[INACTIVE - SEE UPDATE] Pokemon Guardians

[Tempest]

 

Hello! Welcome to my lab, I’m Professor James Stratus-... wait.. You already knew that. You’re Arthur's kid, aren’t you? He said you might be coming by today… asked me to explain a few things, erm… where do I begin?

 

I’m sure your father has talked about it; I mean, you’ve trained to be a Guardian for, what... ten years, but the Guardians have been around for a millennium. They are the protectors of the legends and the world. Their main charge is shielding the eighteen elemental plates from those who seek to abuse them.

 

The Guardians are more connected to the world around them; they can utilize the very energy that Pokemon use to manifest attacks. Perhaps it’s best known as Aura, but Guardians refer to it as Ilahi. A well trained Guardian is quite powerful and can manipulate the very fabric of reality with Ilahi. They were, in their heyday, nigh unstoppable. Peace was abound.

 

And now, well… the Guardians failed. Fifteen years ago, an organization known only as Axis captured all eighteen Plates and summoned the creator. They sought to create a new world for themselves and rule over everything they saw… but alas, it’s difficult to control gods.

 

The destruction was swift. The apocalypse rained hellfire down. Rifts were ripped open in the very fabric of spacetime… many still persist to this day, and there are those that wander them, hoping to find a way to go back.

 

Oddly enough, the Kaber region may have fared the best. Even though they summoned Arceus here, much of the damage was in other regions. My sources tell me Johto is just a crater from some kind of shockwave and Hoenn has almost completely sunk into the sea.

 

Billions of people had lost their lives when the dust settled… most who survived fled here.

 

But you already knew all of this… I’m just stalling at this point. You’re father and I have been good friends for a long time… he wanted to me to tell you what he couldn’t tell you himself.

 

Your mother didn’t die from natural causes… she was killed in the armageddon. Your father and her led the Guardians trying to stop Axis… and she lost her life trying.

 

After that day, your father wasn’t the same, and he’s had a zeal for finding the plates... for what, he hasn’t told me.

 

...I’m sorry you had to hear this from me.

 

But you cannot rest. There are few Guardians left, and Axis is moving again. Their purpose is unknown but they are incredibly dangerous. They’re chasing the plates… they haven’t learned their lesson. Your father wanted me to tell you…

 

He…

 

He wants you to chase the plates and try and capture them before Axis does.

 

You won’t be alone, and there are other Guardians active, but not many… and they all have their own things they must attend, but without them this existence we’ve carved out of the rubble might collapse.

 

Find a man named Craig in Aurous City. He can help you more than I. And… be mindful of the “locals,” they’re not the most friendly lot.

 

Now go… there’s a storm coming… can you hear the thunder?

 

 

 

Hi guys!

 

I’m Tempest, one of the devs of this game, and this is Pokemon Guardians! This is a game that’s been in the works for awhile now; I initially had some of the core ideas of this game almost two years. Over the years, we’ve started doing work, only to scrap it for something else, so we don’t have a ton to showcase, but we are starting to make progress!

 

...Bazaro and Wulfgang might have helped out with this post as well.

 

 

Self-Leveling System

I haven’t come up with a good name for this yet, but basically it means the game levels with you, so you’re never over leveled or under leveled. There most likely will be a lower level cap, just to keep the game having some pace.

 

Learning AI

This is something we’re working on. Those of you that know me, know I mess around with AI on the Reborn Showdown server. I’m working on getting the AI to a level that we could replace the in game AI with a learning AI that battles more competitively and learns as you play against it.

 

Online Play

This is a trying issue. There WILL be online play, but it’s a matter to what extent. At the very least, there will be trading and battling. Scripts already exist for this, and it shouldn’t be too hard to do. What I’m really pushing for is online co-op. There are a few games coming out that are working towards this, and there are a few MMO scripts already available I can retrofit. Either way… you will be able to battle and trade with people around the world. That much is certain.

 

Multiple Saves

This will be built into the game, and you won’t need to bother with external programs or changing the files on your own.

 

Autosave

The game will be able to save itself, so you won’t need to worry about saving it!

 

Mega Evolutions

This is a big one. We’re going to have mega evolutions for every single Pokemon in the game. This was spawned from a project Baz started forever ago called CAMP. We have a few to showcase down below.

 

Ilahi

This is a story element more than anything. As the player, you will be able to use certain abilities… to replace HMs completely. Yep. No HMs. The moves will still be there of course, and if for some reason you want to use them, you can, but they will just act like any other move with an outside battle ability.

 

There may be a few other surprises with Ilahi, but you’ll have to wait and see.

 

Talking Protagonist

Yep. The protagonist - you - talks in this game. Shocking, I know.

 

 

The Guardians have existed for almost a millennia to protect the world and the legends from those who seek to harm them. They can manipulate the same energy that Pokemon use to attack: Ilahi, perhaps better known as Aura.

 

Fifteen years ago, an organization known as Axis seized the eighteen elemental plates that are synonymous with Arceus and summoned him in an effort to take the world for themselves… but they failed and caused the armageddon, destroying much of the Pokemon world, but oddly enough, seemingly only slightly damaging the Kaber region.

 

You are an eighteen year old who has trained under your father for years to become a Guardian and follow in your parents footsteps. It wasn’t an easy path, growing up without a mom; she died when you were young. Your dad has had a passion for finding the plates after the event, and he’s been more and more absent lately. They were scattered far and wide, and only a few have been found once again.

 

Your father tells you on his way out the door to go meet with his friend, the renowned Professor James Stratus, who has lived in Volfram Town as long as you can remember. Even after the region’s destruction, he continues to study the recent rise of new Mega Evolutions, but he also has important knowledge of the Guardians and the plates.

 

Things seem peaceful. Cities are being rebuilt and the rubble is being cleaned away. A bright future seems ahead… but darkness is lurking on the horizon, for Axis is returning.

 

 

The Kaber region is a rich and varied region. There’s the massive metropolis of Aurous City; the blistering heat of the Gyrum Desert; the towering peaks of the Cupro Mountains; the wide green expanse of the Litica Forest; the fiery mountains of the Sulvari; the freezing wasteland of the Kopparnik Mountains; and the wild jungle on Kobol Island.

 

Despite the destruction, the Kaber region is heavily populated… much of the surviving population moved here after the summoning, and the cities are some of the largest in the Pokemon world, even before the destruction… with it, comes crime and gangs, which run rampant in some of the less-off cities of the region.

 

The region is still fraught with peril after the events over a decade ago. The districts of the massive Aurous City still lie partially in ruin, despite the efforts to restore them, and even the far away Argentum City still has parts of it that are destroyed; no part of the region was untouched, but much of it was spared compared to other regions.

 

Journey through the mystery of the ruins and face the peril of the rifts that still blot the landscape. Some twist space and lead to places unknown and some twist time and lead towards the past or future. Does one lead to before the apocalypse? Can the damage be undone?

 

 

Player

You’ve lived in Volfram town for your entire eighteen year long life. Despite losing your mother at a young age, your dad has been an excellent father, raising you with love and care… and training you to be a Guardian yourself one day, to follow in the footsteps of your parents.

 

Arthur

Your father was a legendary Guardian before the collapse, constantly leading the charge and putting himself in the way of danger. Despite losing your mother, he’s still be an outstanding father to you… but people say he hasn’t been the same since the collapse. He’s been zealous about recapturing the plates, but for what purpose?

 

He’s always gone away for periods of time, but lately, he’s been gone more and more, and he seems more anxious about something...

 

Professor Stratus

A friend of your dad, and a Pokemon Researcher studying Mega Evolution in the secluded Volfram Town. He seems to have found something that could’ve caused the sudden rise in Mega Evolutions that have been appearing. He also seems to be confident of your father and an aide to the Guardians, because he knows far more about them then he lets on...

 

Craig

A local leader in the Stannus District who your dad and Stratus wanted you to meet. He has helped rebuild much of the fallen city from the foundation up. He is well respected, if not a little strict.

 

Aria

Aria is a hyper young girl with a colorful imagination. Amidst daunting odds and devastation, she’s always there to cheer you on. She manages to see the best in the worst of people.

 

Ignacio

Ignacio is one of the many wanderers of Kaber as a result of the apocalypse. Spontaneous and resourceful, you can count on him to have your back when you need it most.

 

 

Create-A-Mega-Pokemon comes to fruition in Pokemon Guardians, adding over 200 new Mega Pokemon to the roster. This has a big undertaking, but thanks to the time put into CAMP, the Mega Evolutions are ready to be put to use. Concept art and sprites are still a huge work in process, but here’s a few we have ready...

 

 

 

Pokemon Guardians will feature A LOT of original music and some remixes here and there. The Kaber region is a diverse land whose inhabitants are no different. The styles of music range from your typical pop-rock melodies to salsa, to grunge metal, to future bass, to symphonic to trap and hip hop and ....I think you get what I’m saying. Here’s a little sample of what you can expect:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What? You thought I was the only one working on this? I’m not even the lead dev… technically.

 

Bazaro - Lead Dev

Tempest - Co-dev

Kyoyo - Dev, Art

Wulfgang - Dev, Music

Jacze - Dev

Swimming95 - Dev, Coding

DobbyTheElf - Dev, Writer

ReignitedLight - Dev, and resident battle expert

 

We all do whatever we think we can… there really isn’t set roles, which is why we’re all devs. Especially mapping… it’s a joint effort.

 

HELP WANTED!

 

If you wanna help out, we’re always lookin’ for more people. As you can probably see, we lack in the spriting and concept art department, and Baz has been working his ass off to do some sprites, but there’s a lot to do. Also, we don’t have a coder that’s around much and/or actually likes coding in Ruby… which is sort of an issue.

 

Of course, anyone that wants to map or do anything at all, we’re happy to have you help. Everything is appreciated!

 

Thanks for reading through all this and I know details may be a bit sparse… but we can’t give away the whole story right?

[alaneapen]

Seems like a great game. Are there going to be 18 starters and the ev/iv checker?

[Cyaloom]

This looks great!
I mean... is there really anything to remark?

Maybe the thing I've found the most interesting about the story is that we have a talking protagonist who is also not a common trainer - the opposite of Reflection, basically. Oh, and also the line "Journey through the mystery of the ruins and face the peril of the rifts that still blot the landscape. Some twist space and lead to places unknown and some twist time and lead towards the past or future. Does one lead to before the apocalypse? Can the damage be undone?"

(dialga and palkia reference)

Another interesting thing is the online battling, backed up by all of those new Megas... in this game every battle is going to be very interesting.

also now you've outshined me and Pokémon Reflection completely

Edited June 24, 2016 by Cyaloom

[Drymus]

This looks amazing, guys!

I think it will be interesting to see the aftermath of what happens once the bad guys actually get their awful plan to work... Until it backfires.

Will our character have dialogue options that affect the ending of the game?

[Shamitako]

Ohey, this actually got itself going P well

'Grats

[YoshiofRedemption]

This looks so cool! I can't wait to play it!

[Azeria]

Amazing, just amazing.

[Kithros]

From a gameplay standpoint, I don't think the self leveling thing is a good idea. I've played some pokemon game that did something similar and it was kind of silly - in that particular game the pokemon would be your average pokemons level, which made the by far optimal strategy (even moreso than usual) to have 1 overleveled pokemon and the rest of your team level 2s - leveling up the rest of your team would actually make the game harder. You could make it based off of the players highest level, but that kind of has the reverse effect where you're really penalized heavily for not having all of your pokemons levels exactly equal. There are also some kind of silly things like incentivizing players to get all of their pokemon just barely away from leveling up before a difficult fight so they level up as soon as you KO anything.

It can get even worse when there are factors that influence how strong a pokemon are other than its level (EVs for instance) where you can potentially put a player into a position where they're incentivized to train in a way that deliberately gives them as little exp as possible while EV training them or somesuch (the reason this comes to mind for me is because of a final fantasy tactics mod actually, but in that one I felt like I was being punished for doing anything that gained experience without giving me extra skills because the skill system was mostly separate from leveling up - that was one of the main reasons I really didn't like playing that difficulty mod even though I didn't mind the difficulty in itself).

I mean, I get the motivations for having a system like that in place, but in practice I've never seen it really work out well - it has a lot of awkward problems with it and honestly I think just having level caps or something similar to level caps to rpevent people from overleveling works better from a gameplay standpoint.

.. As far as the learning AI goes, I hope you know what you're getting into. Making an intelligent AI at all is difficult enough, making a learning AI is extremely difficult to do (especially without requiring sample sizes in the millions before it becomes any good, which will never happen during a single pokemon game), and especially making one that can't be exploited by the player doing silly things (.. if I intentionally make really stupid decisions against random trash trainers will that make the difficult fights easier because the AI learned to play stupidly from me?).. honestly I'm not sure there's enough of a reason to have something like this in the game considering how difficult it is to do well, but if you can get it to work I guess it would be kind of cool.

[pbood2]

Wow guys this looks amazing.

The CAMP concept is cool because they were thought up by Rebornians correct? so that's awesome.

The concept of a "Guardian" intrigues me lol.

I also love the logo with the Arceus, the colour is amazing so awesome job to whoever created that.

I'm looking forward to this so good luck with making progress. Also, the team for this game looks polished and experienced so I'm sure you guys and gals will make an amazing game.

Pokemon Darkness is also doing the talking protagonist (No we did not copy this idea from you lol - I have proof in my google doc for dialogue) so I'm very happy other fangames are going against the norm and having a talking protagonist

Have a great day/night.

[Spineblade]

This sounds like quite the ambitious project. I'm intrigued by some of the features mentioned, and I hope to see this develop into something brilliant. Good luck to all the dev team!

Edited June 24, 2016 by Spineblade

[Tempest]

Seems like a great game. Are there going to be 18 starters and the ev/iv checker?

No, but I can't tell you what starters yet. That's a surprise.

Yes there will be an EV/IV checker... though admittedly I totally spaced on this,

This looks amazing, guys!

I think it will be interesting to see the aftermath of what happens once the bad guys actually get their awful plan to work... Until it backfires.

Will our character have dialogue options that affect the ending of the game?

Nope. It's a huge amount of work to do dialogue trees and it basically means writing multiple stories... I think it'd be cool if we did, but with what else were doing it's just not feasible... I promise we will make the protagonist likable though!

From a gameplay standpoint, I don't think the self leveling thing is a good idea. I've played some pokemon game that did something similar and it was kind of silly - in that particular game the pokemon would be your average pokemons level, which made the by far optimal strategy (even moreso than usual) to have 1 overleveled pokemon and the rest of your team level 2s - leveling up the rest of your team would actually make the game harder. You could make it based off of the players highest level, but that kind of has the reverse effect where you're really penalized heavily for not having all of your pokemons levels exactly equal. There are also some kind of silly things like incentivizing players to get all of their pokemon just barely away from leveling up before a difficult fight so they level up as soon as you KO anything.

It can get even worse when there are factors that influence how strong a pokemon are other than its level (EVs for instance) where you can potentially put a player into a position where they're incentivized to train in a way that deliberately gives them as little exp as possible while EV training them or somesuch (the reason this comes to mind for me is because of a final fantasy tactics mod actually, but in that one I felt like I was being punished for doing anything that gained experience without giving me extra skills because the skill system was mostly separate from leveling up - that was one of the main reasons I really didn't like playing that difficulty mod even though I didn't mind the difficulty in itself).

I mean, I get the motivations for having a system like that in place, but in practice I've never seen it really work out well - it has a lot of awkward problems with it and honestly I think just having level caps or something similar to level caps to rpevent people from overleveling works better from a gameplay standpoint.

.. As far as the learning AI goes, I hope you know what you're getting into. Making an intelligent AI at all is difficult enough, making a learning AI is extremely difficult to do (especially without requiring sample sizes in the millions before it becomes any good, which will never happen during a single pokemon game), and especially making one that can't be exploited by the player doing silly things (.. if I intentionally make really stupid decisions against random trash trainers will that make the difficult fights easier because the AI learned to play stupidly from me?).. honestly I'm not sure there's enough of a reason to have something like this in the game considering how difficult it is to do well, but if you can get it to work I guess it would be kind of cool.

With the self-leveling system, I've thought a good deal about what you mentioned. I'm gonna work on it some more, but I've got a pretty clever algorithm, and we will have a low end so you can't, say, take level 2 Pokemon against the final boss and expect the boss to be all low leveled. For EVs, I don't foresee much of a problem... a lot of the bosses will have well trained Pokemon with good EVs and IVs anyways. The game is meant to be difficult, so some kind of level cap system is a must to stop people from just overleveling, but I'm not a big fan of level caps... this is the best solution in my eyes.

If it doesn't work out, then we will just have to do level caps, but I'm confident that a good algorithm exists.

As for the AI, I know what you mean, but we won't be doing this AI from scratch. I'm going to be retrofitting an existing AI. I already am playing around with two bots on the Showdown server right now, and the non learning AI has won tournaments, but the learning AI has a few glitches I need to go through and fix first. This is, again, another thing we'll be working on, but I'm confident we can get right.... there is another bot I'm going to be working on soon that is a very well done AI system.

At the very least, I can make the current AI in essentials play even better.

Wow guys this looks amazing.

The CAMP concept is cool because they were thought up by Rebornians correct? so that's awesome.

The concept of a "Guardian" intrigues me lol.

I also love the logo with the Arceus, the colour is amazing so awesome job to whoever created that.

I'm looking forward to this so good luck with making progress. Also, the team for this game looks polished and experienced so I'm sure you guys and gals will make an amazing game.

Pokemon Darkness is also doing the talking protagonist (No we did not copy this idea from you lol - I have proof in my google doc for dialogue) so I'm very happy other fangames are going against the norm and having a talking protagonist

Have a great day/night.

Yep. CAMP was a thread Baz started forever ago, which has since disappeared, and we kinda just went with the idea.

This sounds like quite the ambitious project. I'm intrigued by some of the features mentioned, and I hope to see this develop into something brilliant. Good luck to all the dev team!

It isn't as bad as it seems. Much of the work for a lot of the hard features are already there in other games and in open-source scripts. Like I know Phoenix Rising is doing co-op in their game, and I just talked with them and the scripts for it will be open-sourced and free to use once the game comes out. The AI systems already exist and are free to use and modify, so it's more a matter of retrofitting them for the game.

[Fumble]

THREAD IS FINALLY OUT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

so excited for this tbh, i've seen a lot of the ideas for megas and they all look really interesting

and cool n0ble's learning

[Strider]

This seems really cool, and I'm excited to see the new megas. Will there be 300 mega stones throughout the map or will they be bought?

Online battling and multiple saves...wow. So for auto saves...would this prevent soft reseting, or will the autosave be optional?

It sounds like a tremendous amount of work.

So what sort of things will the AI do? predict a switch into a ghost type, and not use Hi Jump Kick?

The first thing I think of when you mention "rifts" is the distortion world. Will there be anything similar?

[Tempest]

THREAD IS FINALLY OUT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

so excited for this tbh, i've seen a lot of the ideas for megas and they all look really interesting

and cool n0ble's learning

Well there was a second mega thread I think... or are you talking about the original CAMP thread?

This seems really cool, and I'm excited to see the new megas. Will there be 300 mega stones throughout the map or will they be bought?

Online battling and multiple saves...wow. So for auto saves...would this prevent soft reseting, or will the autosave be optional?

It sounds like a tremendous amount of work.

So what sort of things will the AI do? predict a switch into a ghost type, and not use Hi Jump Kick?

The first thing I think of when you mention "rifts" is the distortion world. Will there be anything similar?

There will be a mix... but most will be hidden throughout the map.

Autosaves are optional. This work much like Insurgence's auto saves.

The AI will try and predict, yeah.

Something of the sorts perhaps. You'll have to wait and see.

[Ironbound]

Oh, neat! I'm sure I can pitch in with the help as well, and not just CAMP ideas (baz where's the Togekiss anyways) I'll discuss this with you guys later when time permits. I'm definitely interested, however, both to play the game and contribute to it if I can!

[Ice Cream Sand Witch]

This sounds amazing! It looks like a tremendous amount of thought/planning went into this, and I can't wait to see where it goes!

Just wondering because they weren't mentioned: are there gyms, or is the story of the guardians and plates the sole focus?

[Tempest]

This sounds amazing! It looks like a tremendous amount of thought/planning went into this, and I can't wait to see where it goes!

Just wondering because they weren't mentioned: are there gyms, or is the story of the guardians and plates the sole focus?

Nope. There are no gyms... but there will be the "boss battle" type stuff of a gym, don't you worry!

[Commander]

From my experience, leveling and level caps have very little to what makes a fight difficult (they are pacing tools). I prefer level caps purely for allowing an abundance of experience along with better team management incentives. I could see that trainer leveling system backfire as it's an anti-grinding incentive in the early game and a grinding incentive in the latter game. This is due to stat growths being more significant in the early game and matters very little when you reach the high end levels like 80 and such (aka the player benefits more from level gains over the opponent). If you could do the system for bosses only, I'd suggest that since well, FFVIII did something similar and it made random encounters very annoying to the point being high leveled hurt more than helped. It worked so well on the bosses though as they were never easy iirc. (The final boss at level 100 though...and all my good spells broken...was hell).

And tbh, the base essential's AI's biggest weakness is it's inability to make well played switches. Fix that and it'd spike up the difficulty. Anyways, I'm intrigued by the learning AI system as it'd certainly bring something new to the table and really could be fun. Can't say much else on it since it seems like you know what you're doing in that department. I would like a bit more info on autosaves since well...what causes it to autosave (ie walking to a new map, teleporting, or closing the game).

As for story, I could make a couple jabs at the dead mother cliche, but I don't know too much about the story so I'll keep silent there. Judging from the way the start is laid out, that I'm guessing is text straight out of the game. There's a couple little things I'd change or switch around, but honestly it's not bad. I'm just nitpicky when it comes to that. The overall concept seems interesting as well to the point I can't tell if this'll be more story driven or gameplay driven. Kind of wish the player's character description described his personality a little bit more. Again nitpicky me.

Now for the thing I really wanted to talk about: the megas. Those Megas look freaking awesome especially Dewgong's. I know Baz has worked on them for like ever (and I've seen the Rapidash sprite before) so Kudos to him. My only concern/question is since you'll be umm...quadrupling the amount of megas, will it still be limited to one mega per team or will you remove that? Just kind of curious seeing as so many megas and so little room in your team.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As for assistance, well seeing as you have someone for battling and writing, looks like I'm kind of more or less not going to be much help. I mean I have knowledge in all areas (yes, I do know a little about music...though not much), but my artistic abilities are pretty pitiful. The battles I'm used to making are Reborn's field effects and there's a big difference when you do it with and without them. I might beta test, but that's probably it.

[Bazaro]

(baz where's the Togekiss anyways)

Now for the thing I really wanted to talk about: the megas. Those Megas look freaking awesome especially Dewgong's. I know Baz has worked on them for like ever (and I've seen the Rapidash sprite before) so Kudos to him. My only concern/question is since you'll be umm...quadrupling the amount of megas, will it still be limited to one mega per team or will you remove that? Just kind of curious seeing as so many megas and so little room in your team.

As you progress the game, you will be allowed more "Mega Slots," where you can Mega Evolve multiple Pokemon per battle, but you're going to start at only 1.

[dragonza11]

seems like a good game, but are there gonna be multiple gamemode's or just 1? ether way, I really want to see this game grow big in the future!!

[Bazaro]

seems like a good game, but are there gonna be multiple gamemode's or just 1? ether way, I really want to see this game grow big in the future!!

We're planning at least 3; "Easy" "Normal" and "Hard," essentially.

[Bluewolf]

Hello everyone!

Thank you for your continued interest and support in our project

I'm Pokemon Guardians' music coordinator and composer, so here are two small samples to give you an idea as to what you can expect music-wise.

(I think you'll all be able to guess which theme inspired this remix )

Guardians is a really fun project for me. I get to express multiple atmosphere's, moods and situations through several different genres.

I realize that I'm sort of an add one, and that some styles just aren't some people's cup of tea. But I hope that as our development team progresses and I release more music, you'll each find something you like n____n

So yeah, enjoy and thank you again!

Edited July 22, 2016 by Bluewolf

[Masquerain]

Looks like an interesting project, are there any screenshots or sneak-previews of some characters maybe?

[Tempest]

Soon^TM.

We're working on a big update post, but there's a few things we need to get done first, and the team has been busy as of late.

[Bazaro]

We're getting the team together sometime this weekend for a stream chat on the game's development. Stay tuned~