Plates of Arceus, Episode 1 Development Blog [E19]

[BlueTowel]

 

I hate obligatory dev blog tracker graphics thingies now.

Pokémon Reborn: Plates of Arceus, Episode 1 

#################### | Total (???%)

[BlueTowel]

 

Darkness there was at first, by darkness hidden;
Without distinctive marks, this all was water;
That which, becoming, by the void was covered;
That One by force of heat came into being;

 

Hi! First dev blog update post time! Okay! 

 

It's been a long while since there's been a real PoA update. This year has been pretty hectic!
I think, in the interest of TL;DR, I'll focus this post first on what's coming, then a bit of how the year has been going. I've spoken a bit about my health problems in the PoA thread over the years, and I know some folks are interested in that, but it's a dev blog and not a personal blog.

 

I don't want to reveal everything all at once, so at this time I can talk about...

 

Updating Old Maps! 

 

Between the quality updates to e19 and some good feedback I've had from Ep0, I've decided to update some of the old maps for quality and to better integrate them into Reborn.

 

 

Found at the end of Route 1, a nature spot used by residents of Agate City to enjoy the beauty of the river flowing into Iolia Valley.

 

It also features a vast cave network that seems to spread throughout the region, though all but the most seasoned spelunkers are advised against exploring too deeply.

 

 

The archaeology team from Episode 0 are still here, having redirected the river to excavate an underwater cave as well as one of those within the mountain.

 

 

The Undernet caves are being reworked as well. Overall they will be quicker to travel through and more eventful. 

Besides that, some of the wild areas previously available only through the undernet are being moved and updated, 
and will be accessible without the caves. 

I'll talk about those in a future dev blog update! 

 

New Altforms! 

 

Beta Shuckle sprite made by Pokets3

 

As is tradition, a new major update means a new wave of original altforms! 

Due to reasons I'll explain below, there won't be as many new ones in Episode 1 as previous updates, but Aevian forms from Pokémon Rejuvenation are being included with permission from Jan. 
The overlapping forms are being folded together:
The Electric Chandelure line, Snow Palossand line and Cordyceps Parasect line are being replaced with the same type, similar concept Aevian forms.

 

Among others, look forward to Pot Shuckle, The Charming Pokémon. 
In times past, people would charm Shuckle into living in clay pots to gain better access to the Berry Juice they produce.
This Bug/Fairy-type Pokémon offers a new set of tricks and shenanigans to pull off in battle.

 

And I'll talk about more of the upcoming content and features in the next dev blog update in a couple of weeks! 

 

So Let Me Tell You About My Year

 

This year started off alright.

Sure, I was having some kind of seizure or attack most days from at the time uncertain triggers and an undiagnosed neurological problem, but I felt pretty determined to make something. During the early year lull I tried to organise projects, made a timetable that I just reminded myself of while making this post, and work out which projects I should focus the most on.
And naturally that organisation pretty much fell apart as I kept flitting between all of the options instead of focusing on one. 
I had my app that needed some polish and publishing, I had a game idea that I started making in Unity, and I had PoA. 
PoA could wait a little at the time, since e19 was around the corner and anything I did would have to be redone anyway.
So I focused on my app, then decided the game would be less risky, had a good play of Legends Arceus and got excited enough over it to rush some content in PoA.
Then I was invited to alpha test e19!

During that time a lot of floating ideas about PoA started to coalesce together. Elements from SwSh and PLA filling holes and strengthening threads.
After playing through, I offered to help with development and was permitted to corral some cats (otherwise known as fixing bugs) and implement a couple of QoL features, including integrating Waynolt's unreal time and weather changing mods and creating a Pokégear UI to utilise them.
While I'll definitely be making use of timed features in PoA, I didn't really start work on it until after e19's release, while trying to decide how to balance all three projects. I made a kind of pitch document and asked all of the Reborn devs for their blessing to take PoA in a full-on expansion direction, with the episodes of story, extra features and additional worldbuilding. Reception was very positive in general!

 

But I needed to stabilise my financial situation. Still do, to be honest.
I wanted to do more with the game I was making. Better graphics, some kind of progression system, a meaningful story and entertaining levels. However, I kept feeling like the app was the stronger idea, and if I still needed to put a lot of time and effort into the game to be happy releasing it, I should put that effort into the app instead.
I asked for advice and chose to combine ideas. I started converting my app to Ruby-on-Rails from PHP, so working on PoA and my app would have some crossover of knowledge and skills. Easier to manage.
It's ended up with me slipping past my timetable's projections, though, so I'm still working on that app. I inadvertently ended up working on all three projects in a pretty inefficient manner.
I also have a burning desire to tell the stories and create the content that's been sitting in my head all this time.
Deadass I am releasing Episode 1 by 30th September, but depending on how the app and finances go, much of the planned postgame content may end up in Episode 2, with the previous Episode 2 ideas I'd mentioned a few times on Discord shifted to Ep3. 

 

To return the focus to PoA, this means that while Ep1 may be a little lighter than I'd hoped, my improved skills with Ruby will be enabling me to go ham with game mechanics and events in future.

All going not-too-badly, this is a longterm project for me. 

 

There are a few people helping me to update it now, as well as helping out with and working on future content.
I'd like to do some kind of team announcement but not everyone is ready for that yet. That'll be a later dev blog update too!
Recently I finished converting the nearly 8000 sprites to the new format, and now work begins on updating the sprites and icons to match e19's quality updates.

The eggs and shiny icons will likely be an ongoing project over the episodes.
  
This would be the first of seven dev blog posts before the 30th September.
I guess we're all going to find out what those contain, hehe!
Let me know if you'd like to know more, or less, about anything and I'll see what I can do.
 

[BlueTowel]

 

Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it?
Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation?
Gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.
Who then knows whence it has arisen?

 

Hello! 

 

Since last time, I've been mostly focused on my app, but I'm settling into a new rhythm of working on that and PoA at the same time. Right now the app gets the most productive hours of my day, and takes priority if something else comes up, but I'm aiming to release that by the end of the month and free up August and September for the bulk of the PoA work. May result in a public beta test for the release, but we'll see how August goes! 

 

New Areas

As well as revamping old maps, we're working on new areas for new content! 

I'm not going to spoil with all of the new ones coming, in fact I may not mention most at all until after release to keep plenty of surprises.

 

South of Azurine Island, a river flowing towards the ocean accessible after gaining the ability to Surf on the lake.

The thick, toxic wastewater blocked the river at a narrow path, and prevented the lake from evaporating and draining once the flow of the Celestinine Cascade had been stopped.

 

 

While the function of the Water Treatment Center is restored, much waste remains flooded on the banks of the river.

The petroglyph site along the river is closed to the public due to the pollutants and the extremely and unusually dangerous Poison-type Pokémon that now reside there. 

While the ancient monument is an old favourite of Adrienn's, xey have postponed attempts at cleaning up the location due to the hazards involved.

 

A New Altform!

I know, I said about new altforms last devblog, but I made art for this one! 

 

Sleeping Anorith made by Umberoff at DeviantArt.

 

From the phenomenal album by DJ McKrezzy, "Do Anorith Dream of Stonefleece Mareep?"

An Electric/Rock-type variant of Mareep from a northern valley, it survived periods of glacial advance by developing highly insulating wool, and now resides in the rocky, mountainous areas of Reborn. Its stony fleece glows with electricity as the fibers brush against each other.

 

See you next dev blog!

[BlueTowel]

 

Whether Arceus' will created it, or whether They were mute;
Perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not;
The Supreme God of the world, all pervasive and all knowing
They indeed know, if not, no one knows

 

Hi! The first thing I should talk about today is splitting Episode 1 into two parts.

I think I'm going to be working on my app longterm as well, it won't be a launch-and-forget thing. Completing all of the new content for maingame (Cycle 2) and postgame (Cycle 3) for the 30th of September seems extremely unlikely. 

Episode 1 would be an update with content up to the first Champion battle, and Episode 2 would continue throughout postgame.
I'm still not quite sure whether to implement some barebones postgame content and expand it a lot in Episode 2, or to save it all for Episode 2. That's going to be a question over the next couple of weeks while work on PoA picks up.

 

Updating Old Maps! Some more!

 

Over the last couple of weeks I've worked on a few more maps, most of which are for new maingame content. I'd still like to keep them as a surprise. I'm happy to share updates to old maps, though.

Like the Southwest Undernet! 

This is a section of the route that was formerly from Onyx Trainers' School to Secret Glade. More of the decrepit railnet tunnels to explore, this time going all the way from Onyx Ward through Obsidia Ward and Coral Ward.

There will also be a timed event here for an early Qwilfish.

 

The Secret Glade is also less secret than before, but the map for it has not yet been updated.
It is now Byxbysion Pond, and accessible from Byxbysion Ward. Naturally, the connection to Byxbysion Ward is not accessible before the events in the main story, similar to the Isolated Farm and Route 1 before.

 

Mod Integration!

Another thing I'm comfortable talking about right now is integrating more mods into Plates of Arceus. 

For one, the Battle Bond Greninja mod! 

Sprites are currently WIP, but this won't be Ash-Greninja.

This will be Alice-Greninja, Ari-Greninja, Decibel-Greninja, Kuro-Greninja, Lucia-Greninja and Vero-Greninja. There will also be a base sprite to modify for peoples' custom trainer sprites.

 

PLA-style Move Relearning will also be integrated, and will be able to be disabled with a password (including as part of hard mode passwords).

 

The others being integrated are much larger and will be part of a future dev blog post later in August.

 

As i d̶   ě̸̻      ̸͔̄        f̸̖͝              r̵̨̻̝͂̔̓                     o̶̩͈̞̥̙͓͓̽͗̆͂̕͝                                  m̴̛̼̞̫͛

Spoiler

that, well, I'm out of time for now so I'll see you next time!

[BlueTowel]

 

 

Wow it is really hot today. And yesterday. And the day before. Woo, heatwaves! 

 

Okay so, this dev blog let's briefly go over a couple of things or so!

 

Reborn 19.5

So the Reborn engine is being updated! A lot of code is being refactored and moved around and such to make the engine more efficient and usable. 

At the start of updating PoA to 19, I was working with the initial changes. They were a lot bigger than I expected them to be! Who knew so much work needed doing?

It's also resulted in some repeat work. Mostly I've tried to keep to working on mapping and graphics updates, but I've had to add Gen 8 and the altforms in twice now.

This is making it a little awkward to import and add game features for PoA, which makes this post a little awkward in terms of screenshots. In that there aren't any! 

But there are scripts.

This dev blog, I'll go over some of the new features and likely go into more detail when it's more convenient to get screenshots of them in action!

 

Crafting

I'd been expecting this to have to come as a small update later in Episode 1, but thanks to RadApe we can now include it in the initial release! 

The full details of what will be craftable are still up in the air. 

A crafting system will be in place largely for the new Plate Interactions items. Instead of a Type Plate giving an effect when held, there will be Activated Plates that are acquired through crafting. Resources for crafting these new items will largely be obtained through mining, as well as lesser used items already in-game. This allows for a greater variety of Plate Interactions, as well as keeping choices viable by restricting more powerful effects to later in the game.

Other craftable items will be revealed in a later devblog as part of a spotlight on another new feature.

 

Mining Overhaul

Another mod being integrated into Plates of Arceus is the Mining Overhaul mod by AiedailEclipsed! Starry_Knight_Constellations has been working hard on graphics for it.

Rare new mining stones will be available containing later generation fossils, new coloured shards, crafting resources and other mining items. These will mostly be spread around new areas, and will be in limited supply until postgame. 

 

Plate Interactions

I'd expected these to also have to be cut until a later update due to wanting to make them a crafted item, but now they can come back in with the initial release!

With crafting allowing for staggered availability, we can add a lot more Plate Interactions to the game, affecting both Abilities and Moves.

There will be an Activated Plate for each new effect. 

For example, the Hive Plate empowers the Honey Gather ability to trigger an additional half-power Attack Order with every attack made.

We'll wait until testing to see if the 20% type power boost remains with these effects.

 

That's all for now! 

Hopefully we can have more screenshots for next dev blog!

[BlueTowel]

Hi! I'm afraid there won't be a dev blog this fortnight. 

I've been feeling particularly unwell this week.

It is looking like September is an unlikely release window for Ep1. Maybe Oct/Nov like initially given is more realistic. We'll see.

[BlueTowel]

For Kixur

[BlueTowel]

 

Hello.

 

This dev blog I'd like to talk about release dates, delays and ask for help.

 

So firstly...

 

Release Dates and Delays or why Ep1 is now coming out after SV release

I'd initially been very keen to get Episode 1 out by 30th September specifically for three reasons:

1) In October, the cost of living in the UK where I live is expected to rise again, reducing the amount of time I can use the PC to work on anything.

2) Also in October, further disability modifications are being made to the house, which will create a lot of noise and disruption for a couple of weeks or so.

3) I wanted to release Ep1 far enough from SV to give people a chance to finish a playthrough before it.

 

However, life has been difficult. Without going into too much detail, every time I thought things were going to get easier, a new obstacle appeared. Nothing given without something being taken. It's been a real struggle for me to find time and energy to work on this with everything else in life going on. The new Reborn engine is still a work in progress as well, making it awkward for me to work using my typical scattered method.
I honestly thought I'd have more time and energy this year, and I was only half right. While I have more energy, I'm spending a lot more of it dealing with my health issues, my friend's health issues, and the cat's health issues. Added pressure to generate an adequate income to offset the cost of living increases has not been helpful. At the start of this year I thought I was working towards long-term prospects, not medium-term survival.

I really don't think a release before SV is likely, even a simplified one.

It's not the end of this project, though. Far from it. 

 

I'll be postponing the release of Episode 1 until after SV releases, and including Gen 9 in it. Which makes sense! Full array of latest generation starters to pick from at the beginning. 

 

I'm also asking for help. 

 

Recruitment to help speed up releases

There's a lot I'd like to do with this mod. It's quite ambitious, even. Expand on existing mechanics from Reborn and the Plates, add more generations to Reborn, integrate game mechanics from across the generations, expand on and continue the story of Reborn, as well as add more Rebornian and exotic regional forms, and maybe some more fan forms such as Megas and Gigantamax.
It's a lot to do. It's practically a fangame in itself. There's also the issue of having to wait before working on a lot of aspects of it due to a shifting new game engine.

 

When that game engine is finished (at least to a degree that games are releasing using it), and when SV releases, there will be a lot to do. There will likely be cross-work between the Rebornian games, with Rejuv and Deso sharing the same base game engine as Reborn now. However, some PoA mechanics need importing as well.

There's also a higher demand for sprites when creating new forms now, with the addition of more icons and egg sprites.

Making new content also takes up a lot of time with mapping and eventing. There's a lot to come across the episodes, with adding new maingame content towards the PoA sidestory and adding new character interactions with the Reborn cast, and adding anomalies and other events for Gen 8 and 9 legendary Pokémon across postgame. There will also be new content following on from postgame, with an increasing level cap.

It's a lot to do, and it may come very slowly without help. But it will come. 

 

If you're interested in helping, please consider applying to join the team. 

####---- Application Form Link -----####

 

Applications will be open for the next 2-4 weeks! 

Please let me know if you have any questions!

[BlueTowel]

Hello!

I'm happy to announce that applications to join the team have closed, and several people have joined the development team! 
Before I let them introduce themselves, I'd like to take a moment to update on what I'm up to.

 

The short of it is that I can't use the computer as much anymore, which is a real pain. That time is going into more self-care and while life is a constant rise of stress and responsibility, I'm managing to deal with it fairly well. As long as I don't stare at the dark swirling cloud up above. 
The app is still a work in progress, largely due to disruptions and honestly trying not to burn out. It's coming along pretty nicely, but trying to sprint to releasing it seems unlikely to work out. It's not something I'm going to be talking about much if at all in future, but it feels right to me to get it out there that I'm still working. I'll be trying to balance working on PoA with working on the app and hoping nothing dramatic happens to make things even more difficult.

 

Now here's the team!

Spoiler

Adam:
Hello folks. It is I,Adam, one of the legendary posters of rejuvenation General, poster of my cats, also a doofus according to posty(this is a fine label btw). I will gladly help with the data and I will try my best with trainers .

 

Candii:
hi i am candii, i make sprite edits and mostly post them in the #sprite-edits channel on the server, if you are a veteran on it you may remember my mega-lanturn sprite (mod pending). i am doing pixel-art for almost 2-3 years and i am an #asprite-stan. i love visually pleasing color schemes which most of the time includes various shades of blue all of which you'll see in my work. in addition to that, i am working on my game and helping blue in whatever way i can!

 

Dred:
Heyo, my name is Dred, I've been apart of the Reborn community since the release of E19, and now I've gone on to joining the Plates of Arceus development team.
My main work will be redesigning and updating a good chunk of the maps, such as totem maps.
This is the first ever full on dev team that I've been of as well! So I'm looking to hopefully learn alot, and meet some awesome people!
Here's a quick preview of a recent map that I redesigned, which would be the Obscure Oceanfront:

Spoiler

 

Felicity:

Hello! For those of you that don’t know me, I’m Felicity, for those who do, You’re welcome. I love movies, literature, music and art. My interests range from Paris Hilton’s reality tv shows to reading fairy tales in their original language. My favourite food is lasagne, my favourite colour is purple and my favourite Pokémon is Dewgong.

Generally helping out with anything needed, sprites, character design and any writing.

 

GHOST CHAN:
Helloooo,my bame is Ghost (They/He/Xe) and I do a bunch of spriteworkTM with almost all of it posted in the #sprite-edits channel on the reborn server along with posting them on my Tumblr.I tend to lean more towards monochrome,gen 1 color pallet and 'aura' shinies!

 

Starry_Knight_Constellations: 
Meow :3 I'm Starry a mew enthusiast. I've been around for awhile many might recognize me from online play threads helping out there. I'm working on sprites mostly but might dabble to other areas occasionally :3

 

RadApe:

yo! I'm RadApe, been in rebron for a long time, currently working on polishing and porting a crafting system for PoA (and hopefully other fangames too!) and eventually move on to help out with general programming. Can't get a live example atm but here's a small showcase of the crafting at work

https://imgur.com/a/x2zjs3l

I'm really glad to have so many wonderful people helping bring this project forward! 

 

I'm running out of time again so here's some quick feature hype!

 

Totems and other Boss Battles

Thanks to the amazing work by the Rejuvenation team, especially Azery, and with permission from Jan, we can bring forward a lot of future planned game mechanics into Episode 1!

Totems with SOS calls is the big one there, as well as raid-like battles.

While Episode 1 will largely focus on maingame content, there may be room to implement Dynamax thanks to this and allow for a few more kinds of boss battles aside from Totems.

Episode 2, though, oh boy, so much Dynamax! So many raids!

 

Battle Bond Greninja and new Partner Pokémon?!

With the fantastic help of GHOST CHAN and Candii, spritework on the Battle Bond Greninjas has leapt forward, as well as adding other new forms.

Three Pokémon with six new forms each form a special starter trio, in addition to the Partner Eevee and Partner Pikachu from the Let's Go games.
These special forms will only be accessible before postgame for those who select their species as their starters at the beginning of the game; their Partners.

I'll go into these in more detail in a future dev blog! Things are moving!

Vero-Greninja vs Deep Volcanic Magcargo,

by GHOST CHAN and Candii respectively

 

Okay, that's all I have time for right now! I have to go cook.

I'll be updating the development tracker in the first post over the weekend, as for when the next dev blog will be... 

Let's say the 11th day of November?

 

Have a good one!

[BlueTowel]

Hey! It's the 11th day of November!

 

Two weeks is probably too short of a time to make dev blog posts, haha. I see why they're generally a month for the main fangames!

Let's make this a light one.

 

I've mostly been working on adding in Gen 9 content from the leaks, but since there aren't sprites for them yet there's... not a lot to show there! 

Graphics work has mostly been new altforms. The team have been working hard on sprites for them! While it looked like there may not be time for a lot of new altforms, there will be a good number of them in Episode 1 after all! 

 

The game engine is still a work-in-progress as well, and I'm afraid there's no images of gameplay this time. What a pain!

 

Let's come back on the 2nd of December with a more substantial dev blog post. 

[BlueTowel]

Hello!

 

Now you've surely noticed there isn't a header image for this post.

Does that mean it's not a substantial dev blog post?

The answer to that question is... actually kinda yeah, sorry about that.

 

So the building work I mentioned a while back is now actually happening! I haven't been able to use the computer much, it is physically inaccessible for most of the day and I'm having to do an awful lot of noise-avoidance and cleaning up. 

When I have had access, I've been working on implementing Gen 9 for the most part. We've all been generally living life and playing Pokémon SV. 

 

So let's talk about implementing Gen 9!

 

As you may or may not know, there is an engine update for Reborn underway. Rejuvenation and Desolation are using this new engine, and Reborn will be getting an e19.5 that updates with it. 

This new engine allows for the games to share scripts more easily, which is great in that it enables us to implement features from those games, such as the new Boss Battle system, with much greater ease.

It also means the scripts can be worked on by more people, becoming more efficient for better performance and so on.

For my part, I'm working on implementing Gen 9 into this engine. This means that when it releases, the code will be freely available for anyone to use for creating or updating Reborn mods with Gen 8 and 9 content.

Hopefully this helps people out with the transition to the new engine! Current mods will be very broken otherwise. This has been a struggle for working on PoA this year.

 

For how it'll be implemented into PoA, I think the main things people are wondering about are nerfs and Terastalization.

Movepool wise, we will not be removing access to any moves. There will be only gains.

Protean is getting nerfed, but a new Plate Interaction will restore it to its pre-nerfed state.

Other nerfs will be getting implemented fairly straightforwardly.

Battle Bond Greninja will still be a form change rather than a stat boost.

 

Terastalization will not be immediately available, it's likely to be added in an Ep1.5.

Pokémon will have Terastal types rolled from their current types, it may replace Hidden Power types. 

Pokémon with different Terastal types will be available at certain points in the game.

Items to change a Pokémon's Terastal type will also become available at certain points in the game.

 

Snow may end up being implemented as a different weather to Hail, which may remain. This will be decided in testing.

 

As for working on PoA, I'm taking December for it to be the only project I focus on. The new engine is starting to feel pretty stable, and alpha testing has technically started for PoA! 

However, due to the difficult circumstances IRL, I can't so quickly grab some good images of it. There is also a lot of work still to do on it.

 

One last thing before I have to rush off once more...

Forecast Meganium (Winter) by Candii and BlueTowel

 

If dev blogs are now monthly, does that mean the next update will be on the 2nd of January? 

Maybe, we'll see! 

Then at the latest for sure.

[BlueTowel]

On 12/2/2022 at 3:30 PM, BlueTowel said:

If dev blogs are now monthly, does that mean the next update will be on the 2nd of January? 

Maybe, we'll see! 

Then at the latest for sure.

Sunday. 

:)

sorry

[BlueTowel]

 

So let's cut straight to it.

 

Gen 9! In Reborn! Woo!

It's still a work-in-progress in the alpha testing. Things are buggy, there are errors, sometimes scripts drift away in the git.

There is still a lot to do, but PoA now has my focus. That kitchen work I mentioned? Still not finished. The people doing it are liars and cheats. It is pain. I have become burnt out by a great many struggles and dramas. I am now recovering and trying to minimise stress for a while.

 

Anyway, you may have noticed a whole bunch of slicing moves on Harpy Gardevoir there.

That's because old altforms are getting updated with gen 9 moves and abilities too!

Check this out:

If you haven't played SV yet, or read about it, well, there's this new ability called Sharpness. It increases the damage of slicing moves by 50%. The users of it are all physical attackers! But Air Cutter and Air Slash are slicing moves! So this just makes sense. Mixed attacker! Spec it special? It's up to you! So many choices, so many Pokémon!

 

Did you also notice that unrevealed new Pokémon form?

Who's that Pokémon?!

Let's reveal it!

Isn't she lovely?

You can thank Felicity and GHOST CHAN for the design and spriting! 

This is Embroidery Leavanny.

It's taken its stitching skills to the next level!

What quirks does it have?

You'll have to wait and see!

 

Also check this out:

New maps! 

Dred has been working hard on updating old PoA maps to look awesome and have more awesome content in them!

Can you guess which one this is?

 

Also forget the progress chart thingy! It sucks! I hate it! Quantifying progress when it keeps changing is too stressful! 

March/April is looking like a reasonable release time based on progress. 

The episode content itself may be squished to prevent more release date slippage.

More on that next dev blog in February! We'll be finding out ourselves how that will be going throughout January! 

Now I must sleep.