RIDE PAGERS POLL

[exeggutorhead]

Poll #18365 Ride Pagers

This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 26

IC: Has your character utilized the Ride Pagers ICly since their introduction?

Yes
3 (11.5%)

No
23 (88.5%)

OOC: What do you, as a player, think should be done with the Ride Pager mechanic?

Keep it as is.
5 (19.2%)

Remove the mechanic entirely.
2 (7.7%)

Relocate the mechanic to be used only on the Sevii Islands. Your HM Pokemon are on vacation too!
14 (53.8%)

Other. If you have an idea of your own, let us know!
5 (19.2%)

Comments

[dreamsofahero]

So I definitely like Ink's suggestion, but I also have another thing to add to it: while movesets aren't limited, the number of people a character can carry at one time is. And a lot of characters have favorites. Sion's never without his absol, for example, and the only reason his core original team had one capable of learning Fly at all was because he was ICly the sort of person to think "oh, I should have one of those ready for when I get the HM, shouldn't I?"

But a lot of the time, if he's going to Fly somewhere, he ends up ICly taking a pokemon that knows the move just for the trip, then switching his party around. Same with Surf. He has a big enough team that this is rarely an issue now, of course, but in his early travels it was absolutely a consideration, and meant that he couldn't always train his team equally, since certain ones had to be present just for traveling.

So, what my thought is, is that why not offer a version of the pager that trainers can register their own pokemon to? And the pokemon that's paged neither counts against the six in their team, but can't be used for battling. (And for an IC reason for this, it could be that the riding gear, saddles and so on, that a paged pokemon gets equipped with make it impossible to battle safely and thus they'd refuse to.) It would be all the intended convenience of the pager, but with the huge bonus of, y'know, still being able to use one's own team instead of relying on a random stranger's pokemon. I imagine there'd probably have to be certain requirements/restrictions to meet to make it work, but who WOULDN'T want to be able to summon their trusty steed and gallop around town?

[purramedic]

um, i love the idea of paging your own pokemon, seconded

like i also like ink's idea above of having rental services on routes that require HM moves!

but yeah this is also a neat idea. you'd still have to raise and outfit your own HM pokemon, but not sacrifice party space that could be used to level other pokemon just to carry said HM pokemon around where required? sounds sick, i dig it

[dreamsofahero]

Yeah and it would justify the existing cost of the pager in the first place, a sort of "well of course it's expensive for the convenience!" sort of thing.

But mostly it'd just be cool. Because how cool WOULD that be. And like I said, since the ride pokemon would have like saddles and stuff on them, it would make sense if they CAN'T battle (and would be very put out and/or leave if you tried to make them) since that stuff would get in the way.

[purramedic]

oh yeah if s/t like that were implemented it's great to put some kinda restraint on them to make them a totally different mechanic from battling pokemon etc etc like you mentioned in your top post. with them ONLY being able to give rides when designated outside of your party, it sounds exactly like the current functionality of the pager, except YOU have to raise your HM mons, which, again, is SICK

[dreamsofahero]

Yes exactly. And it makes it possible for characters to then raise 'mons specifically for the purpose of ride pokemon, instead of battling. Kind of like raising for contests, if contests existed. But, y'know, emphasizing certain skills and temperament and responsiveness to a different set of commands than for battling, training them to easily move in a harness/carrying a rider/etc, that sort of thing! So more RP opportunities beyond the run of the mill training/battling thing.

[terribibble]

okay i'm super late to this conversation and also on the wrong account but holy SHIT being able to page your own pokemon is an incredible idea, I love it.

[dreamsofahero]

RIGHT?

I mean, in my case I mostly want to be able to have Sion summon his shiny rapidash to ride off all impressive-like whenever he wants but I'm sure there's much more useful ways to use it too :D