[About Changes in the Early game]

6 hours ago, Abyssreaper99 said:

Then after this you don't see Taka or ZEL until WTC and Devon respectively. I don't think you can really say Taka and ZEL handle quite a bit of the early game heck they handle the first 3 PULSEs alone. Like yes you have Meteor agents other than them around but like other Meteor agents are busy doing other stuff.

I think you accidentally a word there, but you're saying that you do think that ZEL and Taka make up a large chunk of the early game, yes? Well the bit about the first three PULSE is actually exactly why I think it's not that bad, their appearances are clustered fairly close together and tied together by the Tangrowths as a common thread. The first ZEL battle is the last plot step in Obsidia Ward, after this we get the Onyx Gym as a sort of intermission and then move on to Taka's introduction and the double battle in Jasper/Beryl. After that we get everything that happens in Lapis Ward and Shade's gym before we see ZEL again in the second factory. (Which I kinda forgot earlier)

Taka's next appearance then is after you've been all through Apohyll and Azurine Island, after which both of them take some time off from the plot as you've noted.

The perception of Taka and ZEL showing up a lot seems to be mostly based off their first two battles involving the Tangrowths, which I personally don't see an issue with as they're all contained in one arc, involved in the same operation.

 

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I feel like you being accusatory towards the Reborn Devs in this is just plain rude. You can't really get upset about someone being rude to you when you was rude first.

None of what I've posted here is supposed to be an attack on the development process, all I've been doing is posing questions about why this new character is what they ended up going with and putting down my own idea for what could've been done instead - not as a "This is how you should've done it" mind you, but rather just "There were a number of options available so I'd like to know what made you decide on that one?" We actually already got some insight on that, which is cool.

The only thing I was directly accusatory about was Andracass's behaviour, the topic of which I belive she has already sufficiently replied on.

Also I dislike the notion of "It's a free game keep quiet and take what you're given!" I absolutely will take it if it appeals to me but that won't stop me from putting down my input when I feel like it. I don't expect anyone to bend to my will but I appreciate seeing when my input has been given some consideration.

 

 

Well, in the interest of showing that I am actually looking forward to this I figured maybe I should actually bring up some things I'm happy about?

I'm looking forward to seeing the visual makeover some areas and characters have received, particularly the protagonist's sprites. Since the main thing about Reborn I enjoy are the battles I'm excited to see the nightclub fights against the various leaders. As someone who's done a literal dozen monotype runs I'm also looking forward to the more varied early-game Types so I can maybe dive into some like Ice and Ghost that currently are rough or not doable at all without debug. Also the Legendary quests to add some fun stuff to my teams.

I'll be happy to see Cain rescued from the Void, he only ever tried to help and doesn't deserve being stranded there. I'll also be happy to see Bennett get his comeuppance for the shit he pulled in Ep18 and y'all better not skimp out on that because boy did he manage to make himself reviled in record time there.

I'm looking forward to seeing the added character interactions to help some underdeveloped characters.

But most of all...!

I'm looking forward to less running back and forth between Beryl and Lapis, mercy on our hero's poor feet.

[About Changes in the Early game]

26 minutes ago, andracass said:

but it sounds like you'll be surprised.

I don't know what's to come, so naturally. All I can do is extrapolate from what little we're given and what we already have.

 

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ok but why tho

why is the reaction to this "ok but do you have to add more characters?" instead of, well, anything more positive.

[...]

i find the lack of faith disturbing.

Frankly, I don't think the character writing of Reborn's antagonists is a particularly strong aspect of the game. There are already many underutilised characters which makes the decision to add another one into already existing parts of the game seem questionable to me.

 

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so i will suggest taking a more charitable approach.

can you think of any justifiable reasons why this might be the case?

"We've taken old files into consideration, so if you are starting e19 from a completed e18 file, rest assured you will not be confused by missing their prior context!"

There's only two interpretations I can pull out of this at the moment:

First "Ace's presence will leave no significant impact on the events of Ep19. Their role will be wrapped up as of Ep18's content without significant changes to key events involving them."

Second "The game will go out of its way to fill in the player on any events that Ace's introduction has had sufficient impact enough to be important to be aware of."

The first leads to doubt regarding what siginifance Ace will be carrying in the larger plot, the second just seems clunky.

 

I don't even feel that strong about this situation, I'm perfectly ready to wait it out, see what we get and then make my conclusion. The thing that irks me is specifically the way you brushed of someone's concerns as, well, this:

10 hours ago, andracass said:

some asshole would show up and bitch about it. [...] randos bitching about shit [...] there's no reason to listen to them. [...] rageaholic rando [...] if you don't understand what you're talking about, how can you?

The thing I'm taking issue with here is 80% your attitude.

[About Changes in the Early game]

6 hours ago, andracass said:

 

it's very late at night and i did not read the comments in advance. i think i accounted for this one appropriately though.

I'm gonna disagree with your last bit here, you're being a jerk.

Eagle brought up a perfectly valid point here - there's already a lot of characters running around, to the point that many of them are reduced to just "the one you fight at the end of a Meteor dungeon" for most of their appearances. What is this Ace person going to bring to the table that couldn't have been offered by one of the existing characters? It's been mentioned that the early-game has a lot of fighting Taka and ZEL (which, honestly, I don't even really agree with) but it's not like that's not due to there being any other characters present. Meteor has, frankly, a buttload of agents running about everywhere so the perception of Taka and ZEL being too prominent early on shouldn't be seen as a symptom of there being not enough characters but rather of the characters we already have being too inactive.

Sirius is the very first Meteor admin we run into but he just dips out of the game until his stint as sorta main antagonist for the Orphans arc. He could take a more active role. Or even Corey; Ame mentioned him as getting an optional appearance earlier but why couldn't he take an active role in the early plot? I obviously don't know what kind of early appearance he's going to have but with it being optional I have my doubts about it doing much for him in terms of the player building some sort of connection to him. Best case I see players' reaction to him going from "Oh, a new guy - and he's dead" to "Oh, it's that guy - and he's dead."

Two more characters that could show up are Blake and Cal. Blake currently mostly just exists to be an ass to Cal and Shelly up in Ametrine, as well as being an inconsequential flunky during the mansion gauntlet. Cal meanwhile could benefit from players actually seeing him being involved with Team Meteor so his eventual desertion amounts to more than the current "actually none of this needed to happen" up on Pyrous Mountain.

 

This is a whole lot of words for "Why did you decide introducing a new character was the best choice?" but I'm not trying to say that I think Ace is going to be totally terrible, I just have to question what even led to this decision. Particularly since, by Ame's own words, people continuing from Ep18 aren't going to miss anything not having had any interactions with Ace. From this I'd assume that their role is going to be over and done with by Ep19 and that they aren't going to leave a notable impact on the events thereon. So, again, why was it decided that adding this new character was the best course of action?

If I'm allowed to drop any sort of goodwill for a moment here my suspicion would be that Ame (or someone else with sufficient input) simply wanted to add this lost element of the original Team Meteor but felt the need to justify themselves beyond a simple "I felt like it".

[The Shampoo Shine-up Showcase!]

Lookin' good, Decibel is my new fave of the bunch. Will there be a way to change which character you're using for old saves?

[Behold, one and all! The greatest Tournament in the history of Pokemon!]

Sounds like Lin is going to be a totally fair and balanced™ fight

Now I really want to know what team that random victory road trainer is running that they managed to perform that well.

 

Can you make the AI fight the Glass Factory gauntlet? Personally I found that one to be by far the hardest bit of the game so far so it'd be interesting to see how each trainer does when faced with what we players have to go through.

[e19 when]

Protagonist sprite updates is good, honestly they are kinda needed. Will their overworld sprites be updated as well or only the battle sprites?

 

Will the early game update change any of the actual plot beats or is it only gonna slightly order around some things to result in less running around? Honestly I always found the first half of the game to be the more enjoyable one so I'm a bit anxious about any major changes to that.

[the finer parts of chaos, chipped away]

So what's the deal with Clarice?