[OFFICIAL] Desolation Devs Q&A (EP5 Thread)

[Posty]

Hi! if you're magically reading this, then well, this thread is now locked and will become inactive. There will be a new thread for EP6, we have new team members after all, so look forward to that :)

[AiedailEclipsed]

Did any previous content get redone for v5 (aside from trainer battles, encounters, and such)?

[MintMan]

Will all the gens be included within v5? Or are there plans to add them all in the future? 

[Posty]

17 minutes ago, AiedailEclipsed said:

Did any previous content get redone for v5 (aside from trainer battles, encounters, and such)?

As mentioned in the "Meet the Team" post, I have personally gone through and redid every single Trainer Battle in the game, every major team has had a revamp, some nerfed, some buffed. Encounters have also been redone, every area has had new Pokemon added and old Pokemon removed/axed til later on. Besides that, the overall Story hasn't been changed, maps are mainly the same besides a few edits :]

11 minutes ago, MintMan said:

Will all the gens be included within v5? Or are there plans to add them all in the future? 

As of right now, Gen 7 has been added and implemented into the game! As for Gen 8, we plan on adding that for v6, yes this would mean redoing encounters and trainers AGAIN, but I think to save time for now, its the best move moving forward. Also due to the lack of community sprites at the time of development, it would have been an extra load for Ruby to sprite considering she has given every single main sprite a glow-up.

[Azeria]

Is Reborn's improved^tm AI included?
How long has V5 been in production proper?

 

[Posty]

7 hours ago, Raion said:

Will it be able to beta test Desolation V5?

For v5, we are planning on having a selective Beta Test, meaning we will be reaching out to a few people to see if they want to be apart of the testing process, we will gather a team of 4-5 testers (maybe a few more).

For everyone (i'm glad someone brought this up)
Please do not flood Caz's dms with inquiries about Beta Testing, we have people in mind who we will ask, and will be reaching out to them soon.

As for v6, we don't know if we will be doing the same process or not, if not we will open beta testing to the public via a forum.

6 hours ago, Azeria said:

Is Reborn's improved^tm AI included?
How long has V5 been in production proper?

 

1. Ahhh Reborn's new AI, to answer this bluntly... Yes. I brought it up to Caz and he implemented it over the course of a few days, so expects battle to "hopefully" be balanced and smarter! :]

2. With development for v5, Caz was mainly on and off since v4's release, so I would say about the time where Ruby first got involved with the game was the start of its "proper" production, and that was Late July last year? so about 10-11 months I would say.

[gilam]

how mach gym's the game have? 18 like reborn and rejuve?

the game need HM slave?

are u guy's considering mybe in the future move to the new  engine? reborn feel like a new game now.

[thomas2104]

Are we going to have to start with a fresh savefile for v5 or is it just a patch

[Posty]

1 hour ago, gilam said:

how mach gym's the game have? 18 like reborn and rejuve?

the game need HM slave?

are u guy's considering mybe in the future move to the new  engine? reborn feel like a new game now.

1. So previously if people remember, Desolation was going to have 16 Gyms. After thought and consideration also the level curve Desolation will now only have 12 Gyms. This will be more suited for the story we want to develop
2. Umm I guess? Depends on your party idk
3. For the engine, most likely we will be. Since the engine was produced and released during the ending party of v5 Development, we didn't even consider it but v6 maybe who knows, we'll have a discussion about it, cause Reborn does feel extremely nice now I will admit.

46 minutes ago, thomas2104 said:

Are we going to have to start with a fresh savefile for v5 or is it just a patch

Nope! like Reborn/Rejuvenation, your savefile from v4 will be compatible with v5. However we highly recommended that you do create a new savefile because with the complete overhaul of graphics, trainer battles and encounters, some parts have been redone and other stuff that you may miss out on if you continue from v5. It would be worth playing again from the start, plus the game has been on hiatus for 3 years, you might have forgotten some parts of the story 

[Abyssreaper99]

1. Will a Dev blog styled status bar thread be made closer to release of v5?
2. I've probably already asked this but will there be links to new posts about Desolation updates be linked in within fangame general channel in the reborn discord server?
3. How hard was it for Posty and Ruby to keep hush about Desolations revival?
4. To Caz, how is life currently going for you? (Excluding the whole pandemic)
5. To Posty and Ruby, are you ready for more people to slide into your DMs because you're both Devs now?

[J-Awesome_One]

This may have been asked on the team thread already buuuut how long have you & Ruby known about Desolation? Have you guys played it before becoming devs for it?

[KingMP]

1) Question meant for Posty and Ruby : what was the KEY POINT which did convince you to join this wondrous project with Caz ? 
 

2) Will the 12 gyms instead of 16 change something about the story's plot Caz did plan at the beginning ? 
 

Thank you !!

[thomas2104]

52 minutes ago, Posty said:

Nope! like Reborn/Rejuvenation, your savefile from v4 will be compatible with v5. However we highly recommended that you do create a new savefile because with the complete overhaul of graphics, trainer battles and encounters, some parts have been redone and other stuff that you may miss out on if you continue from v5. It would be worth playing again from the start, plus the game has been on hiatus for 3 years, you might have forgotten some parts of the story 

This is what I thought was going to happen, that I would be able to continue but due to a a lot of changes it would be better to restart, I'm probably going to start new and use a new team

[Shiv]

Is there will be going multiple save file?

 

[Posty]

1 hour ago, Abyssreaper99 said:

1. Will a Dev blog styled status bar thread be made closer to release of v5?
2. I've probably already asked this but will there be links to new posts about Desolation updates be linked in within fangame general channel in the reborn discord server?
3. How hard was it for Posty and Ruby to keep hush about Desolations revival?
4. To Caz, how is life currently going for you? (Excluding the whole pandemic)
5. To Posty and Ruby, are you ready for more people to slide into your DMs because you're both Devs now?

1. For v5 no, theres no need tbh lol. Reason I say that is because v5 is essentially completed, we are currently in the process of doing internal testing then it will go to Beta Testing, then public release. We do have plans to drop some stuff before the release though so look out for that!

2. Yes, I will link anything important to do with Deso in the Fangame General Channel on the Discord Server unless otherwise
3. To quote what Ruby said "Too damn hard.", she told me the day Caz reached out to her since she couldn't contain her excitement :'], she needed someone to be excited with! Meanwhile for myself it was pretty hard at times, especially when people were saying like "Desolation is dead, Caz is never coming back" and I would end up being optimistic about it LOL.
4. Caz will answer that later, he is currently asleep, either here or in the upcoming FAQ

5. To quote Ruby again "I already have some experience with random people sliding into my dms, unless it’s something weird I think I’m fairly prepared, haha" For me, I'm more than fine with people dming me for stuff, just don't be over the top weird when you dm me stuff thats all I ask aha.

55 minutes ago, J-Awesome_One said:

This may have been asked on the team thread already buuuut how long have you & Ruby known about Desolation? Have you guys played it before becoming devs for it?

Ruby and I have known about Deso's return for about 10-11 months, basically when the proper production started. And both of us have! even before we knew each other :') I first played it back in 2016 on v3? then v4 came out, was gassed, then was consistently looking at the deso thread for the update to come in 2018 but never did. Yes I was one of you guys LOL, I was still optimistic! For Ruby it was the reason why she reached out to Caz in the first place... in 2017, who would have thought a DM from 2017 that took Caz 2 Years to reply to would be the turning point for Desolation. 

43 minutes ago, KingMP said:

1) Question meant for Posty and Ruby : what was the KEY POINT which did convince you to join this wondrous project with Caz ? 
 

2) Will the 12 gyms instead of 16 change something about the story's plot Caz did plan at the beginning ? 
 

Thank you !!

I'll let Ruby answer that one 

 

2. Again Caz is currently asleep as of writing this response, he will answer this either here or in the upcoming FAQ lol

16 minutes ago, Shiv said:

Is there will be going multiple save file?

 

If you are talking about the multiple save file feature Rejuvenation has, for v5 no, for the future? maybe. I brought it up but we decided against it for now, The idea for v5 is to focus on the "complete overhaul", small features such as multiple save files will be considered for the next version. For right now you can just move the "Game.exe" out of the Saved Games Folder and into a safe location, then start the game and create a new save file that way.

[Samtale]

congrats on you and ruby becoming devs, it is a wonderful feeling being part of something

 

1.Do you have a idea of how many episodes/chapters/Versions the game will be?(god have mercy on your soul if you do gen9)

2. Are you going to be adding on more people?

3.How has the work felt?

[WSGreen]

So are you guys going to be doing custom shinies? and if so, how are you going to go about doing it?(like doing them yourselfs or having the community work on them like rejuv did?)

[gilam]

*Is there any thinking behind the scatter of the mon's? event and wild's? and what is it?

*the mon's move's and ability are based on ultra san and moon?

*How the changes affected the story?

* do we explain why there are 12 gyms? 

*Are they based on types or something else?

[DannyPhantump]

1) What qualifications are you looking for in beta testers?

 

2) Any changes to the starter options? Personally, I think Salandit and Rockruff would be awesome choices.

Edited May 23, 2020 by LightningKillua

[Posty]

57 minutes ago, smeargletail said:

congrats on you and ruby becoming devs, it is a wonderful feeling being part of something

 

1.Do you have a idea of how many episodes/chapters/Versions the game will be?(god have mercy on your soul if you do gen9)

2. Are you going to be adding on more people?

3.How has the work felt?

Bless ya cheers Smeargle  yeah its been great!

1. hmm I think we are playing around the idea of 10 versions? don't quote me on that lol

2. For right now no, in the future after v5 release? potentially. As it stands rn, Ruby is taking on all the art side of the project, Caz is focusing on the story, eventing and most of the mapping meanwhile I am focusing on the gameplay aspect, I have picked up mapping throughout the course of development. We are in a comfortable state however if the work load gets a bit intense considering Caz is a med student and I'm going into my 3rd year of uni, we will consider getting another person on the team.

3. The both of us have very much so enjoyed the work we have done for Desolation and can't wait for everyone to release it to the public. Ruby has very much loved re-designing some of the characters, meanwhile I have suffered doing the pbs, 8 hours straight in one day to finish off the trainers... life is pain. But it'll all be worth it! I've loved re-doing the teams for the Deso cast, especially when have of them had Gengar. 

51 minutes ago, WSGreen said:

So are you guys going to be doing custom shinies? and if so, how are you going to go about doing it?(like doing them yourselfs or having the community work on them like rejuv did?)

We have debated custom shinies, Ruby has done some actually for a few Pokemon  no spoilers to what those Pokemon are :]. However overall we haven't focused on custom shinies this version. For v6 its a potential route we will go down, personally I do love the custom shinies in Reborn/Rejuvenation and having them in Desolation would be pretty cool! With Ruby being the main/only spriter, community work may be an option, if we do look to the community, we will make a post about it.

25 minutes ago, gilam said:

*Is there any thinking behind the scatter of the mon's? event and wild's? and what is it?

*the mon's move's and ability are based on ultra san and moon?

*How the changes affected the story?

* do we explain why there are 12 gyms? 

*Are they based on types or something else?

1. So when it came to the encounters, I created an Obtainable List specifically for Desolation, yes an Obtainable List like Reborn has that isn't a notepad file or just text on a screen like we had for v4 LOL which will drop sometime around the release of v5. This list along with a document helped me mark out what mons were available, what wasn't and where they existed in the wild. So when re-doing the encounters, I really considered my previous playthrough of Deso, what would be busted before a certain Gym, what should be available earlier and also I took inspiration from Reborn/Rejuvenation. With Desolation also having a unique factor being the Credit Shop, I played around with that to make certain Pokemon obtainable, for example Aderyn, everyone would literally buy a Magnemite because that gym was b r o k e n. Hopefully the changes I have made make for an enjoyable experience.

2. I'm going to say yes cause we have updated to Gen 7, so yes.

3. If you mean like the changes to the encounters/updating to Gen 7 affecting the story.. not really, it just changes a few teams around thats all.

4. It'll probably be explained ingame, if not Caz will talk about it sometime.

5. If you mean the gym leaders? yes they are each based around a single type.

23 minutes ago, LightningKillua said:

What qualifications are you looking for in beta testers?

Realistically, this time around we are just looking towards active members of the community that Ruby and I have spoken to and know would be good people to ask to do beta testing. When v6 comes around, we will make clear what kind of "qualifications" we are looking for when it comes to beta testing IF we open it to the public.

 

[Posty]

26 minutes ago, LightningKillua said:

1) What qualifications are you looking for in beta testers?

 

2) Any changes to the starter options? Personally, I think Salandit and Rockruff would be awesome choices.

OOPS you added this while I was typing lmao

 

2. Yes.. There have been changes to the starter options, I won't say who, you can guess if you want but I'll say this, 5 out of the possible 8 have been changed, maybe i'll reveal it before launch? who knows.

And obviously Gen 7 starters have been added to the starter room in Redcliff, if that wasn't obvious then.. lol

[AzureC]

Here we go:

1 - Will we be getting the Mega Ring or something that allows us to use Z-moves in this Version? 

2 - How many more customized Megas, other than the ones we've already seen so far in Desolation do you people intent to make a reality? (I loved Darkrai Perfection Artwork, by the way.)

3 - Are there going to be items, that could be worthy a LOT of Credits, that allows us players to change a Pokemon's specific IV's to 31 in this game at some point?

4 - How did you felt when you became a part of this project and began to work on balacing the battles?

5 - Do you plan on giving us an almost impossible to win battle, where we must use a clever strategy to overcome our opponent and gain green Karma points with certain characters, in a near future?

[J-Awesome_One]

Has the team gotten rid of/reworked some of the characters from Desolation?

[Winter]

1. Has the level curve been changed or is it more or less the same as before?
2. Will the four fired gym leaders receive severance pay 

[Sayaman]

Since i am considering a new playthrough, how do you think the overall difficulty fairs right now after the balance changes? Is the game easier or more difficult in general?