Octavius

Sunday at 11:25 PM

Awesome! I'm glad you found an interesting strategy to defeat the major! There are lots of new moves and abilities to help some unexpected Pokemon find a meaningful spot in a team composition. Our 'boss' battles all employ different battling styles, and we hope players find new ways to adapt to the unique challenges each presents!

(Also not to self-plug, but feel free to stop by our discord if you enjoy chatting about the game!)

Sunday at 12:58 PM

Thanks for the heads up! That would be caused by a 'through on' effect that wasn't bookended by a 'through off'.

I don't see any of those occurring in or around the area you're referring to, though, so I'm not sure what might have caused that. Still, glad it didn't persist!

Hope you've been enjoying the game so far!

November 21

Hot Rod Hank's!

November 20

Pokemon Empire Episode 3 is officially here!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pbQz3PEyrjQIweLoPFaY9y2sHBDU7MQN/view

The changelog is MASSIVE. Check out our discord if you're interested.
But there are two new starters, a brand new AI, and tons of new content to explore in Illyria!
Enjoy!

November 14

"Something's come up. In Illyria. Do NOT check in at the outpost. Here, this is your assignment. We've been keeping tabs on them for some time now.

This needs to be done cleanly. Remember, the most important thing is to recover the target.

Everything else is secondary. Use the asset as you see fit, but make certain there are no loose ends.

And there won't be a problem with any... personal... conflicts of interest regarding this assignment, correct?"

"No, sir. I'll get it done."

Pokemon Empire "Episode 3: Dust to Dust" has arrived!

Early access available now only from our official discord channel!
https://discord.gg/Ntj8zqh

September 30

Yeah the main consideration for us at this point is do we want to iron out the many bugs currently added to the game as a result of us overhauling a lot of the AI. The current live build uses something pretty close to Essentials' default AI system. We definitely wanted to make sure our game has an AI that's comparable in quality to some of the other major fangames out there, so it's something that I've been working on overhauling for this next episode. It's a long process, but we'll get there.

But the question for us for now is do we want to try and smooth that all out now> Or do we just want to focus on releasing Episode 3 and leaving in the more vanilla AI build.

When we get to alpha testing, we do want to try and knock out some of these systemic testing things (like the damage scaling bug we found that Casper mentioned) all at once so we're not constantly having to retest the game from the beginning. But if the new AI build proves too buggy (which is my guess, sadly), we'll likely be releasing Episode 3 with the old build. Hopefully we'll have more of those AI kinks worked out by Episode 4 or 5's release. I'm not exactly an expert at this, sadly!

Anyways, we'll be giving the first crack at the new starters and most of our spoilers to our envoys (role given to our most active/insightful discord members) and then to the rest of our discord folk. We always release our episodes on our discord a few days before the forums or anywhere else.
And generally speaking, we're much much closer to the end of development than we are to the beginning (AI stuff notwithstanding)!

Thanks everyone! We're excited to have Episode 3 ready for public consumption in the not tooooo distant future!

August 5

patch 2.3 is now live! It's a mini-update, so we're keeping it exclusive for our discord members only!

(https://discord.gg/Ntj8zqh)

we added some new post-episode 2 content back in Polaris:
check out the new explorer's guild mission!

general changelog:
all 5 terrain effects are now fully implemented (yes, there's a new terrain available this patch)
introduced a new class of move that deals damage and sets up a pseudo hazard (that can't be cleared by defog, etc). the pseudo-hazard can be proc'd by a different type of move to either damage the opponent or heal a teammate.
the primeape line now has gorilla tactics
ice breaker now also mold breaks in hail.
frisk now also applies the effect of anticipation
QoL buffs for flail & reversal
safeguard now also blocks disable, taunt, encore, imprison, ability suppression, heal block, etc.
rose's team will now feel slightly less bulky

The rest of episode 3 is in continued development! But for now, enjoy!

July 31

3 hours ago, ArcaneHL said:

(Spoilers ahead maybe)

I'm at the part of the story where Rose asks you to retrieve a logbook in the Crimson Outpost. When I got there, I was told to meet up with other members of the outpost to find evidence in Calvera. I tried talking to as many people as I could find and I had no luck finding them. Now I'm genuinely confused on where I have to go. Am I missing something? Any help/tips are appreciated!

North states that his soldiers were looking into one of the locked houses. One of those houses you couldn't previously enter is now accessible. Inside, you'll find one of the Council soldiers investigating something. Perhaps there's something in that area you yourself need to investigate?

(also, shameless self-plug here: our discord's help and questions section is full these types of things. so feel free to stop by!)

July 31

I'm guessing you were frozen? The freeze status in Empire cuts your Special Attack in half. Even at +6 (or +5 after Lapras comes in with Halcyon), I'd guess Lapras's bulk is going to allow it to survive 2-3 magical leafs if you were indeed frozen. Also Amaura has Multiscale, so it won't take much from the first attack against it. Otherwise, check your IVs and Nature on your Spritzee. Those can also negatively affect damage output.

I have heard reports from different people in different scenarios being surprised by how little damage their Pokemon are doing, though. And yet our team hasn't pinpointed anything in our many balance changes that would be adversely affecting damage calculations. It's something we'll keep an eye on, though. Sometimes just having an "end" in the wrong spot can throw things off like that while remaining virtually undetectable, sadly.

July 23

If you have a Shelmet and Karrablast in your party at the same time, the next one that gains a level will evolve. So karrablast is unable to evolve until you also have access to Shelmet.

July 15

That's actually a good question. Pokemon Empire tells the story of different factions whose ideologies are irreconcilable.
Some people will agree with different factions (we are tribal beings by nature), but everyone will fall into the spectrum differently.
Is it possible for reconciliation? Can people who see things so differently coexist in a harmonious society? Or will one side destroy the other and the entire country of Telius in the process? Perhaps both sides weaken each other so much that a new or even foreign influence will take over.
There's a lot at play here, and your in-game decisions will hopefully not only make a big impact in-game, but also change how you see the world around you as well.

July 13

Was making and editing tilesets for Episode 3 and RPG Maker ~~never~~ loves to let me know when I need to update the tilesets internally lol. Link is updated now!

Thanks for letting me know!

June 23

Stay tuned! Pokemon Empire has lots of plotlines that won't be wrapped up immediately! Even some of the minor characters may pop up again in the very near future!

looking at you, Techie Pat

June 22

@Display name @Chamberofsecrets12 please take that conversation to pm's. That's a spoiler I don't yet want displayed in this thread. Thank you!

June 22

In the very first dialogue of the game, Alanah tells you all the starters in Empire evolve at level 32 (instead of by their conventional methods). Besides the PBS, we also now have a guide available through our discord server so new players can reference our changes more conveniently!

June 21

There are a lot of gray areas between choosing sides. In some cases you may agree with one faction or person over another. Sometimes choosing one side in a particular situation will lead to consequences or rewards down the road, though.
Adaptability boosts your STAB moves by x1.5 at the cost of the Pokemon being weak to Normal type moves.

(also feel free to join our discord if you haven't. We have lots of folks willing to answer questions and chat about the game. shameless self-plug lol)

June 20

Wow. You're 100% right. Great catch. No one on our beta team proc'd the events in that order. RIP. Fixed for the next patch.

Note: (it doesn't change or break anything in how the episode plays out, though, so you're completely fine in that regard!)

June 19

"Hello, Ms. Shreeveport."

"Excuse me? Who are you?"

"In the red again this month..? That's a shame. Does your family know what's going to happen to them now?"

"What? How do you..."

"Listen. I could help you fix this. Mend some old bridges, keep things off the books, and still let your 'family' here continue... their current lifestyle.
Hm? What do you think? Should we continue this chat somewhere a little more... Discreet?"

...

"But I... What would you need me to do..."

...

Pokemon Empire, Episode 2: "Through Rose-Colored Glasses" has arrived!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FNjqAdcBsWAriYdIH5aDT24iphIH8StO/view

Posted June 10 · June 10

@ssbCasper for bringing the empire family together and keeping us going. you've had quite the anime arc so far!

@StoicStone for your great ideas, pithy banter, and writing... and not hunting me down and shooting me when i rewrite your dialogue...

@groniack for obvious reasons. so many great ideas would have never been possible without your coding skills, good sir. i'll always feel indebted to you for that.

@Swamp King for being the draft league rival i never knew i needed! now go make some back sprites!

@Dypatome for organizing our many files and for those celaena sprites which i have not been able to top... yet...

@ty (did you change your name on this site lol?) for developing into the content developer we always knew you could be.

@Zygrado for helping and getting involved in the most delightfully weird ways.

@WSGreen for teaching me how to map.

@Autumn Rain for the artwork and finishing touches that make the game that much better.

@ Commander for absolutely nothing.

Thank you all for being the (digital) friends I never knew I'd have. Here's to many more years of smooth game development, deep conversation, quality jokes, and a near endless supply of really amazing puns!

God bless you all, and long live the Empire!

May 31

Episode 2 is almost ready for launch! We've mostly wrapped up our internal beta, but wanted to start our new discord server by giving a few people a sneak peek at what's to come! So if you're interested in playing the episode 2 beta and want to give us some feedback, let us know and we'll send you an early access link to our new discord server!

May 4

21 hours ago, KUROLizard said:

Just going through the early bits of the game, and one thing that stuck out as annoying in the game is that it forces you to go through three trainer battles in a row with only one pokemon, and only an Oran Berry for healing. Depending on what your starter is, you'll end up being knocked out just because you can't heal all that much in between battles.

For reference, I started off with Ducklett (felt like it fit with the female main character's design) and fought against the Mercenary on the plane. Lost because the Yungoos seemed to have an ability that made it's first attack super-effective regardless of type? Either that or there's a weird bug. Picked up the hidden Oran Berry and put it on Ducklett. Beat the Mercenary with Ducklett's HP reduced to about half. Got off the plane. Battled a trainer. Lost. Fought again. Won but had lower health. Battled next trainer. Lost. Fought again. Won. And then I finally made it to the Pokemon Center. It was just a rather frustrating experience, and I felt I was being punished over something I couldn't really control.

That being said, I love the setting and story you're beginning to tell! Keep up the good work!

The amount of attrition you take before the first PC: not an unfair piece of feedback.

Now there are actually 4 hidden oran berries, 3 hidden potions, and a hidden min revive. So healing items are there if you look for them. Still, we'll keep tabs on how people feel the experience goes for them.

ALSO much more importantly! I changed how the move Ion Deluge works and didn't delete a tiny portion of its pre-existing effect. And that was causing normal attacks to become electric type the first time they're used in battle! I'm so sorry for your Ducklett! This is probably more the cause of your struggle than the actual game balance before the first Pokemon Center! Things would be a lot harder when the first attack every battle is hitting for 4x SE damage! Anyways, I'm sorry for ruining the early game for you...

Here's a quick patch: https://drive.google.com/open?id=19eEwbshvTuYy_tIB4m6euKxrxUf4Rs1E

May 1

Updated to v1.2.2!

Changelog:
Patched a bug that caused a crash near the Mountain entrance
Changed some NPC dialogue to better explain new gameplay features
Added a bunch of new crafting items

Handful of cosmetic improvements
Further refined some trainers and enemy teams
Refined some of the starters' base stats
Buffed some of the underperforming available Pokemon, such as Pidgey, Cubchoo, and Jigglypuff
Added brand new features to Goldeen, Grimer, Jangmo-o, Hoothoot, Patrat, Snover, Charjabug, and Clamperl

April 19

3 hours ago, Dante52 said:

Hey guys, finished the first episode and really enjoyed it. I personally liked the rebalancing, the maps looked great, lots of things to do and interact with. Enjoyed the unique items, like the IV adjusting drugs. Good job to everyone. The rest of this is basically a list of assorted "bugs" I noticed.
Some of the descriptions for things were too long, so I couldn't see all the text

- stantler venison, muskoat pokedex entry, dragon force,

Apostrophes appeared as boxes for me
Fury attack didn't chain when karrablast in polaris ice water factory used it, it just hit like a normal attack would, like tackle or something
Map stuff
- could walk on the table on the southern end of the second floor of water treatment plant
- Can pass through the ice skaters
- can see the void on the southern end of the polaris cave 2nd floor
- can see the void on the polaris summit east side
- could walk up the wall behind the ladder on the second floor of the dancing deerling

When I could fight Isaiah I talked to Elise first, she told me he had something for me, fought him, didn't get anything. Checked the square where he was standing (which appeared empty), got the message "You don't have room", went and deposited a pokemon, came back, no more message. (I don't remember for sure if I checked my party, but I think I would have been smart enough to do that) Reverted to last save, fought him with room in my party, didn't get any kind of message, but when I checked there was deino egg in my party.

Congrats again to everybody!

The text entries not fitting the window screens is a known bug. We don't currently know the fix for it, because the text doesn't want to shrink or wrap to fit into the boxes. So even relatively short descriptions or entries bleed over, sadly.

Ice skaters are on an ice surface, so either they won't be able to move at all or the player will phaze through them. We can only give you one or the other.

Fury Attack has been changed: Fury Attack,10A,60,NORMAL,Physical,100,32,0,00,0,abef,"Mauls the target. It breaks barriers such as Light Screen and Reflect."

Most of the other bugs you found are fixed for the next release.

For the comma thing, that's likely a fonts issue on your computer. Try changing the font style and see if it goes away.

@Dante52 Can you send me a screenshot of:
could walk on the table on the southern end of the second floor of water treatment plant

can see the void on the polaris summit east side

Thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed it!

April 17

2 hours ago, Fiasom said:

This looks like an interesting game that can go a long way. I really like the premise and the deep worldbuilding. Exploring things like racism with lines like "customers are being scared by those guys" is pretty good stuff you don't see everywhere. I thought the mapping and the field effects were pretty good too, as well as the Fakemon. In fact, I liked so much about the game, that I came here to tell you what I didn't like - things you might consider fixing in future patches and episodes. I think I'm "a bit" of a presumptuous b*st*rd, but I might as well make it useful... (What can I say, I'm a teacher irl.) Below I go straight to the heart of the matter and don't really sugar coat what I have to say, so I apologize in advance if it sounds patronizing. My intention for this feedback is for it to be constructive, not destructive (but I'm not spending too much energy on being polite, sorry!).

1) Take out the real world references: While it is just early days, you do seem to have a really well-built world, with the race and war things. Factions and tensions are clear, and seem natural. This makes the world and story quite immersive. This sort of stuff makes you feel like you're walking in Polaris, rather than pressing arrow keys to move a sprite. So when you make a reference to Attack on Titan or Helen Keller or the readme.txt files or "the Old Rod mandatory early in every Pokémon game" it is like being woken up with a bucket of icy water. Completely ruins the immersion. Also, I only know what the flipping heck Helen Keller means just because I spent an exchange year in NY - I know it is not known or used outside the US and maybe not even outside NY state. Similarly, drop the Christian references as well. I thought I saw a "Jesus Christ" somewhere; change that with something like "holy [legendary]." Keep your players' minds inside the world you have created so thoughtfully, rather than casually kicking them out with an off hand real world reference.

Alternatively you might consider making your game an "urban fantasy" game, with a setting kind of like Avengers. If you can establish where your world falls on the real world (consider inspirations from Wakanda or Atlantis, or Pokémon Apex), you can then pretend like your game is taking place in somewhere culturally the same as/similar to the US. You can then use Jesus Christ's and Helen Keller's to your satisfaction, as they will no longer break immersion. They will be consistent with the world you have created.

2) Chill out, dude: Much of the early game NPCs are incredibly aggressive, and make you feel like a d*ck for doing things "normal" in Pokémon games, like walking into people's houses and talking to them. If your Pokémon region has a different "culture" where this is not the norm, you oughta establish that before starting to treat people like they are d*cks. If you've established that walking into people's homes is a d*ck thing to do, and they are still walking into people's homes, then treat them like d*cks as much as you want. But you'll need to be consistent about that, if you get scolded for walking into homes half the time and welcomed the other half, it doesn't work. If you have any backgroud reason for making your NPCs so aggressive (e.g. "everyone's nerves are frayed after the civil war") it is not clear/falls flat.

I honestly felt bad playing the game, and dropped it the minute I had to grind for 5 minutes for the gym battle because of this. I only got back to it a week later because I knew I was at the end of the episode and might as well finish it. But the game doesn't make you feel good, and I don't think I would have returned to a game that unfairly insults its players if there were more than a couple of battles left to put with.

3) You really need that change log: There are too many things that are changed in the game, and half the time I have no idea what the heck is going on. There is no clear explanation for why things get frozen randomly in different fields, why some attacks are supereffective and some aren't, and how they change from place to place. There are obviously some type changes to Pokémon, and the type chart has also changed (and I have no idea why you've decided to make psychic supereffective on normal types, but I'm not here to question your artistic/game design choices), and the field effects meddle with the effectiveness of the attacks, so now I have absolutely no idea what I am doing. And 9 out of every 10 surprises is a nasty one. I read the read me file for the field effects, but that doesn't give me the info I need. And it is pretty damn hard to read a pbs file too. Copy paste the Pokémon info from the pbs file to a word doc, reformat it for easy reading, and save as a pdf file. Blaze Black/Volt White keeps a very neat change log. It might take a while, but someone who knows their way around a word processor would be able to do it in a weekend or two. I'm saying this because I think you really need that change log. I bet the first gym not because I knew what was going on and beat the game by mastering its rules, but by pure luck and some patience. I think a game like yours requires spending some time on making it easy for players to do their research.

This is the feedback I got to give. Apologies if this is doesn't come across in taste. My point really isn't to be insulting or otherwise destructive. I really hope this is useful for you. I thought I'd leave this comment because I really liked your game, and would like to see it develop into a great game like Reborn, or Rejuv, or Apex.

Haha, you're good. The length of the review speaks to your intent here. And this is actually the type of constructive criticism we're looking for, so thank you for taking the time to play and comment!

1. Good stuff. Helen Keller's already out of the latest version for the same reason. Keeping in Jesus. I'm not a fan of the praise arceus or any other pokemon movement, and in Empire the church(es) will be to God/gods, not legendary Pokemon. We have a lot of moralistic framework for the game, and we don't think the Pokemon themselves offer a substantial foundation for the basis of those morals. So characters will bring up values based on their own faiths in higher powers, be that in Jesus or the Yo'aki pantheon, or something else tbd. As for Attack on Titan, there are a lot of easter eggs and there are probably going to be a fair number of 4th wall breaks (like the fisherman) as well. And while I'd give you that there are probably too many, I'd probably take the stance on that being a matter of taste. Still, point taken.

2. Not trying to establish things one way or another. Irl some people get angry if you even make eye contact with them while others gladly welcome random strangers into their home for tea and crumpets. It's more of a game conditioning thing. There are a lot of surprises early on (stantler deli, yak daddy, aggressive homeowners) that are meant to condition the player that they might get punished for doing what other Pokemon games consider ordinary things. So maybe in the future they'll save before heading into someone's house or conversing with an NPC. Not saying it's the best execution, or that the player is meant to feel good about it, but that's something you have to instill in a player early on. So Polaris will stand as more of an outlier on that front when you compare it to future areas.

But still, the design intent overall is supposed to lean far more towards Dark Soul than Animal Crossing/most other happy anime fangames.

3. Yeah, we know PBS files aren't the best. Ideally we want a website where people can just hit search and find what they need. But we don't have anyone on the team with the chops to do that right now, so it is what it is. We all agree the balance changes will be the most polarizing aspect of the game. As for the field effects, did you open the field effect manual in the game folder? I think it does a pretty concise job of explaining those. And there are NPCs in game that tell you to consult that.

Thanks for the feedback!

April 12

Version 1.2 is now live!

Semi-Quick Patch Notes:

New Turbo button! Toggle the ALT key to double your game speed

Also the Z key works like Enter, C, and Space like most people expect
Fixed bugs on Torment, Relentless, Magic Coat, Incinerate (try incinerating or Tormenting stuff now... You will likely enjoy the results)

Shifted trainer experience more linearly: Trainers to the North and West of Polaris are more consistently stronger than trainers to the South and East (except for a notable, well-loved trainer or two)
Improved unique trainer battles

Reduced grind (not that it was a problem, but it's even smoother now)

New trainer sprites and recolors

No more invading shrooms!

New cave music because Youtube didn't like what we were using
Fixed 1/4th screen graphical glitch on update

And I'm sure there's probably more in there, but that's all that I remember. More than likely the last patch before Ep2, so please stop finding bugs, thanks. Enjoy.

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