not exist: there would be specific, highly strategic areas in each map where you can heal your Pokemon, also when a mission is cleared and you return home your Pokemon would be automatically healed. The only existing items would be those needed for evolution (which would be obtained upon meeting specific requirements) and Mega Stones (each player, upon ranking up, would be given the possibility of acquiring one single Mega Stone, however only a Pokemon with Perfect Link would be able to Mega Evolve during a battle). 3) The Link system would be used over the experience/level system: basically, the more time you share with your Pokemon (as to say, the more missions you clear with it) and the more your Pokemon will grow stronger, eventually being able to evolve. Each player will begin with a Link of 10% with their initial partner: the results of the missions they take part in would then increase this value (the Wisdom stat would play a role in this); Pokemon that evolve via level up and those that evolve via friendship would instead evolve, in this RP, when a specific level of Link is achieved (let's take, for example, a standard 3-staged evolutionary family like Bulbasaur's: Bulbasaur would evolve into Ivysaur when a Link of 40% is achieved, and then into Venusaur when a Link of 70% is achieved); this of course would also aplly to those Pokemon that evolve when leveled up while holding a specific item: in this RP, they would evolve if they achieve a specific level of Link while holding said item (for example Gligar would evolve into Gliscor upon achieving a Link of 50% or higher while holding a Razor Fang). Pokemon that evolve when exposed to an evolutionary stone (this include those that evolve by trade, which would require Reborn's own Link Stone) would evolve whenever the player obtains the stone and decides to use it, at the cost of 10 Link points (a Growlithe with a Link of 60% reduces its Link to 50% upon being forced to evolve with a Fire Stone). Please note that this means that those Pokemon that need to be traded with a certain item held in order to evolve would require, in this RP, 2 items to evolve: the Link Stone and the evolutionary item to be held (for example, Protector for Rydon to evolve into Ryperior): these Pokemon would actually be tricky to evolve, and therefore they wouldn't have the 10% Link cost to evolve that other Stone evolutions have. Eevee would evolve into Jolteon, Vaporeon and Flareon via stone, into Umbreon, Espeon, Leafeon and Glaceon upon achieving 70% Link in specific locations (a place revolving around the theme of light for Espeon, a place revolving around the theme of darkness for Umbreon, a forest for Leafeon and a very cold place for Glaceon) and into Sylveon upon achieving a 70% link in a location that is not any of those required for the others. 4) The maximum Link a player can achieve with a Pokemon would be capped, depending on which Pokemon was selected as Perfect Pokemon at the time of the profile submission. Let's say for example that I choose Bulbasaur as Perfect Pokemon: I will be able to achieve at most 50% Link with those Pokemon that have type advantage over Bulbasaur (Fire, Flying, Ice, Psychic), 70% Link with those that have type disadvantage and/or are neutral to it, 90% Link with those that are of the same type as it (in the case of a dual-type Pokemon like the Bulbasaur of our example, BOTH types will need to be shared for this condition to be met, as in, I will achieve 90% Link only with dual-type Grass/Poison Pokemon) and 100% Link with Bulbasaur and its family only. In case of branched families, like the aforementioned Eevee or Ralts, picking the unevolved form as Perfect Pokemon will grant the capability of achieving 100% Link with all the final formes (this will make such Pokemon more expensive at the time of profile submission, however). Winning battles and/or completing missions will increase the Link with the partner (and I repeat, the bonus obtained will be influenced by the Wisdom stat) while being defeated will decrease such value. A Pokemon that is in a Perfect Link state (this means of course 100% Link) upon entering the battlefield during a mission, will be able to Mega Evolve during that battle if the player owns the appropriate Mega Stone. Pokemon that have less than 100% Link upon entering the battlefield won't be able to Mega Evolve even if the player is in possession of the required Mega Stone (this is to keep this uber-strong feature at check, allowing only the best strategists to exploit it). A Pokemon that has 0% Link (yes, in theory this is possible) may refuse to obey its master. Negative Values of Link will not be possible, nor will values over 100% 5) As for the battles, each player will have to think out of the box, exploiting the moves known by their partner not only to attack the opponents directly, but also to try and take advantage from the environment, hide to ambush unsuspecting enemies or spy on them, escape from dangerous situations and so on. Each Pokemon will be able to use, since the very beginning, all the moves that its species is capable of learning via level up, plus all the egg moves. The player will have the possibility of having their partner learn a move it could only learn via TM and/or tutoring, but it will cost them 10% Link (this includes the moves that are marked as "Start" in the learnset of a fully evolved Pokemon but not in the learnset of its pre-evos, thus requiring a Move Relearner to be learned). To know which moves your partner will naturally be able to use, and which moves will require to be taught at the cost of Link, please refer to the Bulbapedia page of the selected species. So, these are the gameplay features I have figured out so far. What do you think of them? Any feedback/suggestion to improve them? Any additional rule you would like to suggest?

Of course a co-host could not take part into the game as a competitor... As in: you either manage your own character or the NPCs, no compromises allowed on this regard. Since the game will be all about strategies, it is vital that those who manage the NPCs are absolutely impartial, and well, in order to allow you to manage the NPCs I would have to explain to you their strategy, which means that, if you had a character of your own, you would roleplay him/her knowing the strategies of the NPCs beforehand. And that would just be unfair. So no, sorry, you either play or co-host. And given your talent at roleplaying and the passion you displayed for this kind of ideas, I think I can guess what you will choose in the end

Sincerely, I have heard this "Stall is dead!" complain a lot in my life. Everytime I hope it is true, everytime I hope we are finally rid of ultra-boring heal-heal-heal-status-status-status-hax-hax-hax matches. But then somehow, someway, stall eventually returns. These Mega guys are the quintessence of brute force, yes. They are all about appealing to kids with sheer cool factor, yes. But eventually, people will find a way to still play it competitively in YGO-esque fashion, and stall will still be there. Mark my words.

Mostly, managing NPCs when I am not around, and/or replacing me when american people like you post at hours when here it is late night and I am sleeping, and they require a quick reply. You'd also help me creating the maps for the missions and figuring out the strategic part, which is a more complex thing that would require a detailed discussion in private, should you take the role... So anyway, anybody else is interested in this idea? Are there any suggestions to improve this?

I am GMT+1. And well, knowing the basic mechanics of the game (which are explained in the Bulbapedia page I linked in the OP) should be enough to help me run it... I would be the one to organize the missions, thus setting the game plan of the NPCs! However, if you had some basic understanding of strategy and game theory, that would only help... But it is not mandatory!

I guess this means you'd be interested in joining in You know, you and me actually share many interests, specially when it comes to roleplays: would you like to co-host this thing with me? I would really be happy if you did! Unless, of course, you prefer partecipating as a player/competitor to experience the thrill of actually going for the ultimate prize...