MOD ANNOUNCEMENT 7

[indigo_league]

Hey there, trainers! Been awhile! It's about time for an update!



ONGOING REVAMP: TRAINER PERKS AND INFORMATION

Last time, we asked you guys for suggestions on Trainer Perks, as we were hoping to get the "Battles 101" page up to standards along with the Breeding and Rocket ones!

Before anything else, we want to thank everyone who chipped in; your suggestions were GREAT and proved utterly invaluable to us while worked out Trainer mechanics.

At long last, we're excited to unveil the new Training 101 page! For comparison's sake, this is what it looked like before. Now it contains both information about the Trainer class, as well as more in-depth info on battle mechanics (including Mega Stones, as well as information formerly only found on the Moves, Abilities, + Weather extended FAQ page), and will hopefully be a useful resource for anyone looking up information on how Pokemon battles work in Victory Road!

But of course, the biggest news on this topic is... Trainer Perks! Thanks to everyone's wonderful ideas, here they are at last!

A guaranteed discount in PokeMarts, shops, and restaurants. Travelling Trainers drive the economy here, and most establishments want to reward that! All Trainers start out with 15% off, which increases by 1% for each new badge they earn (ie, earning the Zephyrbadge will increase the discount to 16%, the Hivebadge to 17%, etc). Completing an entire region's Gym series will net you an extra 5% on top of the other increases you've earned, bringing your final total to a whopping 41% off by the time you've earned all 16 badges from both Johto and Kanto!

Increased earnings from winning Gym Battles. Registered Trainers will receive 30% more cold hard cash than the standard prize amount that Gym Leaders give out when defeated. (Ex: Gym Leader Pryce's standard cash prize is P22,000. A registered Trainer who wins will instead receive P28,600)

Pokemon raised by Trainers will grow faster than Pokemon raised by other classes: instead of gaining a maximum of 5 levels per week, they may gain up to 8 levels a week instead.

Gee, Billy! How come the Pokemon League lets you have TWO Mega Stones?! Upon gaining their 16th badge, Trainers may request a second Mega Stone in addition to the one they already received.

Last but not least... very lucky Trainers have a chance of encountering shinies in the wild.

Wait a minute... did that say WILD SHINIES?

WILD SHINY POKEMON

It sure did! There is now a new way to obtain shiny Pokemon, exclusively for Trainers.

However, this will work a little bit differently-- for full details, go on ahead to check out the Wild Shiny request page, but the basic run-down is that this feature is going to work a little bit like a gachapon. Once every four months, players can make a request for a shiny Pokemon encounter, which will then be rolled up individually based on where the character is at the time of the request and what species are available there.

We're hoping that this will spice things up a little and maybe introduce a few interesting shinies to the game's collective Pokemon pool that might not otherwise have been picked out during shiny egg events!

Like badges, shiny requests will be checked on weekly basis.

TM LIST REVAMP

Another topic of much puzzling has been what to do about the TM lists-- as most of you know already, the old list was extremely outdated by Gen 7 standards, and bringing it "up to date" would be a real undertaking, especially since some TMs switch numbers between generations or become completely obsolete. Victory Road has consistently pulled TMs from multiple generations, making it even more complicated in cases where one TM number could technically wind up being shared by two completely different moves.

So, with that in mind, we've actually decided to do away with numbers completely! Going forward, TMs will be listed on official game pages by the name of the move only, which will allow us to much more easily add new TMs into circulation as they're introduced in canon (though if any player would like to continue using TM numbers on their inventory pages for personal organization reasons, this is of course totally fine!).

In addition to the large stock available at the Department Stores, we've also added a small selection of additional TMs to be available at PokeMarts in each town and city!

For anyone curious about what's newly available, go check it out on the Item Availability Page!

FOREVER-AND-A-DAY RANCH: POKEMON RECLAMATION

This next update is a feature many players have asked about in the past-- and we're very excited to finally implement it, especially with returning players on the rise!

While characters returning to the game and immediately snatching up full teams of strong Pokemon as though they hadn't left was a potential issue when Route 29 was in its heyday, we no longer think that the game needs such strict requirements when it comes to returning players-- as such, any player bringing back a character who they previously played in Route 29 OR Victory Road now has the option to reclaim up to 10 of their original Pokemon!

As of April 1st, Forever-and-a-Day Ranch, an IC location where Pokemon belonging to departed trainers can find a loving home, is officially open for business!

Previously, dropping a character meant losing all their Pokemon, unless a few of them were inherited by their CR. But even then, there was no guarantee that the people who kept those Pokemon would be around forever. There was a player-run adoption center for a little while, which unfortunately created problems with unchecked Pokemon intake as well as confusion over just what was there and what wasn't when the pages stopped being updated. To cut those problems off at the pass, this mechanic is semi-modded (you'll need to leave a comment on the page in order to officially reclaim the Pokemon, and it's run by NPCs rather than player characters with roster limits), but otherwise open-ended. There will be no lists of Pokemon present at the ranch, and it's entirely up to each player to decide whether or not they want their Pokemon to be there. Be sure to visit the page for the full information on this feature if you're curious!

Because this mechanic is brand new, we will also be allowing anyone who recently (within the past couple of months) brought back a character they played in the past to also reclaim Pokemon in this fashion if they so desire!

MINOR UPDATES:

Following the feedback we got previously, Rocket perks have been adjusted to no longer include Shiny and Hidden Ability breeding. They still, however, will be able to breed larger clutches of eggs!

Breeders no longer require badges to ensure obedience from traded Pokemon.

Courtesy of Ink (meteorman), a linked Egg Move breeding guide has been added to the Breeding 101 page! Thank you, Ink!

A small Held Items section outlining the various ways to obtain held items has been added to the Item Availibility page.

The Navigation page has been slightly tweaked so that info pages are all in one column and pages involving submitted requests (Badges, Aurora League, Type: Null, etc) are in another.

Comments

[lordofthefries]

I have a question! What if players who have come back in the last two months want to reclaim some Pokemon, but edited their roster thinking that the Pokemon were gone for good? How can we show that we had certain Pokemon and we'd like them back?

(In this case, I still have the old coding for the roster with the info of the Pokemon Sasha no longer had when she came back, but they aren't posted on my current, up to date roster page.)

[indigo_league]

Don't worry-- we know a lot of people may have either lost or edited their old roster posts, so while we definitely would like people to give us 'proof' just for the sake of having it, we're not going to scrutinize unless we have strong reason to call BS on somebody.

Like, we're pretty sure nobody in the game has ever had 10 shiny Haxorus, so if someone showed up and tried to reclaim them, we might have to see to believe!

[lordofthefries]

Whoohoo! Thanks again! <3

[lordofthefries]

I lied, one more question: do we have to wait until April 1st to put in our reclaim requests? Or can we throw it up now and just wait until that date rolls around?

[indigo_league]

Feel free to throw them in now oocly! We just wanted a solid IC date for the Ranch to officially open.

[thenightsky]

Just to clarify on the wild shinies - when the odds are rolled, will it include chances for the Pokemon available in the area via surf and fishing as well? Magikarp. I just want to know if Magikarp will be included okay.

[indigo_league]

Yes!

There is a section in the submission form for whether or not your character would be fishing (or surfing), exploring at night, etc. If they're not doing either of those things, the Pokemon that are only available in the water/at night will be excluded from the pool of possible Pokemon.

There is a beautiful golden karp somewhere out there waiting for you!

[thenightsky]

Oh son of a-- I didn't even look at the form, I just read through the breakdown.

NOCTIS WILL FIND HIS GOLDEN FISH. ONE DAY HE WILL FIND IT.

[armoredsoul]

Following up here officially, but will the shiny rolls count as well for 'specialty' wild Pokemon not listed in a location's official roster, such as surfing Pikachus or the Squirtle Squad?

[indigo_league]

They will, however all 'specialty' Pokemon will be EXCEPTIONALLY rare, so we don't recommend banking on it. If anyone is lucky enough to roll one, it'll be a very happy surprise!

[brokencode]

When I dropped Hawke, I left a pokemon to Anders, who was consequently adopted by Angel less out of a jive between the two of them, but of an ooc need to not let this doofy dog die (and explained away by Angel being. Well, an angel).

But that's enough personal info.

My question would be whether or not there's a drop-off sort of function. Trainers that realize they can't fit the needs of a friend's former partners or what have you. While I know a lot of people have picked up friend's pokemon because of their bonds, i'm sure others still have picked up pokemon because the alternative is, effectively, nothingness?

So, tl;dr: can we unadopt drop pokemon for the sake of them going to the ranch and being characters knowing they'll happy elsewhere?

[indigo_league]

Yep!

As stated on the info page:

"WHAT IF I HAVE INHERITED POKEMON THAT I DON'T WANT?

While you won't be able to reclaim them afterwards, the Ranch is a guilt-free IC way to trim your roster of Pokemon that your CR left to you but that you don't really think fit your team. The Fuji couple won't judge-- they know not everybody is equipped to care for each Pokemon that comes their way. They'll be happy to take them in to wait for their original trainer to return."

[brokencode]

yyeaaahh after pouring through i found that so oops

thanks anyway!

[meteorman]

This is all very good and I'm so glad to see it getting implemented! I have one small quibble about breeding -- on the breeding page you may want to make a note that the non-Ditto parent can pass on TM/HM moves like it says here. Also, does 'Egg moves are still limited to being passed down through a male Pokemon at this time' mean that if the non-Ditto parent is male they can pass on Egg Moves as well, or is the Ditto breeding blanket-ban on Egg Moves still in effect? Also is there a reason that Ditto-bred Pokémon can't have their Hidden Ability if the non-Ditto parent could otherwise pass it on? It doesn't particularly bug me but I'm interested in the logic behind it, particularly since some Pokémon are only able to reproduce via Ditto.

HI MY NAME'S INK I HAVE OH SO MANY QUESTIONS ALWAYS

[thenightsky]

Good call on the HA thing with Dittos; it would honestly make Ditto even more of a lynchpin for breeders if it could be counted in the HA chance!

[meteorman]

LET DITTO BE RELEVANT.... besides only as a way to make quick shinies

[indigo_league]

We'll have to get back to you on that! With so much focus on the Training information, we haven't gone back to the Breeding mechanics recently!

[meteorman]

No worries! Ford doesn't even have a Ditto so this is mostly in case he ever decides to borrow Botan's again (and since there's been a big player gathering to really network breeders and get a directory set up).

[paladinlost]

...Between those new TMs and that breeding guide to avoid forgetting anything, Cecil's yearly egg batch is going to scary as hell.

Can I assume a trainer who already has all the badges can just go pick his second Mega Stone up?

Also, ilu mods♥

Alsox2, I think you may have inverted the TM lists for Saffron and Celadon, since Celadon has the Department Store?

[indigo_league]

All of Johto and Kanto will quake with fear in its wake!

Yes, anyone who's got all 16 badges already can just pick up a second one whenever they want!

And W H O O P S. Thank you for catching that-- we didn't even notice the mix-up! Should be fixed now!

[paladinlost]

All fixed indeed! Thanks a lot!

[rambling_runner]

Question, say a Character requests a Shiny but doesn't get the one they want/gets a shiny Pokemon they would never keep, despite the rarity (i.e., if Ash here found a shiny Koffing given his home is covered in smog and pollution) - are they obliged to capture or obtain that Pokemon regardless, or can they knock it out or pass on catching it?

[indigo_league]

The shiny Pokemon is yours to do with as you please-- whether it's catch it or just appreciate in its natural environment before moving on! Whatever you feel is IC for your character will be fine!

But that said, even if someone declines to capture the Pokemon they got, they'll still have to wait four months before requesting another!

So it may be a good idea to choose locations where there aren't any Pokemon that your character would do a hard nope-out on.

[notmyrealname]

This doesn't apply to any of mine but I was thinking about it because Cissnei is in Pewter right now and it got me thinking about the fossil Pokemon in general:

Say our trainer character is in the Ruin Valley on the Sevii Islands when we decide to roll for a shiny encounter. Is it a possibility to opt for a possible fossil shiny (assuming they're volunteering for the week required) or would fossils be left out no matter what?

[indigo_league]

Sorry this took a bit to answer-- there was some debate on whether or not fossils should apply! But after discussion, we WILL be including fossils from Ruin Valley in the pool of available Pokemon! That said, ICly the character won't know that the fossil is shiny unless they take it to get revived.

[maybeitsmabelline]

No problem at all! BD BD I can't wait until Cissnei's next tour through the islands~ Thanks, guys!

[rambling_runner]

Bit late on this but the Trainer changes look very nice overall and wild shiny Pokemon will be interesting to see! But I've just gone over the TM availability since my lads have been travelling and there's a couple of things that stick out to me;

Some of the TMs listed (i.e. Drain Punch) are available as Move Tutor abilities in later gens. It seems really weird to have them sold in the shops when they can be taught for free. I noticed this sort of thing with Water Pulse too, which is also given as a Gym Prize but can be learned for free as a Move Tutor attack now, which lessens the idea of it being special as a prize.

Also having TMs restricted by location seems a little bit daft, or just a lot of hassle on the part of characters to obtain certain TMs since it'll require heading to specific towns or locations to buy them. I understand they won't have the same facilities for next day delivery as the department stores, but it seems a bit remiss that the other stores wouldn't be able to deliver them in say, a week, or have them available to be picked up at a local Mart after a delivery time delay.