How Pokemon Reborn could be improved

[Venonaut97]

While surfing the Reborn forums, I saw a lot of cool ideas for additional mechanics and concepts for Pokemon Reborn. However, a good number of the discussions involving ideas for mechanics have long since been locked. While there are still discussions open, I don't want to hijack someone else's topic by shoehorning in my own ideas or opinions. As such I have started my own topic in order to cover the ideas/mechanics that I would like to see implemented.

 

Here is my list for the top 10 ideas/mechanics I want to see in Pokemon Reborn. (Not in order)

1. Walk with your Pokemon (This isn't anything new, and while there are mods for this, it would still be nice for it to be added at some point.)

2. Delta Species Pokemon (Rare variants with alternate typing and moves. Essentially like shinies, instead of stand-alone species like Alolan Pokemon.)

3. Customizable Character (Difficult to directly implement, so it would probably work better to have something on rebornevo for this)

4. More Organization Options (I like an organized bag, and while the current system is okay, I would love some more freedom in determining how my bag is arranged.)

5. More Registered Items (Make pressing the use registered item button pull up a list of up to 4 registered items.)

6. Streamline Stat Change Messages (Condense or reduce messages. Double battles and multi-stat affecting moves can be a pain due to text)

7. Pokerus Indicator (It's hard enough trying to find a Pokemon with it, let alone realize that it has it.)

8. Shiny Pokedex Sprites (Let us see our shinies, without losing the ability to see sprites for previous evolutions in-game.)

9. Weather App (Weather and fields are a big part of Reborn, so it would be nice to check the weather going on in Reborn across the various areas)

10. Swarms (Just like in HGSS, where some Pokemon will appear on a random route every day. This will likely help with getting all 700+ Pokemon into Reborn)

 

I know some of these are hard to implement, namely 1, 2, 3, and 6; but, I think it would be a nice way of showing what that the fans can continuously go above and beyond with their creations. This is not to say Ame isn't doing a good job, as I love Reborn much more than the canon Pokemon games.

Edited August 29, 2017 by Venonaut97
Removing excessive text

[Commander]

1 hour ago, Venonaut97 said:

1. Walk with your Pokemon (This isn't anything new, and while there are mods for this, it would still be nice for it to be added at some point.)

Wouldn't really add to the overall game and may cause more lag problems and crashes not worth adding an extra month or two on development

 

1 hour ago, Venonaut97 said:

2. Delta Species Pokemon (Rare variants with alternate typing and moves. Essentially like shinies, instead of stand-alone species like Alolan Pokemon.)

Because stealing from other creators is always a good idea...oh wait...morals aside, it's a dumb idea to stack more complexity to an already getting really complex battle system because nobody remembers everything field effects do.

 

1 hour ago, Venonaut97 said:

3. Customizable Character (Difficult to directly implement, so it would probably work better to have something on rebornevo for this)

See my many rants on silent protagonists. I could make a full article on this alone but tl;dr it's a nice feature, but not worth the investment for a story heavy game...unless you're monolith soft

 

1 hour ago, Venonaut97 said:

4. More Organization Options (I like an organized bag, and while the current system is okay, I would love some more freedom in determining how my bag is arranged.)

This actually is a decent idea. The bag is hell to go through to look for one item. I'd actually like a bigger PC storage to dump all my worthless items but not worthy of selling or pitching

 

1 hour ago, Venonaut97 said:

5. More Registered Items (Make pressing the use registered item button pull up a list of up to 4 registered items.)

I never even use registered items but the only two you'd ever need are the Super rod and itemfinder registered as the new speedup works just as fine with or without the bike

 

1 hour ago, Venonaut97 said:

6. Streamline Stat Change Messages (Condense or reduce messages. Double battles and multi-stat affecting moves can be a pain due to text)

Good idea but Reborn being an almost finished game is not one to try and work it out on. Would have to reroute some stuff but could be possible

 

1 hour ago, Venonaut97 said:

7. Pokerus Indicator (It's hard enough trying to find a Pokemon with it, let alone realize that it has it.)

Nurse Joy is the indicator and this is a thing so rare that you can play through many years and never experience it. It's meant to be a huge thing and it's not like EV training should even be a focus. Not a bad idea though, but not really one I'd look into it.

 

1 hour ago, Venonaut97 said:

8. Shiny Pokedex Sprites (Let us see our shinies, without losing the ability to see sprites for previous evolutions in-game.)

The Pokedex should only ever be used for one thing: Finding where a Pokemon is located. It's basically a plethora of bells and whistles after that. Could be done, but you could look in the graphics folder as well.

 

1 hour ago, Venonaut97 said:

9. Weather App (Weather and fields are a big part of Reborn, so it would be nice to check the weather going on in Reborn across the various areas)

If this were to happen, it'd just be a mobile TV...actually that is a pretty good idea but it'd make all those TVs obsolete.

 

1 hour ago, Venonaut97 said:

10. Swarms (Just like in HGSS, where some Pokemon will appear on a random route every day. This will likely help with getting all 700+ Pokemon into Reborn)

This is just...a bad idea. There was something like this in the game before but it got axed for a very, very, very good reason as the Pokemon involved was an absolute pain to catch and I never actually saw one tbh. I hate the weather system and all these little variation stuff as it just means I have to spend an extra hour or two or remember in a week about something I need to get which often I forget about. Wild Pokemon should be the only RNG type scenario to get a Pokemon. I think people are realizing that after the famed broken weather system of this episode. And beyond that, every Pokemon's placement has been planned out and we already have nearly all of them but a handful of event or really rare Pokemon.

 

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

 

I want to ask you something and answer it truthfully: do you know what an improvement is? I don't think you do. An improvement is taking a problem that consists within a game and changing it in order to make the game more enjoyable to players. You just labeled a whole bunch of nice features and ideas that while I admit aren't actually are all that bad, but they are just features which barely impact the player experience. If you add in all this little side stuff to do it definitely adds to the game, but if the gameplay and/or story is bad, is a not very enjoyable game compared to one that actually focuses on improving and fixing the problems.

[Dreamy]

Pretty much agree with everything Commander has written above

for 4) yea, I'd love to be able to sort my bag by 'type' like the main games, where all of the things that belong to 'sets' and things are together, I.E plates, job applications, choice items, orbs etc

for 7) I'm like 80% sure there is actually an indicator for pokerus. isn't is a purple box that shows up like a status effect in summary?

for 9) I'm not really sure what you mean by this as I'm pretty sure the weather is supposed to be pretty much the same everywhere on a given day. It's just kind of a mess right now.

[Wolfox]

I agree with Commander quite a bit as well, only I'll say that I'm extremely happy reborn doesn't have Pokemon walking with you. Overall it's nothing but a gimmick that people have too much of a fetish for IMO. yeah, it's fun in the games that have it, but if all games have it will it still be equally fun? Also, it really doesn;t suit Reborns setting to just see a guy throw himself off a bridge and see your Feraligatr just dance around in happiness.

 

Sorry for my little rant, I'm just getting a little sick of people thinking that such a gimmick instantly makes the games better. because it does not.

[hope4896]

So as much as I agree with Commander, here's a few things that I want to point out:

 

1. Walking with Pokemon is a nice but certainly unnecessary gimmick. By unnecessary I mean that bad implementation of the feature would affect gameplay experience to a certain extent, like Pokemon Sage, where your following Pokemon has the most random mood swings (good mood --> neutral --> angry --> friendly) , a good implementation is like Insurgence, where the following Pokemon changes its dialogue from time to time according to your friendship values, that actually gives the player a sense of accomplishment (unless they spammed friendship berries on their mon holding a soothe bell ) . 

 

Interaction with Pokemon is certainly great in a Pokemon game, but Reborn is less of the "bonding, trusting, and having fun with your Pokemon" , as its story focuses more on the human characters instead of the Pokemon. 

 

And until now, I haven't seen any fangames that implements "chatting to Pokemon, playing games with Pokemon, doing special interactive quests with certain Pokemon" . If Reborn does try to feature more Pokemon interaction, then might as well maximize the effort?

 

2. Ame did state that she prefers staying true to the main games when it comes to the Pokemon themselves. So I doubt that would be implemented. The custom shinies are already enough to show the regional differences.

[Nyaagisa The Maid]

I agree with what Commander just stated. Reborn is already fine as it is. Sure, Delta Species, custom Mega Evolutions, and customable character is nice, but leeching off other creators isn't, unless something magical happened and Suzerain collaborated with Reborn Dev Team for episode 17+.

 

As for improvements... I would be happy if certain items could be obtained in more numbers like Choice Band/Scarf, Leftovers or Black Sludge, instead of one as of current episode. Though that will certainly reduce Reborn's difficulty a bit, despite already nerfed few times prior episode 16...

[Alistair]

Alright, I'd like to play the 'devil's advocate'. Not so much as far as the ideas discussed here go, since Commander already brilliantly explained why some are not-so-good ideas, others of little importance, and others actually nice but mostly not worth the hassle.

 

I'd like to discuss the bashing people tend to receive, as soon as they bring up features they would like to see implemented in Reborn.

 

Of course it's perfectly fine to say that you personally think a given feature brought up by someone else would be problematic, wouldn't improve your experience, or wouldn't bring anything valuable to the game. Especially when your point is well-argumented. But many people need to realize that just because a feature doesn't suit their fancy, or fit their expectations for what should be in a game, doesn't mean the idea is objectively bad. 

4 hours ago, Commander said:

The Pokedex should only ever be used for one thing: Finding where a Pokemon is located.

This is a prime example of shoving what is ultimately a personal opinion down other people's throat, and make it sound as if it were how things should always be, ever, for everyone. Go away Venonaut97, your idea is bad and you should feel bad, because I, Commander, said so. And if you're not down with that, just look at the shiny sprites in your graphics folder.

 

I obviously can't speak for him, but honestly, I can't imagine being Veno, reading that, and still feel welcomed here. 

 

4 hours ago, Commander said:

I want to ask you something and answer it truthfully: do you know what an improvement is? I don't think you do. An improvement is taking a problem that consists within a game and changing it in order to make the game more enjoyable to players.

With all due respect, it seems you don't know either. An improvement is "an occasion when something gets better or when you make it better" (taken from the Cambridge Dictionary). While it can be used to solve a problem, an existing problem is most definitely not a condition for something to be an improvement.

In fact, since Venonaut97 explicitly states he would like to see these features in the game, as far as his point of view goes, these are improvements. 

Edited August 29, 2017 by Alistair
Typos and minor errors

[Gentleman Jaggi]

The main reason I'd like to see Pokémon following their trainer around is that, honestly, it doesn't make sense for them not to? Even disregarding wild Pokémon encounters we're constantly running around in fairly dangerous locales, including the various hideouts of a certain terrorist organization. Having at least one Pokémon out for your protection at any time is just the most sensible thing to do. As it stands the protagonist just kind of hopes they won't get surprise attacked, I guess?

You could argue that most Pokémon aren't stealthy, but neither is beating up every Grunt in your way, so obviously we don't really care about staying hidden.

[Venonaut97]

After reading the comments I have gotten, I'd like to say the following about what I wanted.

 

1. This isn't supposed to be the kind of feature to be added while the story is unfinished. This is very much something that should come last. As to why anyone would want it, there are 2 reasons. 1) Other trainers can have their Pokemon out, mine just sit in balls. 2) Feels awkward for my Pokemon to love me, since nothing I do should be bringing them any happiness in Reborn. At least with walking I can sorta believe this.

 

2. Delta species was a reference to the card games, so not really plagiarism, unless we want to label every freaking detail of this game as plagiarism. That said, if this is left out, I wouldn't care too much.

 

6. This is a literal example of something that needs improvement. It takes away from the flow of battle, and shouldn't take too long to solve.

 

7. By Pokerus indicator, I meant something that would tell me if a wild Pokemon has it. I know about the little marker on caught Pokemon already. My problem is that Pokerus is insanely rare, which is made worse by the fact that you will likely never attempt to catch it. For me, for every Pokemon I do catch, there is like 100-150 I don't catch.

 

9. The weather app idea was in anticipation for the upcoming change to the weather system. Under it, different areas can have different weather.

 

10. I didn't know swarms were ever in Reborn. That said, Pokemon have to appear somewhere. Honestly, it's probably easier to just do swarms, instead of making entirely new areas for them to be located.

 

Also, as a response to Alistair, it doesn't matter much to me. These were suggestions, I didn't spend too long writing about them, I simply wrote down what came to mind. People like commander had good points, most of these features are either difficult to implement or are unnecessary. I would rather someone tore my ideas apart, then for someone to pretend that my ideas are perfectly fine.

 

That said, I don't completely agree with every comment I have gotten, hence my follow-up post. If people still tear me apart, then that's that. This is how you weed out the bad ideas, until all that's left are the good ones.

 

 

Update: Thanks for the note Alistair, I'll try to keep things more organized

Edited August 29, 2017 by Venonaut97
Unintentionally sounded hostile

[Alistair]

@Venonaut97 I see. I'm glad you're taking things this way. I wasn't really trying to do some white-knighting for you, it's just that the type of response you got can potentially feel very discouraging. Weeding out the bad ideas is something particularly good to do for the long haul, and there's no denying Commander's post was very helpful to that effect.

 

I just wish there wouldn't be any 'tearing apart' as I feel it's unnecessary to outright reject new ideas about a fangame, which is essentially a rather flexible and interactive project compared to most games in development. Sharing propositions is a sign of interest for the game and willingness to get involved within the community creating and playing it. It's a bit sad for it to be met with mostly negative feedback, even though said propositions can be rightfully criticized.

 

On a side note, you can use the edit button under your post instead of double-posting (not saying that to be annoying, just pointing it out in case you hadn't noticed  )

[Busti]

I appreciate your opinion on what you like to see. Being a forum and all, it's one of the more fun things to read. It tells me what you consider fun in the fan games and ultimately these desires (" What would "I" like in a real Pokemon game ...")  drive people to include features in fangames they make, or players to look for fangames.

 

We all have an attitude of " Play Pokemon reborn in any way you like", with -usually- a very positive stance on mods. As such, you can play Pokemon Reborn with all these points included, if you are willing to program them in or request someone to do it for you. We have a mod section, and I am very sure that there is a mod that allows you to have a follower pokemon.

 

Whether any new features make it into the game that Ame releases is all up to her.

 

 

[Zander]

Lol someone has been playing Pokemon Insurgence I see. Literal copy paste

[Busti]

1 hour ago, Zander said:

Lol someone has been playing Pokemon Insurgence I see. Literal copy paste

In that case I would love to soar over the reborn map with a flying locomotive!

[Commander]

I just came back to look at this and now that I had my morning coffee I guess I can rebuttal or whatevs to some of this stuff. I'm surprised this really took off. Let's see:

 

@Alistair I'll be blunt here in that you sound butthurt about some things I said especially with the tone you presented. I don't see anything else to really comment on other than maybe I was a bit overtly harsh and rude.

 

now for @Venonaut97

 

9 hours ago, Venonaut97 said:

2. Delta species was a reference to the card games, so not really plagiarism, unless we want to label every freaking detail of this game as plagiarism. That said, if this is left out, I wouldn't care too much.

I was going to actually do a "ermagawd Insurgence" type thing that as a tease but kind of forgot about it. But seriously though...field effects and fakemon would leave people overwhelmed which I totally understand why people are turned off by them and would not play Reborn due to them. If Reborn put in Fakemon, most people would drop the game instantly as it's just too much to learn and Reborn is not very good at explaining it. A mod probably would be better but that in itself is a massive project (more work than Hardcore). In Ame's shoes, it's better to err on the side of caution due to Reborn's complexity as it stands.

 

But as a fun fact, Ame was at first against putting Fakemon in Reborn but after it was too late, she said she wasn't against the idea of putting faking into fan-game like Reborn or such. 

 

9 hours ago, Venonaut97 said:

6. This is a literal example of something that needs improvement. It takes away from the flow of battle, and shouldn't take too long to solve.

I'm not sure if this is an essentials or RMXP thing but shouldn't take too long to solve probably isn't the best way to describe the system. I guess I'll use fidget spinners to describe this as that's what kids are into these days. How battles work right now is that a one armed man would spin one fidget spinner closest to him, then the next, and then the next one one by one. You can't tell a one armed man to spin two fidget spinners at the same time. You'd have to replace the one armed man with a two armed man. Basically the man represents a system which Reborn leans on to use so things would need to be changed if not completely redone as it's not a simple change one line code.

 

There's also the EBS which I think does what you are suggesting but Reborn is so heavily implanted that an archaic battle system benefits them more than trying to spend a significant amount of time converting as bugs that have been fixed would have to be redone and things would need to be retested. I'm not saying the Reborn crew SHOULDN'T do this (in fact they could even be working on it), but I'm giving a reason why they might not. It's a good suggestion to developers who are in the early works of their games to check out and fix.

 

But that does get to this point...

 

4 hours ago, Busti said:

 

We all have an attitude of " Play Pokemon reborn in any way you like", with -usually- a very positive stance on mods. As such, you can play Pokemon Reborn with all these points included, if you are willing to program them in or request someone to do it for you. We have a mod section, and I am very sure that there is a mod that allows you to have a follower pokemon.

Only issue with modding right now is the fact it needs to be ported over for each episode release. I think in the amount of mods and people who attempt this will really shoot up on Reborn's final release which actually isn't that far off anymore.

[Alistair]

@Commander My "butthurt" tone stems primarily from the way you express your ideas and arguments. When I'm saying your post is useful, well-argumented, and full of very valuable input, I do mean it. However, you happen to use a very condescending tone to reply to others, which undermines the good points you're making. Actually, it's a reoccurring thing in a lot of posts I read from you. A while ago, I remember thinking to myself "man, Commander would definitely get Steel type in this old What type are you? quiz". Now, I see you do recognize that you can be harsh and rude, which is good. In turn, I apologize for my bitter tone. 

 

To bring a little something on the topic at hand, I think being followed around by the first pokémon in your party could be nice as an optional feature. As it was already pointed out, there's no real reason lore-wise to not do so. A lot of trainers let their pokémon go free outside of their pokéballs for a reason or another (Miltanks, Magby, Elekid, and others), not to mention the many occasions when Solaris, Amaria, Titania, Cal, Cain, and others have let theirs out for assault and/or personal protection.

Then there's G.Gardevoir. I don't really see her staying in a ball all day =p

Surely our own pokémons could be as smart and free as her, no?~

My point being, it should be fine for the protag to walk here and there with a companion following them. It could technically be problematic when the game requires you to have another follower (i.e. Fern, Shelly, Victoria or Cain) but I suppose the pokémon could just be automatically called back in that case. Besides, the aforementioned occasions demonstrate that having a follower is already something Reborn kinda does, although I'm not oblivious to the potential problems it could cause to have a pokémon follow you in all the possibly narrow places in the game.

Of course I'm not saying that's something that should absolutely be present in the game. But if a modder wishes to try their hand at it in the near future... by all means, please go ahead. I'm sure that would make many players happy.