ANNOUNCEMENT: 4-EVER AFTER

[indigo_league]

What's up all you trainers? It's been awhile!

Several of the projects we've been working on have already been implemented and announced on Plurk and the game Calendar, but for the sake of getting it all down in one place, here's Big Announcement #4! Buckle in, kids!




-IT'S FINALLY HERE: UPDATED MAPS AND POKEMON AVAILABILITY!

FIRST THINGS FIRST, remember that big project we mentioned in the last announcement? IT'S FINALLY DONE. It took weeks, but it's done! Hallelujah! Both the Maps and Pokemon Availability pages have been fully updated, and the Availability pages in particular have been completely overhauled! This was a huge undertaking, and we were so happy to see everyone's enthusiasm when we were finally able to make all the work public!

Before anything else, if you haven't already checked the new pages out, go take a gander!

Maps: Johto | Kanto

Pokemon: Johto | Kanto

For those who don't feel like combing through the posts to see what's new, here's a basic rundown:

The Pokemon Availability pages have been completely redesigned to match the layout and thoroughness of the Map Pages, with the routes and towns going in "travel order" rather than being separated. (For comparison, here's the old ones.)

Pokemon species have been redistributed, taking all your great suggestions into account! In particular, Kanto has been beefed up with a greater variety of Pokemon (especially Alolan Pokemon, of which there were... essentially none).

Information for routes and locations that were previously unlisted on one or both pages, such as Victory Road and the Power Plant, have been added to both the Availability and Map pages!

"Landmark" locations on the Map Pages now have images and added flavortext where applicable, and "Special Notes" have been added to the Availability pages to point out noteworthy Pokemon available in certain locations.

Quick-Jump lists have been added to both posts for easier navigation.

Minor errors like redundant Pokemon listings or spelling mistakes have been fixed from the previous versions (that said, please let us know if you spot anything we missed! WE'VE BEEN STARING AT NOTHING BUT THESE PAGES FOR WEEKS. WEEKS...)

-THE SEVII ISLANDS:

And now for the OTHER big thing you've all been waiting for... that's right. For the first time since it was introduced, complete Map and Availability information for the Sevii Islands is also now available! Big thanks to Ieva for tackling the bulk of the work on this one!

Now characters can freely travel around the Islands with full knowledge of what they'll be seeing and where they'll be going! Go there for the exclusive Alolan forms and extra-abundant Gen 7 Pokemon, stay for the great weather and sunshine! Not to mention, we've finally got an answer for all those patterned Magikarp questions-- they will be obtainable in the wild in a specific location, so go read up and catch those pretty fishies! (NOTE: Because of them being available elsewhere, we’ve decided that the patterns will not breed true. You gotta get them straight from the Islands if you want 'em fancy!)

Relatedly, we're still deciding what to do about the Travel Pagers re: Johto and Kanto, but would definitely like to thank everyone for their input on our poll from the last announcement! The information listed on the Sevii map page is specific to the islands, and may not reflect how the mechanic will be handled for the other regions in the future!

-EXTENDED BREEDING FAQ:

Of course, while the Maps and Availability were a crazy-enormous project to finish, there's still lots of work to do when it comes to revamping the FAQ. Fortunately, the next milestone was much simpler!

All the information on the Extended Breeder FAQ page has been relocated to its own, brand-new page, accessible directly from the Navigation post. Given how fundamentally important that information was, we felt like it deserved a spot with the other main info pages rather than tucked away in an obscure corner of the FAQ!

The new page includes recently-updated mechanic information such as the Breeder-only perk of being able to produce Hidden Abilities.

-STARTER PAGES:

Not a huge update, but in light of some recent developments of the image-hosting nature, we went to replace the images used on our starter pages. In doing so we discovered... that all links led to the old community's info pages, and that the ones made for this community hadn't been updated with Gen 7 Pokemon!

So for the time being, rather than replacing hundreds of images across multiple posts on old accounts, the "Type" links on the Starter page now lead to individual comments for each type.

-PHOTOBUCKET:

Speaking of image hosting... yeah. The Great Breaking of Images is upon us.

Thanks to some sharp-eyed players, we've already tackled some affected pages, re-hosting the broken images straight on Dreamwidth and replacing the URLs. That said, there's likely more image breakage to come, so this is an open invitation to anyone who notices any official Victory Road posts plagued with that ugly "Pay us $400 for your pictures back" graphic to let us know about it ASAP so we can fix it!

-FOURTH WALL RULES

Lastly, just a reminder regarding rules.

We've gotten several concerned messages about multiple players misunderstanding (or in some cases, potentially outright breaking) the rules for Fourth Wall events regarding items and/or Pokemon lasting beyond the duration of the event. These rules have been the same throughout the game's entire run, so there's not really any new information to impart, but just for the sake of total clarity:

Outside of specific, mod-approved special items (such as the camera and photos from the most recent Fourth Wall), the only things that can be kept by in-game characters after a Fourth Wall event are items or Pokemon that are normally obtainable in-game. (IE, your character may catch/retain an unexpected wild Pokemon or two as long as it's available SOMEWHERE on the map, or could randomly find a bunch of Potions in their backpack that they don't remember buying).

Characters MAY NOT retain items from their own canon that they retrieved during the event. There will be other events where characters can receive an item from home, but anything obtained during Fourth Wall will disappear at the end of the weekend.

Characters MAY NOT be gifted Pokemon or unavailable items from non-game characters that visit during Fourth Wall. Anything given to your character in such a way will disappear at the end of the weekend.

Characters MAY NOT inherit Pokemon from previously-in-game characters who are visiting for Fourth Wall. Inherited Pokemon may only be given beforehand, at the time of the character's original drop. Cameos from old Pokemon are fine, but just like their original trainers, they will not be sticking around after the event ends!

If anyone mistakenly had their character obtain a Pokemon in these ways during the most recent Fourth Wall, feel free to simply retcon the Pokemon's backstory and treat it as a brand new Pokemon.

In general, outside of the instances mentioned in the first bullet-point, ANYTHING a character receives during Fourth Wall will not last beyond the end of the event! They'll just have the sweet sweet memories.

Due to the confusion, we will likely tweak some wording in future Fourth Wall events going forward just to make sure everything is as clear as possible! In the meantime, if something appears unclear in the toplevel post, it's always a good idea to check out the Question threads on events before assuming anything!

Comments

[dreamsofahero]

Question about breeding! Is there any particular reason why only the father transmits breeding-only egg moves, regardless of the species of the offspring? It seems a little odd since it specifically says that TM moves for offspring of the father's species are inherited from the mother. So it seems a little bit inconsistent.

Similarly, is there any possibility of the ditto rules being revised? As it currently stands, thanks to the lack of limits on move pools and the fact that offspring can be the father's species, ditto is effectively useless for breeding, since not only is it not needed to breed male-only species, but no moves inherited means no chain breeding possibilities, either. This seems especially contradictory given that ditto is described as being a "staple" and "lynchpin" for breeders yet there's essentially absolutely zero incentive to use it outside of breeding genderless 'mons...

And ONE MORE QUESTION, some of the TMs available for purchase in the department stores are moves that are not TMs in the current generation of games. Can these moves still be passed on via breeding according to the mechanics of the generation(s) in which they existed as TMs? For example, Silver Wind was only a TM in gen IV, so would that generation's list of pokemon that can learn the TM also count as ones that can inherit it via breeding if the youngest form could learn the TM move? For example, Natu was able to learn the TM when it existed, but otherwise never learned the move by leveling up. So because it can learn the TM, does it still inherit it by VR's breeding rules?

[indigo_league]

Hey there!

1. Outside of updating to include the Hidden Ability information, we did not change any of the rules or information passing over to the new post. So when it comes down to the "why" of the father passing on egg moves and the mother passing on TM moves, your guess is as good as any! Those rules have been around a long time and while the part about the mother may be slightly odd (our guess is that maybe it was included to make sure that the mother got to contribute something too, even if the father is the main one passing down moves), we don't consider it a major problem or something that needs to be updated at this time. Of course, the canon Pokemon video game mechanics have changed since those rules were made, so it's possible they'll be updated in the future!
But our priority right now unfortunately needs to be in organizing the enormous jumble of info pages we've inherited rather than tweaking each individual mechanic as we go-- that would make it take even longer than it's already taking.

2. Likewise, we don't find it necessary to change the Ditto rules. There are a number of basic but still relevant uses for Ditto that we feel justify mentioning it as an in-universe staple of breeding! While obviously more complicated and advanced breeding projects cannot be achieved with a Ditto, the fact remains that it still can accomplish a lot for breeders who are starting out or even just refining their technique.
Here's a few examples:

Ditto is a surefire way to guarantee the species of a nest, which is useful if you are only breeding for a specific Pokemon but do not have two compatible individuals. (ex: a breeder needs a guaranteed nest of Pikachus, but only has males, or only has a single Pikachu)

Ditto is the only way to breed genderless Pokemon like Magnemite or Voltorb.

Ditto makes it easier to quickly breed rare species, which Breeders may want to specialize in or sell for profit.

Breeding with Ditto is an easy way to fill up a breeder's roster with breeding stock/eggs for sale, making it easier to avoid overwhelming one single Pokemon, or simply have a source of spare cash while focusing on more complex, longterm projects.

In essence, the reason it's a "lynchpin" is not because it has to do with fancier aspects of breeding, but just because it's useful in general. Obviously, not every Breeder character may want or need to use one at all! It's just a generalization.

3. We're gonna say yes on that one! The TM list is something we'd like to update in the future, but for the time being, there shouldn't be any problem sticking to the mechanics that were around back in the gens that the TMs were from. So a Natu would absolutely be able to inherit Silver Wind through breeding.

[dreamsofahero]

I appreciate that you guys don't feel there's an issue with ditto breeding, but I'd have to strongly disagree, and every time I've discussed breeding mechanics with other players they've expressed the same opinion. I realize that it's been like that for a while, but by that same token, it's been like that for a while, and I'd point out that dittos are very, very rarely used in breeding in VR. Usually when dittos are used it's just a case of pairing up leftovers for lack of anything better to do. So I'm speaking from the perspective that ditto clearly isn't being well-utilized for breeding, and in fact often avoided for that very fact that the rules on it are so restrictive.

[indigo_league]

You're welcome to disagree! Our original point still stands that right now our priority is working on getting the existing mechanics and information organized properly for people to find. If, later, we decide to revisit these existing mechanics, the floor will be opened for player suggestions then!

[paladinlost]

Reporting broken images on the New Building Requests page!

[indigo_league]

Thank you for letting us know, we're on it!

[rambling_runner]

Slight thing on Pokemon availability! Looking over the Safari Zone mons and in the PEAK area, Rufflets are rarer to find than Braviarys, Rhyhorn is misspelled as 'Ryhorn' in the SAVANNAH, and some evolved pokemon have the same rarity as their pre-evolved forms (although that could be intentional? Just thought it bore mentioning either way).

[styxiedust]

I didn't actually see the extended breeder FAQ linked on the navigation page! Also I can't find it anywhere but I swear there used to be information saying that breeders could keep more Pokemon out of the classes? I don't see any numbers or information on that though.