Pokemon Empire: Official Game Thread

[ssbCasper 33]

So before I start, I know what most of you are thinking, what cool idea are you going to drop on us this time? Well this isn't going to be that type of post, this is going to be our first progress post. (Which means soon enough I'll have a progress bar like all the other fan games.) So to catch everyone up on things, our dev team has grown from 2 to about 7 or so which is amazing. Like I said in the beginning with this many people ( and hopefully more in the future ) we will be able to produce high quality content at a relatively fast pace. The past 3 or so days have been long work days full of discussions, balance changes, mapping, coding etc and were just getting started. For obvious reasons its to early for me to give a public release date for Episode 1. But we'll try to have some cool graphics up soon before we reveal our trailer probably a week before launch. Thanks to everyone who supported and pitched in ideas thus far, hopefully you guys stay on board the entire time. For now feel free to pose any questions, concerns or ideas as always. Until next time. 

[ssbCasper 33]

In the past 3 days I've slept a total of around 10 hours (Woooo) but that won't stop me from keeping everyone in the loop. So this will start as an update followed by a updated (and this time 100% finalized) starter list. Recently we gained a few members to the dev team to help us with the areas we lacked experience or skill in prior so things are getting better by the day. With that being said we are a mix of college and high school students and full time workers so continue to be patient and we will hopefully provide an amazing experience.  Next if you haven't yet go check out the reformatted game introduction on the firs page of this thread and let me know what you think and if changes or additions should be made. Now with that out of the way lets get to the starters for like the 5th time. We had a discussion based around a true final list, note that all of the starters have been re-balanced in some way whether it be slight stat changes, change in learn-sets, ability changes, different evo methods or type additions. I'll mention a few key ones but there are plenty more for you guys to find when you get your hands on them.  As always feel free to discuss the list. 

 

• Normal: Lillipup (learns elemental fangs via level up)

• Flying: Starly 

• Bug: Venipede (Poison jab instead of venom shock as well as a small stat buff)

• Dragon: Axew (No dragon rage, evos slightly earlier)

• Dark: Zorua 

• Fairy: Flabebe (Florges evo at 34)

• Electric: Shinx (Luxray is electric/dark)

• Fighting: Timburr (evos at 20 and 33) 

• Poison: Nidoran (2nd stage evo for both get a 20 points added to their BST)

• Ground: Phanpy (stone edge at 30, new ground move given upon evolution)

• Rock, Rockruff (Midnight form lycanroc is Rock/Dark)

• Ghost, Duskull (evos at 25 and 40, has pound lv 1)

• Steel, Magnemite (evos at 25 and 40)

• Fire: Darmaka (evos at 27, movepool switched around)

• Water, Clauncher (evos at 27, new ability and several new moves)

• Grass, Tangela (evos at 30) 

• Ice: Sneasel (slight stat nerf on sneasel, learns ice punch and icicle crash via level up)

• Psycic, Solosis (evos at 16 and 31, energy ball and focus blast via level up)

[groniack 56]

56 minutes ago, ssbCasper said:

In the past 3 days I've slept a total of around 10 hours (Woooo) but that won't stop me from keeping everyone in the loop. So this will start as an update followed by a updated (and this time 100% finalized) starter list. Recently we gained a few members to the dev team to help us with the areas we lacked experience or skill in prior so things are getting better by the day. With that being said we are a mix of college and high school students and full time workers so continue to be patient and we will hopefully provide an amazing experience.  Next if you haven't yet go check out the reformatted game introduction on the firs page of this thread and let me know what you think and if changes or additions should be made. Now with that out of the way lets get to the starters for like the 5th time. We had a discussion based around a true final list, note that all of the starters have been re-balanced in some way whether it be slight stat changes, change in learn-sets, ability changes, different evo methods or type additions. I'll mention a few key ones but there are plenty more for you guys to find when you get your hands on them.  As always feel free to discuss the list. 

 

• Normal: Lillipup (learns elemental fangs via level up)

• Flying: Starly 

• Bug: Venipede (Poison jab instead of venom shock as well as a small stat buff)

• Dragon: Axew (No dragon rage, evos slightly earlier)

• Dark: Zorua 

• Fairy: Flabebe (Florges evo at 34)

• Electric: Shinx (Luxray is electric/dark)

• Fighting: Timburr (evos at 20 and 33) 

• Poison: Nidoran (2nd stage evo for both get a 20 points added to their BST)

• Ground: Phanpy (stone edge at 30, new ground move given upon evolution)

• Rock, Rockruff (Midnight form lycanroc is Rock/Dark)

• Ghost, Duskull (evos at 25 and 40, has pound lv 1)

• Steel, Magnemite (evos at 25 and 40)

• Fire: Darmaka (evos at 27, movepool switched around)

• Water, Clauncher (evos at 27, new ability and several new moves)

• Grass, Tangela (evos at 30) 

• Ice: Sneasel (slight stat nerf on sneasel, learns ice punch and icicle crash via level up)

• Psycic, Solosis (evos at 16 and 31, energy ball and focus blast via level up)

 

It seems like you put a lot of effort in this! I really like the changes you made, especially the inclusion of Dark type in Luxray! I have always wanted that

Are you going to reveal the new ability for Clauncher and the new move for Phanpy? It would play an important role in the player's decision of a starter, given that we know everything already about the other starters.

All in all, you all did a great job in this list. Now all pokemon are worthy being chosen as starters!

[ssbCasper 33]

@groniack My next post will probably include some of the balancing changes we've made not only to starters but to a lot of other Pokemon. So 1-2 new abilities. moves, type and stat changes, etc. And thanks! It was a pretty heated but great discussion when it came to starters. 

[Noctelis 12]

@ssbCasper, will Axew at least get a different (dragon)move instead of dragon rage? 6lvls without a new move at low lvls is very annoying.

Also, might be cool to give Midnight Lycanroc Rock Head ability, as it would really fit with his description (especially if it would learn Head Smash and Head Charge in some way).

[ssbCasper 33]

@Noctelis Yea Axew will still learn a move where it would have otherwised learned D.Rage. Pretty sure we made the lycanroc change as well already. Like I said this is just the stuff I figured people would want to know. With all the changes we made we're eventually going to need a Wiki or something along those lines. 

[Noctelis 12]

8 hours ago, ssbCasper said:

@Noctelis Yea Axew will still learn a move where it would have otherwised learned D.Rage. Pretty sure we made the lycanroc change as well already. Like I said this is just the stuff I figured people would want to know. With all the changes we made we're eventually going to need a Wiki or something along those lines. 

My starter is going to be Rockruff, really want that Rock Head Midnight Lycanroc.

[ssbCasper 33]

PSA: Added some graphics to the main post on the thread, didn't want to give much away but tell me what you think! Post about guardian Pokemon in the near future 

[ssbCasper 33]

Alright so assuming you've all seen the revamped front page of the game thread I'm just going to go straight into things. So lets introduce one of our guardian Pokemon. 

Spoiler

 

So these guys were the idea of FilthyCasual who also made all of them. In short they are like a cross between delta pokemon and megas. They physically look different due to typing, stat and ability changes as well as being able to learn very unique moves that other Pokemon can not learn. They are all associated with the tragedy during the war and legendary Pokemon but that is as far into the lore as I am going to go.  Like legendaries there is only 1 of each of these guys. I'll answer any questions you guys have about these within reason. Sometime later this week I'll make a post about some of the balance changes we've made, new abilities and attacks. Til then. 

 

Edit: We picked this one to show off because some guardian Pokemon have undergone missive and changes to appearance and others just minor. So G.Gigalith was like right in the middle of the spectrum. 

[Octavius 77]

Since there's apparently only one of each of these guys, what you're saying is basically that a gigalith lost its limbs in the war, but was (resurrected/healed?) and imbued with the essence of a legendary(s). And so now it's basically a pseudo-legendary/delta/mega pokemon. But can we know g.gigalith's type, stats, or movepool? I'm guessing it's steel/psychic with levitate based on the sprite you posted.

 

And do these 'guardian' pokemon require some sort of mega stone-esque item to evolve into their guardian form? Or do they have anything at all to do with their base form? And since I'm guessing they have a significant stat boost over their normal counterparts, will any of these be available to capture and use before the endgame? Or are they meant to be captured at all? They look like they could be used for things similar to the PULSE boss fights in Reborn. And how many guardians are there? Because there was a delta form for like literally every Pokémon in the game in insurgence. Or perhaps there is a guardian for every legendary.

[ssbCasper 33]

Not going to give away stats, moves etc. Will just have to find out when you battle / capture it. They are variations of the base Pokemon so they will act as a stand alone Pokemon. As said above all (8 I think?) of them are obtainable at different points during the main plot line, so they will be available before post game.  

[Noctelis 12]

@ssbCasper, judging from the serial number on G.Gigalith I guess they're man made, which makes them the same as Type:Null/Sylvally and Mewtwo.

[ssbCasper 33]

@Noctelis Good observation. Although I will say that they are not all man made. 

[ssbCasper 33]

PSA: Credits have been added to the first post in the thread, re-balancing post to come out this evening. 

[groniack 56]

On 10/31/2017 at 7:47 AM, ssbCasper said:

PSA: Added some graphics to the main post on the thread, didn't want to give much away but tell me what you think! Post about guardian Pokemon in the near future 

You did a really good job there. Love the graphics!

Just checked the title screen for episode 1 and I have to tell that it looks awesome! Keep up the great job!

 

The idea of guardian pokemon looks neat. Will they work like the totem pokemon in sun and moon? With the aura surounding them or something?

[ssbCasper 33]

@groniack Thanks man! As far as the guardians go you'll just have to wait and see.

[Yagami 109]

I can't seem to decide on the starter.On one hand,I got axew but it lost dragon rage on the other hand I like fire type but I don't like darumaka because it doesn't have dual typings.Also 4 starters seem to have a dark typing.

I don't like pokemon's stat or level up to be changed honestly.

[ssbCasper 33]

PSA: Updated the artwork section of the first post on the thread to include our male MC due to popular request. Let me know what you guys think! Those will be the two available for Ep1 as we want to focus on some of the other areas of development a bit more. Expect more custom MC's in the future. 

 

Side note: Apologize for the delayed balancing post. Will be out by Tuesday. 

[DemICE 230]

You seem heated up about this, which most of the time causes nice results.  I will be looking forward to see how this turns out to be

[ssbCasper 33]

@Yagami Yea making a balanced starter list isn't easy to and its hard to please everyone. (D rage Axew would kind of be busted early), Only the starters have had there evo's changed but slight stat, ability, movepool and typing changes have been made to a ton of Pokemon. All of which we justified as rational changes (Like making Luxray Electric/Dark or giving Scolipede poison jab)

[Octavius 77]

About a week ago, @ssbCasper said he would be making a post in regards to some of the balance changes that are coming in Pokémon Empire. Casper has given me the opportunity to share some of those with all of you.

 

So first of all, Pokémon Empire is looking to create an environment where (almost) every Pokémon can do well on a team, even if it's only in a specific niche. And while we aren't trying to make Dunsparce as powerful as Blaziken, we believe we are carving out better identities for many Pokémon that could use room for improvement, while at the same time dialing back the power a bit on some Pokémon that are so good that they make many similar Pokémon feel completely useless by comparison. This is not a crazy overhaul where just give a bunch of base stats to bad Pokémon to try and make them better. We are carefully looking at typing, stats, abilities, moves learned by level-up, evolution methods, and every other possible facet that makes a Pokémon a great team member. We even have ideas for incredible new moves, abilities, and even evolutions (both mega and normal evolutions)! BUT we want to make sure to keep things as close to the canon games as possible, and only give updates (buffs/nerfs) to Pokémon that feel absolutely natural and even add to that Pokémon's overall appeal without detracting from their core identity. We hope you will all be pleasantly surprised by some of the balancing directions we are taking to create a more fun, interesting, and interactive game where you can use some of your favorite Pokémon competitively without feeling like you are handicapping yourself by doing so.

 

I will have a follow-up post with a few examples of the types of changes we are looking to make, including some of our ideas for new abilities/moves and updates to abilities/moves already in the canon games. See you all soon.

[kithas 118]

On 29/10/2017 at 10:24 AM, ssbCasper said:

In the past 3 days I've slept a total of around 10 hours (Woooo) but that won't stop me from keeping everyone in the loop. So this will start as an update followed by a updated (and this time 100% finalized) starter list. Recently we gained a few members to the dev team to help us with the areas we lacked experience or skill in prior so things are getting better by the day. With that being said we are a mix of college and high school students and full time workers so continue to be patient and we will hopefully provide an amazing experience.  Next if you haven't yet go check out the reformatted game introduction on the firs page of this thread and let me know what you think and if changes or additions should be made. Now with that out of the way lets get to the starters for like the 5th time. We had a discussion based around a true final list, note that all of the starters have been re-balanced in some way whether it be slight stat changes, change in learn-sets, ability changes, different evo methods or type additions. I'll mention a few key ones but there are plenty more for you guys to find when you get your hands on them.  As always feel free to discuss the list. 

 

• Normal: Lillipup (learns elemental fangs via level up)

• Flying: Starly 

• Bug: Venipede (Poison jab instead of venom shock as well as a small stat buff)

• Dragon: Axew (No dragon rage, evos slightly earlier)

• Dark: Zorua 

• Fairy: Flabebe (Florges evo at 34)

• Electric: Shinx (Luxray is electric/dark)

• Fighting: Timburr (evos at 20 and 33) 

• Poison: Nidoran (2nd stage evo for both get a 20 points added to their BST)

• Ground: Phanpy (stone edge at 30, new ground move given upon evolution)

• Rock, Rockruff (Midnight form lycanroc is Rock/Dark)

• Ghost, Duskull (evos at 25 and 40, has pound lv 1)

• Steel, Magnemite (evos at 25 and 40)

• Fire: Darmaka (evos at 27, movepool switched around)

• Water, Clauncher (evos at 27, new ability and several new moves)

• Grass, Tangela (evos at 30) 

• Ice: Sneasel (slight stat nerf on sneasel, learns ice punch and icicle crash via level up)

• Psycic, Solosis (evos at 16 and 31, energy ball and focus blast via level up)

Finally a game when one can make a full monotype run from the beginning haha I look forward to this game since it looks like it can be good  

Also, I like the fact that there will be mor ecompetitive variety, there're a lot of cool mons that are overshadowed in stats by others that are overused and could be fun to play with...

[Octavius 77]

This is a lengthy post regarding balance changes in Pokémon Empire. This is essentially a teaser for gameplay changes/information that will eventually culminate in a Pokémon Empire Wiki.

But until that happens, we hope you enjoy this teaser and thinking about all of the possibilities we have in store for Pokémon Empire!

 

Now before getting into specific examples, there are a few balance changes to key gameplay mechanics that are EXTREMELY important and change how we are balancing the rest of the game. These changes correspond with Empire's overall vision of creating more fun, common-sense, and balanced gameplay that still captures the core identity of the gameplay mechanics of the canon games. We are seeking to improve/fix existing features/problems from the canon games in a positive way. So here we go:

• Freeze. This status condition has long been aggravating and unoriginal. To bring it in line with its counterpart status conditions: poison, burn, and paralysis, we are changing freeze from preventing the Pokémon from taking any action to "The Pokémon's Sp. Attack is halved. Each turn, the frozen Pokémon has a 25% chance to be fully frozen, rendering it unable to take any action that turn." We believe this, along with new moves that emphasis freezing the opponent's Pokémon, will create more interesting and varied strategies in battle, especially for Ice-types, which have long been maligned defensively.
• Grievous Wounds. A gameplay element that exists in many other games already, we intend to implement Grievous Wounds to Pokémon as well. In this case, applying Grievous Wounds to a Pokémon will reduce the effectiveness of all sources of healing on that target by 50% for the next 3 turns. It works as a secondary status condition, similar to confusion, so it can be cured by switching out. Grievous Wounds can be applied by the effects of moves or abilities. For example, we have changed the move "Searing Shot" to be a 65 power 100 accuracy single-target Special move that has a 100% chance to apply Grievous Wounds to the target. We have also introduced a new ability called "Vicious," which causes the Pokémon's contact moves to always apply Grievous Wounds. Some Pokémon with this ability are Seviper, Weavile, and Haxorus.
• Type Chart. We didn't want to tamper too much with this, and it's honestly impossible to fix everything without creating a brand new type chart, but we agreed that leveling out some of the imbalances between type interactions would outweigh the negatives of having everyone be angry that they have to acclimate to a slightly different type chart. Our overall design philosophy is to make types that barely interact with other types (like ghost, normal) interact more, and types that interact with other types A LOT (fighting, rock) interact less. This should give room for more variation in team building instead of always having to have certain types on your team because of how much coverage they give you. Here are a few specific examples, but do not take them out of context. This is not a finalized list of changes, and if you think a type is going to be too powerful, there can be other changes to make it less powerful. Enjoy.
  • Fighting: now neutrally effective against Steel and Poison
  • Normal: now super effective against Fairy, resists Fairy, resists Ghost (no longer immune), and is weak to Dark
  • Electric: now super effective against Steel, not very effective against Psychic, and is weak to Psychic

 

And now for some types of balance changes we are considering: new items, updated items, new abilities, updated abilities, new moves, updated moves, and some specific Pokémon changes.

New Items:

• Terrain Boots: holder is immune to entry hazards
• Master Belt: holder's non-STAB (same type attack bonus) moves deal x1.3 damage
• Fake Rock: The effects of Wonder Room, Magic Room, and Trick Room created by the holder last for 8 turns

Updated Items: (these are new effects that will replace the current effects of these items already in the game)

• Full Incense: (consumable) after 5 turns of not switching out or using protect moves or substitute, this item is consumed and raises all of the holder's stats by 1 stage, heals for 25% Max HP, and cures status
• Wave Incense: holder takes x0.8 damage from neutrally-effective attacks
• Muscle Band: holder's physical attacks have x1.2 power, but holder can only use physical attacks

New Abilities:

• Opportunist: moves with 40 base power or less gain priority +1     (barbaracle, beautifly)
• Duelist: boosts Defense and Sp. Defense by 1 stage when you land a Critical Hit on an opponent     (gallade, escavalier)
• Ghoulish: when this Pokémon faints, reduces the PP of the opponent's last move used to 0     (banette, gengar)
• Pitch-Black: opponent's moves that do not have 100% accuracy decrease in base accuracy x.5 (50% less accurate)      (umbreon, spiritomb)
• Dragon Force: user's Dragon-type moves deal x1.5 damage. User also gains Dragon-type resistance.      (gyarados, aerodactyl)

Updated Abilities: (these are new effects that will replace the current effects of these abilities already in the game)

• Symbiosis: after this Pokémon faints, heals the next-Pokémon switched in by 1/4th Max HP (before entry hazards)
• Anger Point: raises the user's Critical Hit Ratio by 1 stage when an opponent uses a status (non-attacking) move
• Speed Boost: raises the user's Speed by 1 stage at the end of each round if the user is not holding an item
• Vital Spirit: when the user is above 50% Max HP, its attacks deal x1.2 damage, but consume double PP
• Battle Armor: user takes x.5 damage from attacks when below 50% Max HP, but can only use attacking moves

New Moves:

• Sandblast: Ground-type, 70 power, 100 accuracy, Special, deals double damage if opponent has no held item     (palossand, claydol, flygon)
• Bedrock: Rock-type, 40 power, 100 acc, Special, changes target's ability to truant      (corsola, cradily, aurorus)
• Hallucinate: Psychic-type, disables your opponent's Special attacks with less than 100 base power for 2 turns      (beheeyem, dusknoir, shiinotic)
• Dragon Fire: Dragon-type, 70 power, 100 accuracy, Special, deals Fire-type damage (but still applies dragon type STAB)     (hydreigon, altaria, noivern)
• Soul Sucker: Ghost-type, 75 power, 100 accuracy, Physical, restores 100% damage inflicted as health to the attacker if it knocks out a Pokémon      (trevenant, banette, drapion)

Updated Moves: (these are new effects that will replace the current effects of these moves already in the game)

• Rock Throw: now deals double damage with 100 accuracy if stealth rocks are on your field. Using this move twice removes stealth rocks
• Worry Seed: now works as an entry hazard that changes the ability of non-Grass type Pokémon switching in to Insomnia
• Withdraw: now raises Defense and Sp. Attack by 1 stage
• Razor Wind: now Flying-type and executes in one turn
• Astonish: now 40 base power and works like Fake Out

Updated Pokémon: (these are new effects that will replace the current effects of these Pokémon already in the game)

• Masquerain becomes Bug/Water type and gets the abilities Levitate, Intimidate, and Disguise
• Qwilfish gets Rough Skin instead of Swift Swim and gets +10 HP and Sp. Defense
• Various Normal/Flying type Pokémon become pure Flying type: includes, but not limited to Braviary, Staraptor, Fearow
• Flygon becomes Dragon/Bug type, has its Attack and Sp. Attack stats switched, and learns Dragon Pulse by level up
• Beartic gets remodeled so it looks much more intimidating, gets +5 Speed, and Weak Armor as an extra ability

New Pokémon: (More Information will be released when these Pokémon become available in-game)

• Volcarona gets a pre-evolution (after Larvesta) and Volcarona itself becomes a Pseudo-legendary Pokémon (600 Base Stat Total)
• Hoothoot evolve into Noctowl at Level 30, Noctowl gets +18 Defense and Hoothoot gains an alternate evolution called Philosiphowl (Flying/Psychic type), which has high Special Stats and a brand new ability
• Dewgong gains an evolution called Colosswhal. It has massive bulk and attack, its design is based on a narwhal, and it has access to 3 excellent abilities and a variety of 'horn' moves
• Many Pokémon that need evolutions will get them. Examples include, but are not limited to: Corsola, Magcargo, Spinda, Pachirisu, Emolga, and Cherrim
• New Custom Megas and re-balanced current Megas will be introduced. Mega Butterfree and Cofagrigus are confirmed, and Mega Kangaskhan gets -10 Attack, +10 Speed, and the second attack from Parental Bond deals x.3 damage instead of x.5

 

And that's all for now! Again, apologies for the excruciating length of this post, but we wanted to let you know the types of ideas we are considering and how we intend on implementing them. It's a lot of work, but we are absolutely confident that we can make changes like these feel natural and make Empire into the best Pokémon game you've ever played.

 

And as always, we're here to field your questions, listen to your criticism, and consider your opinions. But most of all, we hope you're getting (or staying) hyped as we take you through Pokémon Empire's development process every step of the way!

[Noctelis 12]

@Octavius, wouldn't it also make sens to make Grass-type, instead of resistant, weak to Thunder-type?

Never made much sense that it would resist it while trees get split in 2 and completely burn out when struck by lightning.

[kithas 118]

There're a lot of trees that survive after getting split by a tree, and they're left more stable indeed. But the point of my post was actually to be hyped by the updates and wanting a Gyarados or a Noivern haha