We make Pokémon Reborn. Ask Us Anything.

[Lupo]

Will there be more memes

[Amethyst]

How did you come up with the idea to create a pokemon game with more "realistic" environment ? Like... polluted cities, people suiciding, not everything is fair.

I found out about this game 1 week ago thanks to a 9gagger and i couldn't stop playing it , cause it is (in my opinion) original and has an interesting story.

• The whole thing about Reborn being a post-apoc city was Will's idea, after something that I'm not entirely clear on what happened after I signed off of the server one night back when we first started in 2010. He started making a story based on the fact that I, as a leader, disappeared in their time of need, and so everything was ruined.

Will there eventually be a buyable/renewable source of PP restoring items (i.e. Ethers, Elixirs, Leppa Berries etc.), or will the very few hidden ones be all we'll have access to?

• Not sure about purchasable though I'm not directly opposed. As for Leppa, I somehow thought y'all already had those. But if not, you'll get them at some point anyway.

It seems like you've only just touched on the ridiculousness of gen 1. Will you be doing more with that field?

• No plans to. Some of the stuff like merging and whatnot is just super not practical for a field effect. As for the wrapping moves, I definitely tried to do something with that at first, it was one of the key things I was looking to abuse on Terra's team (probably with like, Sand Tomb?). I don't remember why I eventually decided against it, whether it was because I couldn't find a way to make it compelling in terms of gameplay (let's face it, wrapspam wasn't actually fun for anyone, and doesn't leave (m)any options), or because I couldn't get the code to make it work right, I don't remember. But I think that field is pretty solid as is.

Q:Is there a Pokemon you simply forgot to add in the game at some point and remembered to add it in a much later episode same question for any features or tms?

Q:Do you yourself ever casually play through the Reborn?

Q:How many meme per square feet are placed in reborn?

Q:Is there some hidden Easter Egg event or Pokemon you added into the game that as of now has not been found by the community?

• Given my volatile memory, there's no way what hasn't happened probably more than a few times. However, given my volatile memory, I don't remember any specifics.
• Sometimes I get in the mood to, but usually one or two things happens. Either I burn myself out playing through the early game for the #48954th time because I accidentally fucked up my old save file testing things, or I think something like, but wait, it would be better to play through it after I finish this feature/area/whatever so I can test with that and then by the time I actually finish that the mood has passed.
• At least 5
  • In Glitch City though? Over 9000.
• If there was I forgot about it

First of all, my first forum post, woo. In any case, I've got a few questions for the esteemed team and... others of import.

• That Absol. The one that I everyone wants really badly. Was that kind of an afterthought that you added to the calamity-related events, or was that something you had planned from the get-go?
• The name Reborn in general... why'd ya go with that? For the region and such I mean.
• This one is just a random 4 AM thought, but eh. That guy that's in the neighboring cell when you're imprisoned by Meteor that releases you with Klefki even when you've been caught three hundred times..... Could that be Taka in disguise? I mean Klefki was his lead in his optional battle, and it would fit with his bad-guy-but-not-really personality... Like I said, just a thought.

• It was an afterthought, in fact a suggestion from someone on the forum. I really liked the idea though. I'm going to do more with it in the coming episode.
• The region was based and subsequently named off of our server/community, which was named Reborn because activity kept dying out and coming back. There's actually a lot more Re-'s in there, but we overlook them. Kinda like coefficients of 1.
• *illuminati music plays*

When will you officially add Dratini?

• When I'm good and ready to ya dadblameddragondoodaddratiniairnitefanboymanboypinsypansyimpatientpatronisin' hooligan. ^~^

How long did you think it'd take for this thread to die?

Going in to E16, how long did you initially think it'd take? Not a question of how it's doing, so not a banned question

Is there a Pokemon you really want to make available, but can't, due to Ame reasons?

• I kind of had a feeling it wouldn't, but I was hoping it wouldn't last more than a month... oh well, I don't really mind.
• I knew E16 would take forever, but I didn't think it would take over a year ._.;
• There might have been a few like that before but most of finally been gotten to between E13-16.

When Florinia says before battle that the expected outcome is failure, does she mean for the player or herself? I was always confused about this.

• She meant the player. Basically you're an experiment to her, and she expects you to be underwhelming. It actually doesn't quite fit in the context of the game after Obsidia PULSE stuff, but it was one of her old battle quotes.

[colers25]

Nope.

This is actually doable and not an entirely bad idea, so who knows, maybe we can do it. It might be looked into, even thought it'd admittedly be fairly low on our priority list.

Eh, perhaps you can hit up Jan from Rejuvenation and ask him to spare you guys the Filthy scraps from his masterpiece code for allowing 3 registered items, with one being also connected to the shift key (this being the least ergonimical to activate; in his game F5) and the others on more reachable keys

And yes, i know saying "just port it", unknowing on how RPG maker works and whether it allows it to be done that easily, might have given some of you devs the urge to find where i live and kick me in the crotch.

Anyway, have you guys considered adding a fast track for bringing weaker pokemon up to speed in the same way The man who i am shamelessly brownnosing Jan did in rejuvenation; by adding a repeatable battle featuring decently leveled Cretins who are only good for exp Audino's which you can rip to shreds over and over again with almost no fiscal rewards but fast XP growth, making training new pokemon for your rotation a breeze. It would be a lot more comfy that constantly having to battle either the person in the grand hall or the RNGeesus please give me the Blissey team Please don't fuck me up for putting the pokemon i am leveling in the first slot Nothing you will ever put in the game will manage to take away all the shards this fat bastard gave me rainbow roulette clown

Edited August 2, 2016 by colers25

[Commander]

Eh, perhaps you can hit up Jan from Rejuvenation and ask him to spare you guys the Filthy scraps from his masterpiece code for allowing 3 registered items, with one being also connected to the shift key (this being the least ergonimical to activate; in his game F5) and the others on more reachable keys

And yes, i know saying "just port it", unknowing on how RPG maker works and whether it allows it to be done that easily, might have given some of you devs the urge to find where i live and kick me in the crotch.

Anyway, have you guys considered adding a fast track for bringing weaker pokemon up to speed in the same way The man who i am shamelessly brownnosing Jan did in reborn; by adding a repeatable battle featuring decently leveled Cretins who are only good for exp Audino's which you can rip to shreds over and over again with almost no fiscal rewards but fast XP growth, making training new pokemon for your rotation a breeze. It would be a lot more comfy that constantly having to battle either the person in the grand hall or the RNGeesus please give me the Blissey team Please don't fuck me up for putting the pokemon i am leveling in the first slot Nothing you will ever put in the game will manage to take away all the shards this fat bastard gave me rainbow roulette clown

For your first statement, it's very immoral for a coder to take someone else's script and use it for themselves. They can look at the code to understand it but generally you want to start from scratch except when someone gives you permission to use it like essential's does. Personally I feel like Reborn doesn't really need it as you don't use key items all that much in the normal playthrough (hence why I'd probably wait until the last episode if doing it at all).

As for your second question, this is a whole Reborn vs Hardcore vs Rejuvenation type deal as they all aim for different objectives and their methods for grinding are very different for that reason. I'll start with Rejuvenation. The reason I feel all those Audino trainers are there is due to the horrible level spikes and trainer implementation as I just always felt like my mons were too weak being 8-10 levels below a boss and I rarely ever traded them out. Experience in the main story was so severely lacking. The Audino trainers are also counterproductive since they only give HP EVs...which can be very bad for some pokemon if it's 252. So imo, it's just a scapegoat, a good one, but doesn't excuse some issues.

(Do note my info is a bit outdated as I've only played Version 6 of the game)

Now I'll move onto Hardcore. Rebattable trainer haven't been touched, but they are much more manageable due to a 5 level shift. Hardcore focuses mostly on strategy so I give out an exp share and lucky egg at the start so people can swap out and use rotation teams of up to 8 without going really out of their way to grind. Rarely will you ever need to spend time grinding unless you train up a couple new team members which you probably will need to. The tradeoff is that you'll often be wasting experience due to level above the level cap. The fact I need a level cap to make it difficult is a huge issue I've just accepted and I am working on things such as a level limiter to reduce stressful overleveling. And yes, I give you guys way too much experience up until about Radomus who's the only leader where you'll have a hard time being at the right level.

Then there's Reborn who I feel got it just right. There's something people seem to forget about this game. It was originally brutally hard due to it's design. Lack of money at the start due to magikarp fisherman who eats your soul (and the ralts event), very limited experience outside of wild battles (there were no rematch trainers iirc or they were hard to train off of), and common candies did not exist until after episode VII. It's grown a bit softer over the following episodes, but you have to put in a lot of work to get a better Pokemon which in return makes the game easier. The game is also designed so that you rarely ever have to worry about being too low leveled due to leader and boss designs so usually just going everywhere and fighting everybody is more than enough to get through the main story. Maybe not the most efficient, but definitely possible.

The thing about Reborn's system is also a double edged sword. Due to how hard it is to train up a new mon, team variety can be a little bit lacking. If you look at an early game vs late game mon usage you'll notice Aya is basically the cut off point for using any new mons. Rotom, Reuniclus, Chandelure, Scraggy, Aerodactyl, Conkeldurr, Bisharp, Whimsicott...how many teams do you see with any of those mons? Ultra powerful mons don't get used as often as their weaker counterparts such as Meowstick and its due to the system. It's really well designed when you can demote the ultra powerful to push for more creative teams and the ignored mons which is why Reborn does it best.

This is a very, very oppinionated topic so don't take it personal but to summarize:

Reborn: Less experience, shallow variety, constant difficulty

Hardcore: More experience, high variety, easier late game difficulty

Rejuvenation: Less experience, moderate variety, difficulty swings

[Amethyst]

Will there be more memes

• i cannot in good conscience answer this question negatively

Anyway, have you guys considered adding a fast track for bringing weaker pokemon up to speed

• Here is why I do not want to do the audino thing (and why i've been resistant to rebattlable trainers in the first place): If it were just a fast track for weaker Pokemon, that would be fine. But anything that's that fast, like an Audino squad, is also probably going to be pretty easy leveling among other things too.
  • I do not like grinding. There are apparently strange people with strange opinions who disagree with me, but personally I think having to grind is a design flaw. However (and presumably due to years of growing up on static turn-based systems that served more as stat-checks than actual challenges) despite it not being enjoyable to many people, it is often a default strategy.
  • I would much rather encourage players to not grind unless they really have to (or, as you say, a newer/weaker Pokemon) and instead try different strategies, items, set-ups, field tactics, etc to try and beat the leader instead. But, if I add something that's so clearly freelo EXP, it's just going to enable that grinding-as-default disposition. I don't think people learn as much that way, and I think if they end up beating the battles just because of a numbers advantage they lacked before, it's not nearly as satisfying as beating the battle because they thought hard, tried new things, and hammered out something they didnt think of before that happened to work better and secure the win.
  • So, I don't know the numbers, but if something gives the best EXP for a level 30-50 Pokemon it's also probably going to be giving above average EXP even for level 50-70 Pokemon. Then it'll be that much simpler to just win by numbers rather than strategy. No thanks.
    • As an after thought, I wouldn't be opposed to that if it somehow like locked you out of the battle if you had any Pokemon above a certain level in your party (and was later in the game) so that could be an option... however that level would probably be in the 50-60 area and while it would help it's mostly the levels after that that take the longest anyway. So eh.

For your first statement, it's very immoral for a coder to take someone else's script and use it for themselves. They can look at the code to understand it but generally you want to start from scratch except when someone gives you permission to use it like essential's does.

• Generally true, though Jan and I are friends and help a bit with each other's projects anyway, so I really doubt he'd mind. It's probably an option at least.

[colers25]

• i cannot in good conscience answer this question negatively

• Here is why I do not want to do the audino thing (and why i've been resistant to rebattlable trainers in the first place): If it were just a fast track for weaker Pokemon, that would be fine. But anything that's that fast, like an Audino squad, is also probably going to be pretty easy leveling among other things too.
  • I do not like grinding. There are apparently strange people with strange opinions who disagree with me, but personally I think having to grind is a design flaw. However (and presumably due to years of growing up on static turn-based systems that served more as stat-checks than actual challenges) despite it not being enjoyable to many people, it is often a default strategy.
  • I would much rather encourage players to not grind unless they really have to (or, as you say, a newer/weaker Pokemon) and instead try different strategies, items, set-ups, field tactics, etc to try and beat the leader instead. But, if I add something that's so clearly freelo EXP, it's just going to enable that grinding-as-default disposition. I don't think people learn as much that way, and I think if they end up beating the battles just because of a numbers advantage they lacked before, it's not nearly as satisfying as beating the battle because they thought hard, tried new things, and hammered out something they didnt think of before that happened to work better and secure the win.
  • So, I don't know the numbers, but if something gives the best EXP for a level 30-50 Pokemon it's also probably going to be giving above average EXP even for level 50-70 Pokemon. Then it'll be that much simpler to just win by numbers rather than strategy. No thanks.
    • As an after thought, I wouldn't be opposed to that if it somehow like locked you out of the battle if you had any Pokemon above a certain level in your party (and was later in the game) so that could be an option... however that level would probably be in the 50-60 area and while it would help it's mostly the levels after that that take the longest anyway. So eh.

• Generally true, though Jan and I are friends and help a bit with each other's projects anyway, so I really doubt he'd mind. It's probably an option at least.

Fair enough.

Perhaps an alternate method is (somewhere later in the game) put some kind of boosted Exp. Share in the game which completely deprives the lead pokemon of any Exp, which would also deal with the problem of having to switch out your main because it is threatening to go over the level cap, and it can almost completely take away the issue of accidentally overleveling without having to rely on common candy (Which can be a problem if the over level happens mid-combat). Past that, can't think of any way to make it better. I mean, its not like it really stops me or anything; after finishing Ep 15 i have already trained up 7 new pokemon into my rotation (And i only had a single mental breakdown prompting me to add 30 rare candies with cheat engine, and i am very proud of that feat of mental fortitude :"D). For most players, however much you encourage them not to, grinding new pokemon into their team is an inevitability (like i had to do with an Escavalier for the psychic gym, Numel for the bug gym and a Walrein for the flying gym), because most people don't set up good tactical teams balanced among all lines (my fault is that i just put sweepers of every type in my team so i can breeze through normal trainers).

Admittingly, as stated earlier, praying for RNGeesus to give me the Blissey team, isn't such a bad method either since Blissey easily gives the exp of an entire Audino team.

As for your second question, this is a whole Reborn vs Hardcore vs Rejuvenation type deal as they all aim for different objectives and their methods for grinding are very different for that reason. I'll start with Rejuvenation. The reason I feel all those Audino trainers are there is due to the horrible level spikes and trainer implementation as I just always felt like my mons were too weak being 8-10 levels below a boss and I rarely ever traded them out. Experience in the main story was so severely lacking. The Audino trainers are also counterproductive since they only give HP EVs...which can be very bad for some pokemon if it's 252. So imo, it's just a scapegoat, a good one, but doesn't excuse some issues.

Though there is something to be said with Rejuvenation being more poorly paced, I mostly enjoyed the capacity to quickly welcome new pokemon into my party. But something can most definitely be said about it very much being a crutch for the amount of times that he throws stuff at you that simply cannot overcome with your current comp, and made it very, very necessarily to constantly have a Sturdy Golem with explosion on him to cheese bs like shadow mewtwo, whereas Reborn allowed me to do those "Boss" encounters with properly strategizing with my current team; both the case with Steelix and Arceus (Though in line with the religious theme of the fight i had to pray a few times to RNGeesus for this focus blast to miss its mark)

Admittingly the HP EV issue is a very noticable and glaring issue. 252 HP EV's on my Gardevoir isn't especially usefull.

......On a second thought, forget i ever brought up the Audino suggestion, Jan is a rather merciful overlord by giving me those 20 bucks EV berries (Though episode 8 had me going without any), but Amethyst on the other hand is a cruel mistress to serve and if i grind on those HP EV's unnecessarily she will Bend me over molest my wallet without mercy with setting anyone who was dumb enough to grind up 252 EV's in an undesirable stat back roughly 30k.

Either way, love the game, like a few other chaps on this forum i ran into it after a rather enthusiastic chap advertised it in the comment section of a 9gag post as a "masterpiece", and got me hooked on pokemon games that aren't intended to be solveable by 8 year olds. On the flipside, now everyone thinks i am a mentally retarded toddler for claiming that pokemon games can be unforgivingly hard and deep and i can't convince them to play anything in which they can count the pixels so am i just gonna have to live with that ;-;.

Edited August 2, 2016 by colers25

[Timber Dragon]

Rebattlable trainers are a godsend for grinding up new mons, and I actually appreciate how the Grand Hall trainers can challenge you. It can be frustrating at times, but for what's essentially unlimited exp, I like how they at least make you work for it.

But what I appreciate even more is that Reborn is balanced in such a way where you usually don't need to go out of your way to grind. This isn't just about the level cap, it's how strategy can take you farther than you think. After all, Reborn is a game where you can beat a level 75 Arceus with a team of 50-somethings.

[Kurotsune]

How long did you think it'd take for this thread to die?

Going in to E16, how long did you initially think it'd take? Not a question of how it's doing, so not a banned question

Is there a Pokemon you really want to make available, but can't, due to Ame reasons?

Way less time than it has, to a point where I'm considering euthanasia.

I already expected coding not to take very long - and it didn't - but circumstances certainly affected development and we didn't get as many systems out as we wanted.

While not a pokémon that is currently unavailable, I've alluded before that I wanted to add a secret eevee starter but was ultimately not able to since people would cheat to figure out where it was.

When Florinia says before battle that the expected outcome is failure, does she mean for the player or herself? I was always confused about this.

Player

Will there be more memes

Yes

[enu]

• Here is why I do not want to do the audino thing (and why i've been resistant to rebattlable trainers in the first place): If it were just a fast track for weaker Pokemon, that would be fine. But anything that's that fast, like an Audino squad, is also probably going to be pretty easy leveling among other things too.
  • I do not like grinding. There are apparently strange people with strange opinions who disagree with me, but personally I think having to grind is a design flaw. However (and presumably due to years of growing up on static turn-based systems that served more as stat-checks than actual challenges) despite it not being enjoyable to many people, it is often a default strategy.
  • I would much rather encourage players to not grind unless they really have to (or, as you say, a newer/weaker Pokemon) and instead try different strategies, items, set-ups, field tactics, etc to try and beat the leader instead. But, if I add something that's so clearly freelo EXP, it's just going to enable that grinding-as-default disposition. I don't think people learn as much that way, and I think if they end up beating the battles just because of a numbers advantage they lacked before, it's not nearly as satisfying as beating the battle because they thought hard, tried new things, and hammered out something they didnt think of before that happened to work better and secure the win.
  • So, I don't know the numbers, but if something gives the best EXP for a level 30-50 Pokemon it's also probably going to be giving above average EXP even for level 50-70 Pokemon. Then it'll be that much simpler to just win by numbers rather than strategy. No thanks.
    • As an after thought, I wouldn't be opposed to that if it somehow like locked you out of the battle if you had any Pokemon above a certain level in your party (and was later in the game) so that could be an option... however that level would probably be in the 50-60 area and while it would help it's mostly the levels after that that take the longest anyway. So eh.

Let me share my idea about this topic. The problem as I see it is making a newly-caught / newly-hatched / long-time-unused pokemon up to the level needed against trainers without providing an easy overleveling method at the same time.

Very often when I fail against a gym leader I want to try a different strategy and need to swap one or two of my pokemon for some others which I haven't used for a long time (or not at all) so they are like 20 levels below the gym leader. I hate grinding using EXP share because I usually overlevel the rest of my team in the process which means the strategy I wanted the pokemon for it no longer needed - I'd really like to avoid that.

Then how about having a scientist who would provide a fast leveling service (without battles, just get the exp for money or something) but only up to say 10 or so levels below the level cap. It may not help much with pokemon found in the latest areas (those usually are somewhere near that level) but it would be a great help with eggs and with pokemon caught in some older (lower-level) areas who were boxed for a long time. The exact cap for this method is questionable of course - in my opinion it would be fine to even put it like 5 levels below the level cap (without EV training they still would not be overpowered but should be immediately usable in battles). What do you think?

Edited August 2, 2016 by baldr

[Kurotsune]

Okay!

So when this topic was initially conceived, we didn't intend for it to last as long as it has. Instead, we planned to have other "get to know the team" topics like these happening sporadically.

Instead this one has spiraled out of control and although it has worked to serve its purpose, it's by far outlived it. Most questions asked nowadays have already been answered, making it sort of a pointless exercise to maintain the thread.

So I'm cutting it short now. Don't worry, though, there will be other, similar threads to come.

(In the meanwhile, most of the discussions here can be moved over to the status discussion with no ill effects)

As always, thank you for your time.