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

[Posty]

1 hour ago, AzureC said:

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?

1. Ah see if I answer that question, it may be spoilers and I do not want to potentially spoil whether or not we get the ring this version. Also I should add, Z-moves are now in the game! expect some battles with em, and most likely the ring will allow you to use Z-moves but don't quote me on that, it ain't set in stone yet!

2. AH CUSTOM MEGAS, I'm not going to say how many "more" custom megas we will be adding quite frankly idk, but I will say that, like Reborn has with their Pulses and Rejuve has with their Crests, Deso's main extra feature is Custom Megas, so expect to see some more, this version, a notable character may have one in their possession  :]

3. Hmm we haven't thought about any items tbh, maybe in the future we will

4. Working on Desolation has been an exciting new thing to develop on! I have always thought about developing my own fangame but never really got round to it, heck I made notes for one back in 2018  so to be able to work on a fangame, one that I never thought I would ever see again, its been great and I've loved it... besides working on the PBS for hours on end, I suffered for you guys

5. As it stands right now, no, however that may change in the future, depends on how the story develops :]

1 hour ago, J-Awesome_One said:

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

As of my knowledge we haven't "got rid" of characters, but a few of the characters have been reworked! all I will say is rest in peace Green Charlotte

1 hour ago, Winter said:

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 

1. Level curve is the same as it was before, I discussed with Caz previously about adjusting it but we came to the conclusion that its fine, especially considering we have axed 4 gym leaders

2. Don't worry they got their severance pay and a specialised hamper made by Garret , he also gave them a free trip to Hoenn, what a nice guy..

1 hour ago, Sayaman said:

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?

Well considering that some of gym leaders COUGH Aderyn COUGH Tristan were a bit busted, they were nerfed and other gym leaders were buffed, overall considering the content you will be facing in v5, the game is going to be a bit more difficult compared to v4, considering I have put thought into these teams, and we now have Reborn's improved AI. If anything is "too busted" it will be nerfed :]

[Alex]

Which battles were the hardest to get right? I know there were some that I spent a while (like, a week) just staring at and battling over and over until I felt like they worked well. *stares at Souta and Angie on Normal*
 

[Posty]

10 minutes ago, Alex said:

Which battles were the hardest to get right? I know there were some that I spent a while (like, a week) just staring at and battling over and over until I felt like they worked well. *stares at Souta and Angie on Normal*
 

Looking back, probably the Normal Gym aka Tristan because well, as people will obviously remember his infamous Mega Lopunny with a busted moveset at that level in the game. Not to mention the Eviolite Porygon2 and other powerhouses on his team, I really needed to stare at the team and think how can I improve this, cause its canon that he keeps his Mega Lopunny spoilers he keeps it sorry guys, you may suffer still but I needed to just balance out the team, I think his new team is more suited for his personality as well as the field we battle him on. Another battle I would say has to be L...//shot Okay I can't spoil it but a battle in v5, making their team was a challenge considering the Pokemon they possess, the hardest part is for sure making it so they can have these bois without it being "completely busted", testing it out etc, all apart of the process. *stares down Tristan and his Lopunny for being op AF*

[krim]

Have healing items been made more available? I remember one of the weirdest things in version 4 was that only Super Potions were buyable, which didn't exactly work well when your mons were well into the late 50s and even 60s level wise. (I had  actually brought this up to Caz in feedback I sent a billion years ago, though I wouldn't blame him for not remembering lol)

[SilverAngelus]

1. For Posty: what has been your favorite change to the game? For Ruby: what is your favorite artwork that you've made so far for the game?

2. Will there be new music added to the game? One the best qualities of Desolation, in my opinion, is the music. My favorite is the intro music  

3. Any chance the game's speed has been increased with v5? I had no issues with lag or anything like that, but I just found the game's speed to be a bit slow.

4. Not a question, I just want to say thank you to all three of you, and I'll probably never stop saying that.

[gilam]

*are you guy's going for full dex?

*are we going to see a desolation form? to balance weak mon's?

*are we going to enjoy mega in early-mid game? or late-post game?

*what feature we going to see in the game in V5?

 

i hope ppl make modes for this game to.

[captainfrost202]

Although I see that a similiar question to my intended one has been asked above, I still feel like asking my own anyway since I feel it is a bit different. What is this game INTENDED difficulty level? Is it intended to be as challenging as regular non modded reborn/rejuvenation normal mode, or perhaps a bit higher than that, say, on the level of rejuvenation intense mode or even reborn redux (or other mods of that game too, though I feel like trying to get into memeborn/reborn extreme level might be a bit too much for most newcomers)? 

Additionally/alternatively, will there be different difficulty settings for the game or not? (I personally would not mind it either way but still felt worth asking since since it is a part of this topic after all)

[Posty]

1 hour ago, krim said:

Have healing items been made more available? I remember one of the weirdest things in version 4 was that only Super Potions were buyable, which didn't exactly work well when your mons were well into the late 50s and even 60s level wise. (I had  actually brought this up to Caz in feedback I sent a billion years ago, though I wouldn't blame him for not remembering lol)

Wait the mad lad only made super potions buyable and nothing higher? LOL okay yeah there'll be more available ill make sure of it. 

1 hour ago, SilverAngelus said:

1. For Posty: what has been your favorite change to the game? For Ruby: what is your favorite artwork that you've made so far for the game?

2. Will there be new music added to the game? One the best qualities of Desolation, in my opinion, is the music. My favorite is the intro music  

3. Any chance the game's speed has been increased with v5? I had no issues with lag or anything like that, but I just found the game's speed to be a bit slow.

4. Not a question, I just want to say thank you to all three of you, and I'll probably never stop saying that.

1. My favourite change to the game properly has to be all the sprite/character updates Ruby has done, she has honestly smashed it and given a lot of characters new life and really impacts the story in a different way. This answer might change since Ruby is at the time of writing this asleep but I think her favourite to work on has to be Amelia if we are talking sprites lol but also memes... lots of memes

2. New music will be added! Desolation has a reputation for the choice of music so look out for them tracks.

3. So we ain't moving to the new engine (same one as Reborn 18.3) this version so probably not, HOWEVER, you all have been blessed with... A SPEED UP BUTTON! yes! Desolation now has its state of the art SPEED UP BUTTON, so that'll help

 

4. Honestly the love and support y'all have given has been incredible, motivates us even more to continue working on the game, cheers guys  

43 minutes ago, gilam said:

*are you guy's going for full dex?

*are we going to see a desolation form? to balance weak mon's?

*are we going to enjoy mega in early-mid game? or late-post game?

*what feature we going to see in the game in V5?

 

i hope ppl make modes for this game to.

1. Y e s 

2. Desolation form? um no we do have "Perfection Forms" which isn't a spoiler has Caz revealed "Perfection Darkrai" a few year back

3. You first encounter Megas against the 3rd Gym Leader around lvl45, the Player will be able to Mega Evolve like mid-late game? 

4. Feature? um we do have new features i guess?.. lol

 

30 minutes ago, captainfrost202 said:

Although I see that a similiar question to my intended one has been asked above, I still feel like asking my own anyway since I feel it is a bit different. What is this game INTENDED difficulty level? Is it intended to be as challenging as regular non modded reborn/rejuvenation normal mode, or perhaps a bit higher than that, say, on the level of rejuvenation intense mode or even reborn redux (or other mods of that game too, though I feel like trying to get into memeborn/reborn extreme level might be a bit too much for most newcomers)? 

Additionally/alternatively, will there be different difficulty settings for the game or not? (I personally would not mind it either way but still felt worth asking since since it is a part of this topic after all)

So firstly the difficulty level is intended to be based on the normal mode for Reborn/Rejuvenation, since Desolation is mainly based on the story, the gameplay side shouldn't be terribly difficult but still proves to be a tough challenge if that makes sense. Also after having a discussion with Alex and Azery (if you don't know them idk how you don't both are Rejunvenation Devs) creating modes like Rejuvenation tends to create a LOT more hassle, therefore we will be avoiding that, however people are more than welcome to take Desolation and create their own "hard mode" versions like people did for Reborn to make Memeborn and Redux etc.

[Shiv]

Will there be full screen?

[Riddle]

First off, I'm so happy to hear that Caz is doing well, and I hope all of you enjoy being on the Deso team. It's very exciting that this project is continuing

 

Secondly, god bless the speed-up button!

 

And for the actual question--I'm really sorry but this is super specific--are you guys going to be using Ruby's redraw of the title screen? I remember seeing it on Tumblr and going like Was Ruby on the team at the time she made that?

[J-Awesome_One]

This is a more of a fun question for you and Ruby. Lol. If you and Ruby were to be in the game, would you's rather be 1 of many of the players sidekicks, a Gym Leader or 1 of the baddies and what would your teams be?

[Posty]

1 hour ago, Shiv said:

Will there be full screen?

no one saw the previous answer to this question yes the game will have full screen! lol

27 minutes ago, riddlemeree said:

First off, I'm so happy to hear that Caz is doing well, and I hope all of you enjoy being on the Deso team. It's very exciting that this project is continuing

 

Secondly, god bless the speed-up button!

 

And for the actual question--I'm really sorry but this is super specific--are you guys going to be using Ruby's redraw of the title screen? I remember seeing it on Tumblr and going like Was Ruby on the team at the time she made that?

Bless ya we are enjoying it for sure

 

Also HA, you know its funny actually I brought this up to her the other day how I stumbled across her redraw again annnd... its now gone, removed, vanished, LOL 
So to answer that question no, reason for that being she made that in like idk 2017? something like that she can correct me later, its her older art style which she has vastly improved on over the past several years especially! So to then answer the second question no she wasn't on the team lmao.

21 minutes ago, J-Awesome_One said:

This is a more of a fun question for you and Ruby. Lol. If you and Ruby were to be in the game, would you's rather be 1 of many of the players sidekicks, a Gym Leader or 1 of the baddies and what would your teams be?

Hmmm Ruby will answer this later since she's asloop currently but for me..
Definitely a bad guy, god imagine like an extremely evil British villain in a Pokemon Game.. just laughing while I sip on my tea

 

For my team I would say.. Crobat, Walrein, Umbreon, Dragapult, Metagross (Mega?) and Typhlosion :]

[Posty]

Best for me to post this at the end here also but, the FAQ has been released! please give it a read before asking anymore questions :]

 

 

[Azeria]

all three of you enter a hunger game

who comes out alive

[Caz]

13 minutes ago, Azeria said:

all three of you enter a hunger game

who comes out alive

These are the real Q's

The answer is Ruby, unless Posty betrays her at the last moment. I'd be disqualified for literally disappearing into thin air.

 

 

[Ruby Red]

4 hours ago, SilverAngelus said:

1. For Posty: what has been your favorite change to the game? For Ruby: what is your favorite artwork that you've made so far for the game?

2. Will there be new music added to the game? One the best qualities of Desolation, in my opinion, is the music. My favorite is the intro music  

3. Any chance the game's speed has been increased with v5? I had no issues with lag or anything like that, but I just found the game's speed to be a bit slow.

4. Not a question, I just want to say thank you to all three of you, and I'll probably never stop saying that.

Posty already answered for me (sorry I was sleep,,) but yeah, I gotta say the Amelia redesign has to be one of my faves when it comes to character design/spriting! Overall art, well... spoilers

 

1 hour ago, riddlemeree said:

First off, I'm so happy to hear that Caz is doing well, and I hope all of you enjoy being on the Deso team. It's very exciting that this project is continuing

 

Secondly, god bless the speed-up button!

 

And for the actual question--I'm really sorry but this is super specific--are you guys going to be using Ruby's redraw of the title screen? I remember seeing it on Tumblr and going like Was Ruby on the team at the time she made that?

I CAN'T BELIEVE SOMEONE REMEMBERS THAT- A-Anyway,, that was just some fanart I did back in the day, aha. Once Posty brought it up to me and I realized that pic still existed I quickly yeeted it into the void because ew old art,,, I also wasn't on the team back then, aha.

 

Regardless, there will be a new title screen, but not the pic you're thinking of ^^;

 

1 hour ago, J-Awesome_One said:

This is a more of a fun question for you and Ruby. Lol. If you and Ruby were to be in the game, would you's rather be 1 of many of the players sidekicks, a Gym Leader or 1 of the baddies and what would your teams be?

One of the baddies! Preferably Black Foxes after what I did to em . I'm not that good when it comes to making good pokemon teams so anything is fine as long as I have Hydreigon and Roserade lol I'm biased for them.

[Dreamy]

Well, I don't really have anything to ask, nor anything to offer, but I still feel the need to offer my help if I can. Most of all, it's just great to see this active!

And I promise I'll actually reach the end of V5 this time

[Chrixai]

To Caz, Posty and Amber. Which character in desolation do you guys like the most and why?

[AiedailEclipsed]

What's the Dreamscape? 

[Marmalade]

What is everybody's favorite pokemon?

[Alilatias]

I only came in here to say, thank you two for helping on this project. With the massive scope that Desolation had, I didn't think there was any sustainable way for the project to continue with a solo dev. Especially with med school thrown into the equation.

 

Okay, I lied, I do have one question.

 

With the new gen Pokemon, I assume that will mean changes to Pokemon availability. That means gym leaders would be rebalanced around them as well. Also, in that sense, have you considered adding additional starters, or replacing some of the existing starters? I intend on restarting the game from the beginning as it has been quite a long time. While we patiently wait for the new episode, I think the community would like to hear about any new additions before the first gym. After all, the first gym was a pretty infamous fight as well, where most people just recommended to bring a Biabarel.

[jeffhu]

I,m chinese fans ,Is there a chance to become a tester

[Posty]

9 hours ago, Dreamblitz said:

Well, I don't really have anything to ask, nor anything to offer, but I still feel the need to offer my help if I can. Most of all, it's just great to see this active!

And I promise I'll actually reach the end of V5 this time

Bless ya Dream gsiub

9 hours ago, Chrixai said:

To Caz, Posty and Amber. Which character in desolation do you guys like the most and why?

wait i just realised you said Amber sfgub I can't believe Ruby's alter ego is Amber. I'll let the others answer for themselves but for me personally.. I have to say Amelia, I just really like her personality and more important her design  you'll see why 

6 hours ago, AiedailEclipsed said:

What's the Dreamscape? 

Whhaaattt? Dreamscape? what are you talking about?? sounds like a pretty cool area or something, wonder what its like there..

5 hours ago, Marmalade said:

What is everybody's favorite pokemon?

Again I'll let the others answer themselves for this one, but for me its Typhlosion! 

4 hours ago, Alilatias said:

I only came in here to say, thank you two for helping on this project. With the massive scope that Desolation had, I didn't think there was any sustainable way for the project to continue with a solo dev. Especially with med school thrown into the equation.

 

Okay, I lied, I do have one question.

 

With the new gen Pokemon, I assume that will mean changes to Pokemon availability. That means gym leaders would be rebalanced around them as well. Also, in that sense, have you considered adding additional starters, or replacing some of the existing starters? I intend on restarting the game from the beginning as it has been quite a long time. While we patiently wait for the new episode, I think the community would like to hear about any new additions before the first gym. After all, the first gym was a pretty infamous fight as well, where most people just recommended to bring a Biabarel.

 cheers! we both are very excited and thrilled to be working on this project, its been a lot of fun revamping Desolation and I really do hope y'all love the stuff we have done to the game!

 

As for your question, so I mentioned it previously about starters, with the addition of Gen 7 I have gone through and made massive changes to Pokemon availability. For the Starters I looked over what there was and I did some changes, 5 Starters have been axed and replaced, don't worry though! some of these old starters will appear at different points in the game, there will still be 8 Starters! With overall Pokemon availability, I made a document and an Obtainable List to see what Pokemon were available via the Wild, Events, Trades, Credit Shop etc and then saw what wasn't available cough every single water encounter cause we had no way to fish cough. Afterwards I judged Pokemon based on upcoming battles, basically the gym leaders and thought what would be better here and there. With my work over 100+ Pokemon have now become available, thats not just the new areas in v5, throughout the game! keep an eye out for the Obtainable List which will drop nearer the release!

 

Okay I'll spill the beans a bit on Connor's new team, I've made changes to 3 of his Pokemon, his team will somewhat utilise the field a bit more than it did before and you will probably need more than one Pokemon to take him down. With a good variety of Pokemon you can obtain before his gym, not to mention some of the new starters, I hope his battle has the same flavour as it did before just changed a bit

 

Talking about Gym Leaders yes, they have been balanced based around the Pokemon available at that point in the game. You don't need to worry about having to buy a Magnemite from the Credit Shop in Celeste just to have a crack at Aderyn's powerhouses known as Hawlucha and Honchkrow *flashbacks to Sucker Punch, Life Orb, Moxie, I am so sorry for your suffering*

4 hours ago, jeffhu said:

I,m chinese fans ,Is there a chance to become a tester

Umm maybe? again we are going to be dming active members of the community to take part in the Beta Test this time around, we already have people in mind we will ask. 

[gilam]

Are V5 release is a matter of days? Weeks?

 

and how many gyms there is in V5?

[Samtale]

are you ever going to do custom moves like rejuv? if so I can help you navigate the animation editor and explain anything you need about it?