ty_taurus

I've never really understood why a developer would view free fan content as a negative in the first place, when it's really a positive. It draws more attention to your product from the people that make the content, and those that play it. Now, if someone charged for a fan game, that would be a HUGE difference.

That's a plausible argument, but you get so many heart scales through hidden items and soft-reset mining that I wouldn't consider a nature reset expensive. Remember that heart scales are only for move relearning, not tutors. Relearning can sometimes be very helpful, but it's usually only helpful once, and then you'll have all the moves that you want from that Pokemon since that move pool doesn't expand to anything that you didn't have access to through level up. Unless you're rotating like 25 Pokemon, I doubt you'll run out of heart scales. I have so many, I don't know what to do with them all. I tend to soft-reset for decent IVs on my Pokes. I tend to want 15+ in the stats I particularly care about for that Pokemon. Before the Pokemon Psychologist, I'd reset for a nature that didn't hinder me, like I wouldn't want adamant on my special attacker. Generally, any nature with a penalty in attack is good for a special attacker, and any nature with a penalty in special attack is good for a physical attacker. You don't really want a penalty in either defenses since it makes you easier to kill, and speed is only valid on slow Pokes that you want to exploit trick room or Gyro ball with. After getting the right penalty, I'm not too picky with the stat that benefits from my nature. With EVs, a really easy way to do it is to grab the Power items from the department store. I believe you need 4 stickers to get them? Correct me if I'm wrong. They add 4 EVs of a specific stat, depending on which item your Pokemon holds, after every battle. So if you have an Espeon, for example, toss on the Power Lens, and you'll just be building Special Attack EVs while you fight wild Pokemon and trainers. It does limit your Speed while equipped though, so just take it off when you go in for hard battles like Team Meteor bosses or Gym Leaders. Your EVs won't be perfect, but they'll be very close to it by the time stat reduction berries become available (which is after the end of the current episode at the moment, unless you mess around with old episodes). These berries remove EVs, which you could then use to remove the small amount of EVs you've built outside of your core, and quickly finish them off. You don't NEED this if you're using strong Pokemon, but I like to use much weaker Pokemon like Corsola, Furret, and Togetic, so the EVs really help me. Without the max attack EVs, my Furret would probably be dead weight. With it, he can do some really hard damage with Double-Edge and take out glass cannons that he would otherwise fail to kill.

I don't watch the anime very much, but something that always irks me is how a lot of people tend to complain that the anime doesn't follow the rules of the games very much. Things like Pikachu being able to take out a Tyranitar and a Metagross, where in the games, Lightball Pikachu wouldn't have enough damage, and its defenses would be too low to let it survive the beating it receives from Metagross. I want to flashback to an old episode from Season 1 of Pokemon, The School of Hard Knocks. Basically, Ash and co. arrive at a private school for Pokemon training. The students use a simulator that looks identical to Pokemon Red and Blue to gauge what outcomes a battle will have. Ash, Misty, and Brock argue with some of the students about how it's more than just type matchups, and Misty proves that to one student by defeating his Weepinbell with her Starmie. Then the top student shows up, agreeing that it's more than types, and proceeds to defeat Starmie with a Graveler. While the top student agrees that it's more than Typing, she explains that it has to do with things like levels and stats. Ash then beats her Cubone with Pikachu, despite Pikachu being considered to be "low level" according to the top student's analysis. I think the point of this episode was to showcase that the simulations, i.e. the Pokemon Games, aren't accurate to what Pokemon would be like in real life. The anime is trying to explore the fantasy of real world Pokemon, and things like levels, stats, IVs, and EVs just aren't real numbers. They're used in the simulator to give upcoming trainers an idea of how Pokemon will perform in a battle, but the reality is that living, breathing creates are a lot more than 1s and 0s. In essence, it means that the games are inaccurate to what Pokemon would actually be like far more than the anime is, simply because games need hard rules and lines in order to function. In the games, there's a hard limit to how much damage Pikachu can withstand, but with the Anime, Pikachu is allowed to break those rules because he's a living creature, and not a robot. He doesn't have limitations in the way that in-game Pikachus do.

I have a genuine issue with Pokemon such as this new sand castle Pokemon. Other offenders include Garbodor's line, Gothitelle's line, Vanilluxe (but not Vanillite and Vanillish), many Fighting-Types (such as Machamp, Machoke, and Hitmonchan), and several others, but I won't go on. This issue is NOT the fact that we're talking about 'a sand castle Pokemon' or 'a trash bag Pokemon' etc, but it's about their execution. Rather than taking the concept of a sand castle and cleverly weaving it into a Pokemon design, they simple draw a sand castle and smack a face on it basically. It's weird because there are other Pokemon that could have been just as bad to me, but the designers were very clever about the execution of that Pokemon's design. A great example is with Scraggy and Scrafty. They're designed to be punks with baggy pants and a hoodie. But rather than literally slapping some clothes on the lizards and calling it a day, they used the fact that Scraggy and Scrafty are reptiles, and that they wear their shed skin as baggy pants and hoods. You can even see the eye holes in the hoods on Scraftys. This was a clever way of integrating their theme into their design without having to be blatant. Gothitelle on the other hand just has a dress-like body covered in actual bows. I had a really cool mental concept of how Gothitelle's like could've looked by imagining that Gothitelle didn't have eyes, and instead created little white butterflies of psychic energy that would rest on her body and flutter around, sending mental pictures to Gothitelle in 360 degree vision. It's a complicated stretch, but anything that disguised the bows as something else would've worked for me. The same goes for how Vanilluxe just has a straw in it's head because it wanted to, when Vanillite and Vanillish are ice elemental beings that just happen to have an ice cream-like shape. I like those two for the same reasons I like Swirlix. Yeah, they're based on food, but they don't look exactly like food, and it makes sense how the People of the Pokemon world could base treats on these Pokemon much like we base real-world treats on some creatures, like chocolate rabbits during easter, or animal crackers. Vanilluxe, though, is literally just a frosty with a face. Just like the others I mentioned, Garbodor is a literal exploded trash bag, Hitmonchan is a literal boxer, and this new Pokemon is literally just a sand castle. It's not that they're 'bad' Pokemon, and in some cases they have really great ideas with their concepts and their powers. I just don't understand why Game Freak is capable of producing clever gems like Scrafty, Hitmonlee, and Swirlix, but insist on leaving others like Vanilluxe, Gothitelle, and this new sand castle with blatant elements that don't sew their concepts into their designs in similar ways.

Are you asking for there to be a Mega Zubat as well, then?

All we know so far is that there is a Z-move of every type, and that each type Z-move has a corresponding hold item required to use that Z-move. It's like the illegitimate love-child between mega stones and type gems. It's a once-per-battle super powered attack, but it isn't consumed after use like type gems are. I'd imagine they're immune to moves like Trick and Thief, as well as the Pickpocket and Magician abilities. To be honest, I'm not really sure how viable they will be. I question how valuable these one-time-use moves will be when you consider sacrificing the long-term reliability of items like Assault Vest, Choice Band/Specs/Scarf, Life Orb, Leftovers, etc... I imagine only a few Pokemon can get away with sacrificing their held items for that one-time powered attack. Revenge killers might appreciate them, but it also sucks that you won't be able to decide which Type to use in battle for duel-type Pokemon.

You could always add in the Alola forms first in some specific event earlier than the rest of the new generation. Would possibly make it easier to incorporate all of this new stuff by doing it in segments rather than all at once. Things like Z-moves probably wouldn't be accessed until the late and/or post game anyway, so it's not like those would have to be programmed anytime soon.

So what exactly DID tyrogue add to the game other than a pathetically weak Pokemon with a shallow move pool and a convoluted method of acquiring Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, and Hitmontop that could've otherwise been ignored had these three just hatch from their own eggs without tyrogue? For that matter, what would a baby Tauros/Miltank add besides ANOTHER pathetically weak Pokemon and ANOTHER convoluted method of evolution? If your answer is "Egg Moves," then explain to me: if Game Freak wanted to add more moves to Tauros' move pool, why can't they just add those moves to Tauros' level-up moves? The categories of "Level Move," "Egg Move," "Tutor Move," or "TM Move" are ultimately superfluous ways of segregating what moves Pokemon can have. New moves can be added to ANY of these categories, so there's no need for any move to fall under "Egg Moves," specifically because there are no moves that are completely restricted to the Egg Move category. All baby Pokemon do is make it harder for you to acquire their evolutionary forms by giving you a statistically weak Pokemon with a horrible move pool that can rarely hold its own in a fight. They do this by having those horrible methods of evolution (happiness in most cases) which means you're often forced to level your baby Pokemon 20+ times, if not more, which can sometimes cause you to miss really helpful moves that their evolutionary form would've learned had you not have to deal with its baby form.

So I was thinking about how Meowstic works in Reborn right now. The males and females have different stats and move pools, but how exactly does that work in terms of RPG maker? I'm curious if the same mechanics will eventually be used for the Alola forms in whatever episode they are introduced.

I still fight that Game Freak has never removed anything that was so directly related to the combat mechanics of Pokemon no matter how broken or powerful. Mega Evolution might be a post-game only type deal, but there's no way they've removed the mechanics completely. They have never removed an evolution, move, ability, type, or anything else. They have reworked some things, or rebalanced them, such as the physical/special split.

They don't remove things that are directly related to combat and battle mechanics is what I should've said.

Game Freak doesn't "remove" things. I highly doubt Mega-Evolution will get removed, though it's up in the air if they're just going to leave the current Megas as the only megas for a while, and that would be kind of disappointing. I think it's really sloppy to introduce new mechanics and then abandon them for newer, shinier things. I don't want Pokemon to become Yu-Gi-Oh.

Can we talk about Z-moves and their dances for a moment? We know there's a Z-move for every type, and a corresponding dance. So what on Earth is the Ghost Dance, Fairy Dance, Rock Dance, Ice Dance, Dragon Dance (not the move), and Dark Dance going to look like??

So, the stats you've chosen for your starters are very polarized for some reason, and I'm not sure that's such a good thing. Why does your Rock starter have 110 / 130 in attack and special attack, respectively? Here's the thing about dedicated mixed attackers like that: I'm far more inclined to use a physical set from this Pokemon since it's coverage is better and its stab moves hit harder. So that 130 in special attack is essentially wasted, since I won't be using it in combat. That is a huge amount of points going unused, when they could be helping me take hits by going toward defense and special defense. Mixed attacking is gimmicky because there just isn't enough room in 4 moves for adequate coverage for both physical and special attacks. I would rather have 40 base special attack, and split those 90 extra points between my defenses. Now, not only do I hit hard and move fast, but I also won't die to a feather hitting me. It wouldn't have to be that specifically, but it's just an example. Why does your Flying starter try to replace Skarmory? I think it's really unfair to Skarmory for another Pokemon to be designed specifically to do his job better than he can. Where does that leave Skarmory? Why is it so important to make Skarmory obsolete by creating a Skarmory 2.0? What's wrong with designing your Flying starter to have its own strategy? These are all questions I have when a Pokemon like this is conceived. As a last tidbit, I think 540 totals might be a teeny-weeny bit too high. Charizard, Infernape, Typhlosion, and Delphox sit as the highest base stats Pokemon at 534 right now, which is only 6 points lower, but they're a lot more balanced, and so those points are less polarized. Maybe base 530 would be a little less harsh.

Touché That puzzle in the factory with Abra, Ditto, and the others have a few repeat Pokemon that can be found elsewhere (Jigglypuff/Vanillite/Roggenrola/Makuhita/Loudred) Loudred and Jigglypuff are pretty central to the puzzle, so maybe changing the early acquired Whismur and Igglybuff with other Pokemon (Say Bounsweet for Igglybuff and Komala for Whismur? Will depend on their strength ultimately) Meanwhile, in the puzzle, swap Vanillite for Alola Vulpix and Roggenrola for Rockruff. We don't have any new Fighting types or Alola forms that are fighting, so seeing who could replace Makuhita will be determined later. Since they're all acquired much later, their strength might not matter as much.

I think Ame and the developers have talked about applying Gen 7 to the last chapter, but not throwing them all in the post game and, instead, redistributing them to areas that have a lot of repeats. I could see some cool events being added too, like an Oricorio event where some dancer has you choose which one you want to start of with earlier in the game, and adding the flowers that change them to Route 1 or something which you can't access until much later from the point at which you get them. It would make players think for a hot minute about which type to get, but I suppose it would depend on how strong Oricorio turns out to be. I do agree that the Pom-pom style one NEEDS to be on Julia's team. Maybe her secondary signature next to Electrode. She could pull off doubles really well by having her Pom-Pom Oricorio use Protect while Electrode uses Explosion. As for Alola forms, There could be some special tourists from Alola that hang out in the Grand Hall and will trade you Alola form Pokemon for the normal forms.

Difficulty is subjective to your team and how you play. If you're concerned with difficulty, then you can make the game harder on yourself. Take the exp share and how it applied to your whole team. If you want the game to be harder, just don't use it. If you want a bigger challenge, use weaker Pokemon like the ledyba we saw early game, as well as other Pokemon that are weaker through stats, typing, or move pools. You can always add challenging features if you want to increase the difficulty of your experience.

Ninetales' hidden ability is currently Drought. Would it make sense for Alola Ninetales to have Snow Warning then?

I'm secretly okay with removing all the gen IV added evolutions, applying their stats and move pools to the Pokemon they evolved from, and pretending the evolutions never existed. The only ones that aren't a bandage problem to a bigger solution are Gallade and Froslass who just became split evolution options instead of trying to fix past mistakes. Then there's Glaceon and Leafeon whom I love the designs of, but I feel like they were only added to give Flareon some family company down there in the depths of NU/PU.

Most of the Pokemon I like are lower tier. I like to provide myself with the added challenge by using mons like Furret and Corsola, especially since I know how to work gym battles the way I want to, like with setting up on Noel's Wigglytuff. I tried using Ledian, who's my favorite Pokemon design wise, but there's just no saving that poor ladybug. All he could hope to ever accomplish was setting up a screen or two before dying.

I have to bring up a huge point that Noel leads with a Wigglytuff that's huge setup fodder. Noel was so easy to blast through with nothing but a Vivillon for me, as his Wigglytuff just sat there while I spammed quiver dance and used a paralyze heal before beginning the massacre of the rest of his team. Cinccino didn't stand a chance. Any Pokemon that can set up is capable of doing this against him.

Mega Ledian could possibly see Huge Power as an ability. With its diverse physical moveset, redeeming its pitiful 35 base attack in some way would be ideal. I mentioned before wanting to swap Attack with Special Attack on base Ledian. You could see something like: HP 55 | 55 Attack 55 | 85 Defense 50 | 70 Sp Atk 35 | 35 Sp Def 110 | 130 Speed 85 | 115 This with Huge Power could definitely push Ledian into a more respectable tier.

But think about mawile. Who could've imagined a Pokemon from the pits of NU rising to OU / ban list? You can't really assume a Mega Ledian would be worthless when you don't know what stats / ability it would get. Ledian's greatest asset is it's magnificent move pool. The right ability and stats could really make it powerful.

It could definitely be the answer if Gamefreak believed in boosting stats. This has only ever happened once beyond the Special stat getting split up, and that happened with the introduction of X and Y. A large handful of Pokemon got 10 points added to one of their stats. It was a very small buff, nothing dramatic. Ledian would require far more than 10 points to make it viable outside of PU. I think Gamefreak could at least switch it's attack and special attack, since it's move pool is significantly more diverse with physical moves. Beyond that, maybe removing Bug-Type's weakness to Rock? As it stands, Rock is a beastly offensive Type, and could stand to get taken down a peg. The only justification is that you can crush bugs with rocks, but Bug-Type Pokemon are just as big as non-Bug-Types, so that justification makes no sense. All the Bug/Flying Types would love dropping that vile 4x weakness to stealth rocks, even if it's still a 2x weakness.

My favorite Pokemon design wise is Ledian. What you have here are some interesting ideas, but I'd have to say they aren't realistic changes that Ledian could receive. For one, you're asking for two signature abilities, one for each branding evolution, AND two signature moves, again for each branch. That's demanding a lot for single evolutionary line. Second, Gamefreak doesn't add evolutions anymore. There haven't been any since Generation IV, and it was treated with mixed opinions on adding evolutions and pre-evolutions from the fanbase. Now that mega evolution exists, there's even less of a reason to add new evolutions when you could just add the mega form. Also, why segregate the genders? Ledian already has a difference between genders, the size of their antennae. All that said, there's plenty of room for a Mega Ledian to come into the picture. I'd assume it would most likely be Bug/Fighting, but I'm personally crossing my fingers for the Bug/Fairy, as I like the idea of paying more attention to the starlight theme Ledian has in its Dex entries.