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the_plateau2022-12-23 05:24 pm
indigo_league) wrote in the_plateau2022-12-23 05:24 pm
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Game update 22/23
Howdy, Pokémon trainers! As you all know, 2022 is on its last legs, and a new challenger looms on the horizon. And as so often with a new year, there are some changes coming, and we'd like to take a moment to inform you all about these. So please, read this post carefully, and if any questions remain, please don't hesitate to ask them, and we'll get back to you ASAP.
(As a note, the game pages affected by these changes haven't been updated yet, but by the time January rolls around, they will be!)
Updates to Strike System
First, let’s get some boring administrative stuff out of the way. After some discussion amongst the mod team, we’ve decided to tweak the rules of the strike system both in an attempt to make bookkeeping a bit easier on both our and your account, but also because we feel that our current system has a bit too much potential for character squatting than we are comfortable with.
Currently, our system allows for a player to take two strikes. A player that can’t provide AC can take a strike, which they can then clear by providing AC for two consecutive months. If someone can’t provide AC while in the process of clearing their first strike, they are allowed to take a second strike. Providing double AC the following month would then clear both strikes.
Starting January 2023, players will only be able to take one strike every three months – as in, they have to provide AC for two consecutive months before clearing it. If you cannot provide AC while clearing your strike, you will be swept from the game.
If you are still in the process of clearing two strikes, don’t worry–they’ll be cleared if you pass January AC, no double AC required!
We acknowledge that this change may make it more likely for people to be swept for inactivity, so please feast your eyes on the next section….
Updates to Pokemon Reclamation
Starting January 2023, we’ll also be making some adjustments to the way the Pokemon Reclamation ranch works in Victory Road.
For those who are unfamiliar with it, the Forever-and-A-Day Ranch allows players and characters who are returning to the game to reclaim some of the old pokemon they owned before they dropped.
Currently, a returning character can claim up to ten pokemon from the Ranch. This can be done here.
However, as time has marched on, and people have collected more and more pokemon, we realise that the maximum of ten might not be very sufficient. Especially characters who have been in the game for a long time can have many more pokemon than that! It sometimes means that people remain in the game, even when they know they do not currently have the time for it because they do not want to lose the many pokemon their character obtained when they return in the future.
Knowing this, and in combination with our new Strike System, we’ve decided to rework the way the Ranch works.
Staring in January, returning characters will be able to reclaim up to ten pokemon per month. This means that if you have more than ten pokemon you want to reclaim, you can simply keep returning to the Ranch on a monthly basis until all your friends are back in your possession. There is no upper limit to this! If there are 100 pokemon you'd like to reclaim, you can keep coming back ten months in a row until you have them all. It does still mean you need to prioritise which pokemon you’ll regain first, but rest assured that the pokemon at the Ranch are well taken care of, and it’ll only take some patience to get back all your pokemon.
We hope that this change will not only help people who needed to drop in the past / were swept by AC, but we also hope that if people do run into a situation where they might need to take a break from the game for a short period of time, they will be able to do so without needing to worry about losing all the pokemon their character has collected.
Oh, and before you ask, if your character was dropped in the past and reapped since, and you've been unable to reclaim all your old pokemon due to the previous limit, starting January, this new service is available to you too!
Paldean Pokémon
As you all know, Pokemon Violet and Scarlet were released in November, and in 2023, we’ll be working on introducing all the new Paldean pokemon and variants into the game, starting with a little Christmas present from (presumably) Arceus.
Just like the last few generations, we’ll be adding the new Paldean pokemon to the game through swarms and events. We believe that adding the new pokemon this way gives them all an individual moment to shine, and it means you, as players, aren’t overwhelmed by suddenly having so many new pokemon to deal with.
The new Paldean pokemon will also become available as starters for new characters once they’ve been introduced into the game via this method. And because a few of the new pokemon have new evolution methods, we’ve already gone ahead and updated our Special Evolutions page with these pokemon. If a particular pokemon is not on that page, it evolves the exact same way it does in the game.
Of course, the Paldean pokemon your characters received for Christmas serve as normal pokemon and can be bred! So if you really cannot wait for a particular pokemon to be added to the game, why not check around and see if someone is willing to breed you one?
With the introduction of the Paldean Pokemon, move tutors will also now be able to teach pokemon moves that were added in this generation. The new TMs that were added to the game will be added to our big list of TMs, and will start appearing among the seasonal TM batches.
As a note, you won’t be able to receive Paradox Pokémon. But we’re sure they’ll show up sometime in the future! Or the past maybe?
Terastallizing
A new feature that was introduced in Pokemon Violet and Scarlet is Terastallizing / Tera types. If you are not familiar, by using the Tera orb, a trainer can have their pokemon Terastallize, which changes its regular type to whatever its Tera type is.
After discussing it, we’ve come to the decision that much like Z-moves, Terastallizing will not be added to Victory Road. The in-universe explanation, of course, is that we are nowhere near Area Zero, and our pokemon are too far away to be affected by the crystals. The meta explanation is that frankly, the process of adding Tera types, figuring out methods for finding out what Tera type your pokemon is, keeping that fair and balanced, figuring out what Tera types all the gym leader pokemon would have and so on is far too complex to be worth the pay-off!
Which is not to say we will never ever do anything with Terastallizing. If there is enough interest, we may at some point think up a short-term event where this will play a role! However, as a standard thing, it’s not something that will be part of VR game canon, and you won’t need to think about it!
Changes to moves and abilities
The more battle-minded among you may have already noticed that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet changed the way certain moves and abilities work in game, or changed how often a pokemon can use this particular move. This seems to be part of an ongoing project at Gamefreak which one can argue (though we leave it up to you to decide whether this is successful!) helps balance the battling scene better.
Which is all fine and dandy for the Pokemon games, but it makes things very weird in Victory Road if suddenly the ability your pokemon has had for years works in a drastically different way! Or if they can suddenly only use a certain move half as often.
As such, what we have decided is that we will not be implementing changes to moves and abilities from this point on. What this means, is that the way moves/abilities work and how often you can use them will be as they are in Generation VIII (if you haven’t kept up on your gens, that means the way things are in Sword and Shield). Of course, we will review this decision once the next gen comes out, but it's our belief that Gamefreak will continue drastically changing things as they have, leading to weird conflicts for people who have already been playing in a certain way in VR for years.
Of course, this does not apply to moves that are newly introduced in Generation IX. Completely new moves and abilities will still be available in Victory Road, and these will function exactly as described in Gen IX. This only applies to older moves and abilities, some of which have been around since the dawn of time. Or, Gen I, at least.
If you are unsure of how a move works exactly in Generation VIII, we recommend using Smogon’s pokemon movement database. This site allows you to look up each pokemon move and ability, and check how it behaved in a certain generation. You can also check when it was introduced into the pokemon games.
This also means that if a newly introduced pokemon has an older move/ability – for example, Sprigatito with the ability Protean – this move/ability will also behave as it did in Generation VIII.
We realise that this might all be a little complex, and honestly, for most people, this won’t even be very relevant! After all, for your basic badge write-up, we don’t require such in-depth move information. However, we wanted to set a precedent for the small group of people who do engage in high level battling as well as any Aurora League gym leaders who might need to know this information to make badge ruling. And obviously, we will be using Gen VIII rules too when judging badges.
(Plus, you never know. That Battle Tournament might return some day.)
If any questions remain, please ask them in the comments and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!
(As a note, the game pages affected by these changes haven't been updated yet, but by the time January rolls around, they will be!)
Updates to Strike System
Currently, our system allows for a player to take two strikes. A player that can’t provide AC can take a strike, which they can then clear by providing AC for two consecutive months. If someone can’t provide AC while in the process of clearing their first strike, they are allowed to take a second strike. Providing double AC the following month would then clear both strikes.
Starting January 2023, players will only be able to take one strike every three months – as in, they have to provide AC for two consecutive months before clearing it. If you cannot provide AC while clearing your strike, you will be swept from the game.
If you are still in the process of clearing two strikes, don’t worry–they’ll be cleared if you pass January AC, no double AC required!
We acknowledge that this change may make it more likely for people to be swept for inactivity, so please feast your eyes on the next section….
Updates to Pokemon Reclamation
For those who are unfamiliar with it, the Forever-and-A-Day Ranch allows players and characters who are returning to the game to reclaim some of the old pokemon they owned before they dropped.
Currently, a returning character can claim up to ten pokemon from the Ranch. This can be done here.
However, as time has marched on, and people have collected more and more pokemon, we realise that the maximum of ten might not be very sufficient. Especially characters who have been in the game for a long time can have many more pokemon than that! It sometimes means that people remain in the game, even when they know they do not currently have the time for it because they do not want to lose the many pokemon their character obtained when they return in the future.
Knowing this, and in combination with our new Strike System, we’ve decided to rework the way the Ranch works.
Staring in January, returning characters will be able to reclaim up to ten pokemon per month. This means that if you have more than ten pokemon you want to reclaim, you can simply keep returning to the Ranch on a monthly basis until all your friends are back in your possession. There is no upper limit to this! If there are 100 pokemon you'd like to reclaim, you can keep coming back ten months in a row until you have them all. It does still mean you need to prioritise which pokemon you’ll regain first, but rest assured that the pokemon at the Ranch are well taken care of, and it’ll only take some patience to get back all your pokemon.
We hope that this change will not only help people who needed to drop in the past / were swept by AC, but we also hope that if people do run into a situation where they might need to take a break from the game for a short period of time, they will be able to do so without needing to worry about losing all the pokemon their character has collected.
Oh, and before you ask, if your character was dropped in the past and reapped since, and you've been unable to reclaim all your old pokemon due to the previous limit, starting January, this new service is available to you too!
Paldean Pokémon
Just like the last few generations, we’ll be adding the new Paldean pokemon to the game through swarms and events. We believe that adding the new pokemon this way gives them all an individual moment to shine, and it means you, as players, aren’t overwhelmed by suddenly having so many new pokemon to deal with.
The new Paldean pokemon will also become available as starters for new characters once they’ve been introduced into the game via this method. And because a few of the new pokemon have new evolution methods, we’ve already gone ahead and updated our Special Evolutions page with these pokemon. If a particular pokemon is not on that page, it evolves the exact same way it does in the game.
Of course, the Paldean pokemon your characters received for Christmas serve as normal pokemon and can be bred! So if you really cannot wait for a particular pokemon to be added to the game, why not check around and see if someone is willing to breed you one?
With the introduction of the Paldean Pokemon, move tutors will also now be able to teach pokemon moves that were added in this generation. The new TMs that were added to the game will be added to our big list of TMs, and will start appearing among the seasonal TM batches.
As a note, you won’t be able to receive Paradox Pokémon. But we’re sure they’ll show up sometime in the future! Or the past maybe?
Terastallizing
After discussing it, we’ve come to the decision that much like Z-moves, Terastallizing will not be added to Victory Road. The in-universe explanation, of course, is that we are nowhere near Area Zero, and our pokemon are too far away to be affected by the crystals. The meta explanation is that frankly, the process of adding Tera types, figuring out methods for finding out what Tera type your pokemon is, keeping that fair and balanced, figuring out what Tera types all the gym leader pokemon would have and so on is far too complex to be worth the pay-off!
Which is not to say we will never ever do anything with Terastallizing. If there is enough interest, we may at some point think up a short-term event where this will play a role! However, as a standard thing, it’s not something that will be part of VR game canon, and you won’t need to think about it!
Changes to moves and abilities
Which is all fine and dandy for the Pokemon games, but it makes things very weird in Victory Road if suddenly the ability your pokemon has had for years works in a drastically different way! Or if they can suddenly only use a certain move half as often.
As such, what we have decided is that we will not be implementing changes to moves and abilities from this point on. What this means, is that the way moves/abilities work and how often you can use them will be as they are in Generation VIII (if you haven’t kept up on your gens, that means the way things are in Sword and Shield). Of course, we will review this decision once the next gen comes out, but it's our belief that Gamefreak will continue drastically changing things as they have, leading to weird conflicts for people who have already been playing in a certain way in VR for years.
Of course, this does not apply to moves that are newly introduced in Generation IX. Completely new moves and abilities will still be available in Victory Road, and these will function exactly as described in Gen IX. This only applies to older moves and abilities, some of which have been around since the dawn of time. Or, Gen I, at least.
If you are unsure of how a move works exactly in Generation VIII, we recommend using Smogon’s pokemon movement database. This site allows you to look up each pokemon move and ability, and check how it behaved in a certain generation. You can also check when it was introduced into the pokemon games.
This also means that if a newly introduced pokemon has an older move/ability – for example, Sprigatito with the ability Protean – this move/ability will also behave as it did in Generation VIII.
We realise that this might all be a little complex, and honestly, for most people, this won’t even be very relevant! After all, for your basic badge write-up, we don’t require such in-depth move information. However, we wanted to set a precedent for the small group of people who do engage in high level battling as well as any Aurora League gym leaders who might need to know this information to make badge ruling. And obviously, we will be using Gen VIII rules too when judging badges.
(Plus, you never know. That Battle Tournament might return some day.)
If any questions remain, please ask them in the comments and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!
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Heh. Sorry for asking a likely dumb question but sometimes ya gotta go for it, you know?
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Now I only have two to pick from for him, thank godno subject
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Also: like with Pokemon who evolve with access to a new move (see: Dudunsparse), that move is just added to their movepool now, correct?
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And yes, for old and familiar friends that have an exciting new evolution through a new move, they can learn those moves from now on. If they are already levelled past the point where they would ordinarily learn that move, they can learn it on the next level up.
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If a pokemon learns a move in the new gen that you really want them to know, but they are already at a higher level, you may assume it learns the move on the next level up.
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Assuming new dragons from ScarVi will be added to the pool of dragons in general, could the dragon eggs given by Lance to new champions hatch into them?
Emporio got his egg this month, but I've not settled what it is- and being honest, if I can pare down the number of dragons he has by just a bit, that'd be fantastic
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(thanks for the answer though mods :0 )
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How will "Move Reminder exclusive" moves be handled? For example, Meowscarada can learn Double Team only via Move Reminder, but since Victory Road doesn't have or need that service/tech, would Meowscarada be able to just learn it naturally, via TM or Tutor, or some other method?
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Gotcha, thanks! And seriously, thank you guys for all the hard work you do for the game, especially trying to keep things cohesive with the games changing things up so often.