[Balancing conundrums]

I think Falirion's points are completely valid and I fall into the group of people most affected by this change (i.e. people who only play on Intense mode). Despite this, I think removing Intense mode is absolutely the right decision.

 

It is very unfortunate that you guys (Jan especially) have been receiving messages like that from others, especially considering the game is provided to us for free. I think (and would hope) those people make up the minority of our group. Falirion is right - I hope people in general don't assume every member of a certain group is terrible due to the existence of a few "bad apples" (applies to life in general, not just Pokemon).

 

But again, I agree that removing Intense was the right decision. Zumi already boiled it down. Health and happiness takes priority, and the devs being excited to work on the game versus being annoying but slogging through it just to finish it would be apparent in the final product. Plus, the workload reduction could lead to other cool features being able to be implemented.

 

I don't think my future enjoyment of the game will be reduced despite me enjoying the challenge of Intense and the more difficult "meme" or similar mods. As stated, there's the password system, and that's where I think there's a lot of room for potential and why I will still enjoy the game after Intense is gone. We can give opponents 252/31 in every stat, ourselves 0 IVs in every stat, and do additive or multiplicative enemy level adjustments. Sure, these on their own might not seem as "organic" as a traditional hard mode, but as I said there's a lot of potential for even more difficulty adjustment passwords and also more difficulty password packs aside from the existing "easymode" and "hardmode" passwords. I have some ideas for these but don't want to make this post longer than it already is.

 

The last thing I want to say related to this is that I think it would be great if passwords were a bit more fleshed out to the player. Instead of "Would you like to enter any passwords?", it could say "There are many passwords you can enter to customize the game to your liking, including adding quality of life features and making the game easier or harder. Would you like to enter any passwords?". Then there would be 3 options of "Yes", "No", and "More Info", where "More Info" breaks the 4th wall and says "You can enter multiple passwords if you'd like, and you can enter passwords during the game. You can see a list of passwords at this site." This way it's clear what the passwords are for and that we have a lot of control over how we experience the game.

 

As always, thanks to the devs for all of the hard work on the game and for regularly giving us updates! It's really appreciated, even if it doesn't seem like it sometimes.

[Crest Suggestions! (CLOSED)]

Maractus: Automatically sets a layer of Spikes when Maractus is hit by an attack (or contact attack)

 

Cramorant: Gulp Missile is always active

[Pointless Progress Ramble]

All of your (and everyone else's) hard work is very appreciated! Your health is more important than getting new verisions out a month earlier. One thing that I've found really helpful to stay sharp and motivated during these tough times is to try to find the willpower to get regular exercise. The hardest part is making the decision to do it, but after you start doing it then it's a breeze. You don't realize how sluggish your mind and body are until you get the blood flowing. And even if you want to look at it from a raw mathematical standpoint, the increase of efficiency and productivity during the rest of the day as a result of exercise far outweighs the time spent exercising. Speaking of which, typing this out has made me decide to go for a run right after I'm done with this post.

 

As far as puzzle ideas go, I'll admit this is taken from Pokemon XD, but I always thought the Battle CDs concept was cool. If you don't know what those are, they're simulated battles where you're given a specific Pokemon/couple of Pokemon, and you have to battle a specific Pokemon/couple of Pokemon in a singles or doubles battle. These battles require a you to figure out the right strategy/sequence of moves in order to win, and it essentially turns the battles into puzzles to find the right solutions. What's great about these are that they require you to use mechanics that you don't normally see, such as using Gust to hit a Pokemon during the Fly turn. Here is example of one of them (this was before Ghost-types were immune to Shadow Tag): 

 

Making these battles occur on all sorts of fields would add a lot of variety. You could easily come up with creative puzzles, such as requiring the player use a move to change the field as the "solution" to win the battle. 

 

Again, thanks for all of the work, and I'm off to go on that run!

 

Edit: Making a late edit here so this might not even be seen but here's an example of a cool puzzle you could do.

Your pokemon: https://pokepast.es/aedffbfac3828006

Your opponent: https://pokepast.es/f2aa387f6b433283

Field: Cave Field

 

Solution:

Spoiler

On both turns, have Togetic use Follow Me and have Aron use Bulldoze. On the second turn, Aron's second Bulldoze will collapse the cave, KOing all Pokemon. However, Aron has Sturdy and it will still be intact due to both Togetic using Follow Me, allowing it to survive the cave collapse.

 

This is not too difficult of a puzzle, but it is a great way of demonstrating a lot of the field mechanics.

 

[Progress Transparency/Quest Overhaul [Patreon Post]]

I think this is a great update! The quest cards are fantastic. With all of the potential sidequests in Rejuvenation, this is a nice way to keep track of what you're doing and overall looks pretty professional and clean. And the notifications of how good of an option you chose is a very appreciated touch. I was definitely one of those people who wanted to really make sure I was making the correct choices in that regard. It also makes sense that an action that can have a noticeable effect on the future state of the game would have some indicator that it is such an action.

 

Suggestion: in the title of the quest cards, also list where they're from. For example, instead of "Quest 01: Snatched Pokemon!", maybe put "East Gearen Help Quest 01: Snatched Pokemon!". I know this is longer and you'd have to shrink the font size a little for it to fit on one line, but it's less vague, and helpful if somebody is doing quests from multiple towns' Help Centers simultaneously.

 

Question 1: are these only going to be for the Help Center quests? Or is there going to be one for every sidequest (as there are plenty of sidequests that don't stem from the Help Centers)?

 

Question 2: because there are quest cards, I'm guessing there's going to be a new Quest Log in the CyberNav, correct? If so, would it list only quests you've accepted so far, or would it also list other potential quests (not limited to the Help Centers) that the player could start?

 

Thanks for all of your work and again this looks amazing!