X% Hype!!! [E18 Dev Discussion Thread]

[Tacos]

You’ll come to learn that the question you just asked is fairly taboo.  It’s difficult to approximate.  The most we can do is look at this.  Once it reaches 100%, it will have to go through alpha and beta testing to sift through bugs and test its playability before it is released to us.

[Abyssreaper99]

32 minutes ago, adil said:

when is episode 18 coming i am waiting to loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong

 

any guesesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

The wait for E18 so far is nothing compared to E17 wait. It took over a year to get E17 from what I can remember. Ame did say a few days ago that supervised testing will be started in 2 weeks earliest. Then there's 2 additional rounds of testing as Tacos has said before community release. So I'd say between 6-8 weeks. 

[ShadeStrider]

So, Inevitably, we are going to have to face Lin in battle.

 

This is my hope for E19. But I'm looking too far ahead.

[Silver Boy]

1 hour ago, ShadeStrider said:

So, Inevitably, we are going to have to face Lin in battle.

 

This is my hope for E19. But I'm looking too far ahead.

I hope that Ame leave Lin brutal, and in E18/19 she will continue to be a damn badass. I only can imagine how difficult will be battle with her team.

[Filthy Casual]

2 hours ago, ShadeStrider said:

So, Inevitably, we are going to have to face Lin in battle.

 

This is my hope for E19. But I'm looking too far ahead.

E19 is going to be the final episode of Reborn. As such, I personally believe a Lin battle is all but guaranteed for that episode.

 

Now watch her have a full team of PULSEmons lol

[kithas]

I'm really eager to fight Lin, not only for the fight per se, but also for how that could come to be, plotwise. It would be good also to have permission to Rock Climb, better in E18 than in E19.

[ShadeStrider]

1 hour ago, kithas said:

I'm really eager to fight Lin, not only for the fight per se, but also for how that could come to be, plotwise. It would be good also to have permission to Rock Climb, better in E18 than in E19.

She's the Sephiroth of this game. She better be difficult.

 

But I guess the context of the fight should be important too.

[Abyssreaper99]

10 hours ago, kithas said:

I'm really eager to fight Lin, not only for the fight per se, but also for how that could come to be, plotwise. It would be good also to have permission to Rock Climb, better in E18 than in E19.

It's stated at the end of E17 that Rock climb will be enabled in E18. 

 

9 hours ago, ShadeStrider said:

She's the Sephiroth of this game. She better be difficult.

 

But I guess the context of the fight should be important too.

We'll probably have 2 fights with Lin, one within Agate/Labradorra and the Champion battle

[Guest Relinquished]

19 hours ago, adil said:

when is episode 18 coming i am waiting to loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong

 

any guesesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

~3 months. AI testing, early access patreon supporter people to comb the alpha for bugs, then public release... I wouldn't expect it before Autumn, at best. Even though developer team got bigger, this is a time consuming task. Besides, after ep15, it roughly equates to: 1 episode = ~ 1 year

[Commander]

16 hours ago, GS BALL said:

~3 months. AI testing, early access patreon supporter people to comb the alpha for bugs, then public release... I wouldn't expect it before Autumn, at best. Even though developer team got bigger, this is a time consuming task. Besides, after ep15, it roughly equates to: 1 episode = ~ 1 year

Time taken per episode is not amounted to a certain amount. If Ame theoretically only focused on making new areas of the game without focus of adding new additional features, we would have probably have had the full game out by now. AI took a very long time for E17 due to the heavy amount of glitches that needed fixed. From the sound of thing, it'll likely be a bit more smooth sailing for E19 as a lot of Ame's big to dos are to dones.

 

So how long does old Commander think it'll be. From the sound of it there's just a pile of stuff that needs to be done without being able to really name it all. Maybe some feature fixes or redesigns or dialogue changes. We'll just say it'll all be nice and wrapped up in a month. It could be two but it doesn't look like it. After the sidequest the bulk of the episode is completely done and more or less ready to be played.

 

Testing I don't think will take two months this time. That is by far the outlier when it comes to testing due to how unplayable the game was. Like there's slight annoying hindrances and then there's "you'd need debug mode to do this or it'll softlock the game" kind of glitches. I don't think we'll hit that extreme again (and I know people were getting very impatient to the point we had to explain the situation) but it is possible we'll go around this merry-go-round again. Being theoretical that Marcello knew the major problems with the AI, it shouldn't take that long and my guess is a month and a half (3 weeks for each phase).

 

tl;dr: it could be 2 months at the earliest or 6 months at the worst. In other words, some time this year. So if someone asks when E17 will come, just say "some time this year." 

[wcv]

5 minutes ago, Commander said:

AI took a very long time for E17 due to the heavy amount of glitches that needed fixed.

Adding in a new generation of Pokemon and shifting around events and locations for all of them probably didn't speed things up much either.

[Commander]

2 minutes ago, wcv said:

Adding in a new generation of Pokemon and shifting around events and locations for all of them probably didn't speed things up much either.

Actually, that didn't really take all that much time. I think Gen VI took longer to do all that snazzy stuff but it's hard to remember as the game wasn't being followed as closely compared to now (it was the 10.5 release.

 

That reminds me....I need to work on Redux...a little bit.

[Guest Relinquished]

Yes, but still...

 

The remaining % AI content for change/optimization, is a handful... Even though, admittedly, not as large enough as the % done for ep17.

 

There are three testing waves, i forgot... a. Dev team's b. Patreon supporters closed beta c. Forum members open beta. The glitch/bug-free experience (full release and probably, even some patching right after), will take even longer!

 

There are other innovations, this time. Sprites redone, puzzles redesigned (railnet, for example), etc.

 

Plus, don't forget, every time an episode nears release, counters (% completion) get stuck, the more they go up forward... Especially, when they near completion!

 

Based on my previously erroneous calculation (ep17 release), i expect this one to take some time longer. I wouldn't expect it, before September, even October. Of course, it would be more than welcome if it arrives earlier, needless to say!

[Egzample]

Now when reading about the last episode stuff, the time it all takes etc. one thing came to my mind - dont you guys have a feeling like there is too many legendaries to be introduced at once? Each of it deserves a huge sidequest, sometimes the story of a whole game revolves around them, plus we will gain access to a big-ass sort of firepower at once (postgame, I know, but still, where is the joy of catching Dialgia when it is just a position in the middle of my list, right between Mewtwo and Kyogre?).

 

While mons like Johto Dogos or Legendary Parrots (Trio and Duo) don't have this kind of history/reality altering vibe and could be introduced in the same way as Phione was, I cannot see the room for folks like Yveltal or Giratina, unless their lore powers/roles are diminished. I'm curious now what it takes to make it look reasonable and interesting, without neglecting their overall themes.

[kithas]

Arceus is to Reborn as Groudon/Kyogre are to Ruby/Sapphire. I'd say the bigger ones (Dialga, Palkia and Giratina, Groudon, Kyogre or Rayquaza) would deserve their own bit of story. There are a lot of them we coud group together (Darkrai with Giratina o Cresselia, the Lake Guardians, Shaymin and Celebi, Ultra Beasts...), but Type: Null getting his own sidequest I'd say they will get one as well.

[Abyssreaper99]

3 hours ago, example said:

Now when reading about the last episode stuff, the time it all takes etc. one thing came to my mind - dont you guys have a feeling like there is too many legendaries to be introduced at once? Each of it deserves a huge sidequest, sometimes the story of a whole game revolves around them, plus we will gain access to a big-ass sort of firepower at once (postgame, I know, but still, where is the joy of catching Dialgia when it is just a position in the middle of my list, right between Mewtwo and Kyogre?).

 

While mons like Johto Dogos or Legendary Parrots (Trio and Duo) don't have this kind of history/reality altering vibe and could be introduced in the same way as Phione was, I cannot see the room for folks like Yveltal or Giratina, unless their lore powers/roles are diminished. I'm curious now what it takes to make it look reasonable and interesting, without neglecting their overall themes.

 

2 minutes ago, kithas said:

Arceus is to Reborn as Groudon/Kyogre are to Ruby/Sapphire. I'd say the bigger ones (Dialga, Palkia and Giratina, Groudon, Kyogre or Rayquaza) would deserve their own bit of story. There are a lot of them we coud group together (Darkrai with Giratina o Cresselia, the Lake Guardians, Shaymin and Celebi, Ultra Beasts...), but Type: Null getting his own sidequest I'd say they will get one as well.

On her tumblr, Ame mentioned how some legendaries will be getting events but some may be as small as just being in the middle of a puddle due to her running into a mapping limit if she did an in-depth event for all legends. Some will be grouped together by lore to help avoid this mapping limit too.

[kithas]

 

3 minutes ago, Abyssreaper99 said:

 

On her tumblr, Ame mentioned how some legendaries will be getting events but some may be as small as just being in the middle of a puddle due to her running into a mapping limit if she did an in-depth event for all legends. Some will be grouped together by lore to help avoid this mapping limit too.

Maybe there could be some runaways like the Latios bros or the legendary dogs, or events happening in already existing parts of the map. Heatran appearing on the top of pyrous mountain (or better, in Ametrine, as they were switched before in the lore I think) or Kyogre/Manaphy on the lake.

[Abyssreaper99]

1 minute ago, kithas said:

 

Maybe there could be some runaways like the Latios bros or the legendary dogs, or events happening in already existing parts of the map. Heatran appearing on the top of pyrous mountain (or better, in Ametrine, as they were switched before in the lore I think) or Kyogre/Manaphy on the lake.

I can see that potentially happening, some may even be wild encounters like Phione was. 

[wcv]

11 hours ago, Commander said:

Actually, that didn't really take all that much time. I think Gen VI took longer to do all that snazzy stuff but it's hard to remember as the game wasn't being followed as closely compared to now (it was the 10.5 release.

 

That reminds me....I need to work on Redux...a little bit.

Ah. I was thinking less the programming side of things and more just planning and decisions.

[Lorisaur]

Do you think ep18 will give us the possibility to play also double battles online?

[Commander]

11 minutes ago, Lorisaur said:

Do you think ep18 will give us the possibility to play also double battles online?

While that would be cool I really doubt it. Marc actually tried getting doubles online to work for E16 but it didn't end so well and he's got a butt load of AI problems to deal with so I don't think he'd tackle another huge project on top of that. I feel like E18 is just going to mostly enhance what is already there instead of trying to add new features. We are nearing the game's completion.

[Lorisaur]

Oh, too bad... at least it would be nice for ep19 or something like that having a sort of battle tower, as this game's AI is way better than regular games' one

[uberle]

Quote

i will show you why the misc update bar is not real.

(Updated 7/4)

 

Now at 89%

But maybe not for very long

[Guest Relinquished]

I was hoping the last, tiny piece of eventing, to be done away with... Still, nice thing progress is being made!

[vava4429]

I saw things about which mega Hardy would have, but which one do you think Saphira will have ? 

Also, while looking at the badges in the picture files i thought that the 18th badge looked more like a rock type badge than a dragon type one. So Saphira 17th and Hardy 18th