The World of Pokémon

[Badhaas]

[DISCLAIMER: This first post is currently under reconstruction as it doesn't accurately depict where this game is going. Please come back in a few days to view the updated post. What you can read below is where I started off.]

Introduction
I have had this idea about a Pokémon game for a while. I've looked around everywhere yet to my knowledge it doesn't exist. A Pokémon game which includes all regions introduced thus far in the original Pokémon games (Gen I - V). The idea is that players choose their starting region and set of on their quest to become a Pokémon Master. From there they work their way through all gyms, regions, and Pokémon Leagues. During their adventure they can explore all regions, catch Pokémon, complete '(side) quests', and obviously build their ultimate Pokémon team.

The game will be build on Pokémon Essentials. From there the original regions will be added with all wild encounters, items, trainers, gyms, and league. Each region will also have the bad guy team from that region. All legendaries will also be obtainable, yet will require more elaborate side quests to encounter. The maps will be close to the originals, with small adaptations where needed. New areas will be added for players to explore. Over time the world will slowly change as result of specific events; for example the eruption on Cinnebar island.

Players will start the game in one of the regions as a regular trainer. From there they get access to different Player Classes. Just like other trainers the player will also have a variety classes; for example a Pokémon Trainer, a Pokémon Breeder, or a Swimmer. Each Class will vary slightly from the other classes, with each having a few unique features and different costumes. Some areas and Pokémon will be exclusive to a specific class.


Planned Feature List
- All 649 Pokémon (incl. attacks and abilities).
- All original regions (gen I - V).
- All gyms, Pokémon Leagues, and regional dexes.
- Different Player Classes (incl. different costumes).
- New Quests and challenges.
- More challenging opponents.


What Now
- Share your opinions, ask your questions, and any feedback (constructive criticism) is welcome.
- I am also looking for people who are willing to join me on this project.


Disclaimer: I did not create Pokémon Essentials, or anything in it. Copyright of that work will remain to the rightful owners.

 

[joeyhugg]

how wold this be possible? your pokemon would be level 100 by hoenn.

 

[XmarkXalanX]

Honestly, while this is entirely plausible, it would take many Gigabytes of storage to create a game such as this. And as joeyhugg previously stated, unless you were to plan on raising the level cap to, I dunno, 500 or so, your team would be so incredibly overpowered by the third region, that the game would lose its fun. And if you did raise the level cap, you would have to readjust the learnsets of every Pokémon so that they don't stop learning moves by around 50 for most. Realistically, this game ain't happening.

 

[Badhaas]

I am fully aware of the large scope of the project, I often tend to be quite ambitious though it's still something I want to try and love to do.

The game wouldn't necessarily become even larger than one gigabyte, map sizes of large maps in other projects of mine went up to 170kb. This would suggest, assuming all maps will be this large and taking the map limit of rpg maker of 999 in account, the size of the game would be less than 200mb. Though I could be wrong with this prediction. Thanks for pointing it out, I'll make a test project to make a more accurate prediction.

The increase in levels is indeed a more obvious issue. However there are solutions, besides changing the level cap. First of all, the xp gaining system of black and white causes Pokémon to gain less xp from lower level opponents, which discourages getting over-leveled. The level curve in for example hg/ss shows that the first elite four is up to lv 50, the second elite four being up to lv 75. This curve would suggest the third elite four about lv 90, and the fourth about lv 100. This would also suggest that the game gets more difficult the more Pokémon leagues they defeat. The idea is also that players will be challenged more on their team building skills later in the game, instead of just sweeping through the elite four.
In case players progress through the regions in a predefined order all trainer will be adjusted to the right level. In case players have any influence on this order, trainers will need different versions for when they can be encountered.
This prevents the player from getting overpowered, and makes leveling Pokémon less interesting near the end. Though it could be that the remaining gameplay isn't interesting enough to keep playing. That's one of the risks of the project.

 

[Radical Raptr]

I am fully aware of the large scope of the project, I often tend to be quite ambitious though it's still something I want to try and love to do.

The game wouldn't necessarily become even larger than one gigabyte, map sizes of large maps in other projects of mine went up to 170kb. This would suggest, assuming all maps will be this large and taking the map limit of rpg maker of 999 in account, the size of the game would be less than 200mb. Though I could be wrong with this prediction. Thanks for pointing it out, I'll make a test project to make a more accurate prediction.

The increase in levels is indeed a more obvious issue. However there are solutions, besides changing the level cap. First of all, the xp gaining system of black and white causes Pokémon to gain less xp from lower level opponents, which discourages getting over-leveled. The level curve in for example hg/ss shows that the first elite four is up to lv 50, the second elite four being up to lv 75. This curve would suggest the third elite four about lv 90, and the fourth about lv 100. This would also suggest that the game gets more difficult the more Pokémon leagues they defeat. The idea is also that players will be challenged more on their team building skills later in the game, instead of just sweeping through the elite four.
In case players progress through the regions in a predefined order all trainer will be adjusted to the right level. In case players have any influence on this order, trainers will need different versions for when they can be encountered.
This prevents the player from getting overpowered, and makes leveling Pokémon less interesting near the end. Though it could be that the remaining gameplay isn't interesting enough to keep playing. That's one of the risks of the project.

it very well could become way too large; you have to take into account everything you use, such as all the characters, all of the pokemon, all of the tilesets, and dont even get me started on the music....oh my god the music....

However, it is entirely possible to do. good luck, you're gunna need it
also, to deal with the level thing, a possilbe option would be making the opponents or even wild pokemon as strong as your strongest pokemon

to add to your ideas, since it sounds like you're looking for some suggestions, I think it would be cool if you were a standard character; however depending on where you started you get a different outfit (the outfit the main character typically wears in-game) however, depending on where you chose to start, you get a house there (nothing fancy, just a small typical NPC house. Inside you can change your clothes in a closet, watch TV (not like you would see anything lol) and heal your pokemon
when you travel to the new region, you should leave your pokemon behind and receive a new starter and outfit (sort of like ash, except you get a whole new outfit and start over completely and could wear any previous outfit you own already) and inside your new house you can travel to any other house you own (its magic)

 

[Badhaas]

yeah, I forgot about the music. The size thing is something I'm going to keep an eye on as the project progresses.

I like your idea about being a standard character and having different outfits, it sounds interesting. There are a lot of possibilities with that.
I'm not entirely sure about leaving your Pokémon behind when going to a new region. I'm not sure how players would react to that. I'd expect them to want to take their Pokémon with them. Another question is, how will this be implemented; will there be two separate storage systems, one you have access to during a region, and one which can be accessed, and where all Pokémon are send to, after defeating the Pkmn League.
For the traveling to other houses you could say your mother appointed a Mr. Mime for housekeeping, who happens to know teleport XD.

Right now I'm first focusing on building the regions, deciding how I want to make the maps (copies of the original layouts, or adaptions to make it look prettier), and still searching for some tilesets. After that I'll look at possibilities with the multiple outfits.

 

[tImE]

I am all for a game like this, it would be amazing, but it is a HUGE undertaking.

Most people work for years on games that only has 1 region, even if they are remakes.
Doing this project would involve recreating at least 600 maps, 400 tilesets, 800 soundtracks, eventing over 700 events, 400 battles and over 2000 NPCs with generic dialogue. And then we have all the generic graphic such as items, world maps, etc.
This game would take years to do with a talented team working full-time.

I am not trying to shoot you down or anything, but I think you should start on smaller scale for your first project.

I'd love to see a game with all regions but it's on such a massive scale, and has been attempted so many times before, I find it hard to believe it could succeed.

Still, all of my best luck.
You should never stop doing what you love, and as long as you think
it's fun to make this game, go for it! Nobody's stopping you! ;D

 

[Badhaas]

It's indeed a project with a large scope, and I'm definitely going to give it a try. The game will be made region by region (obviously), and beta versions will probably be released before in between such points. I would also like to note that this isn't my first project, nor my first project with RPG Maker.

Right now I'm also planning for another feature, inspired by Saving Raven, which is Player Classes. Just like other trainers the player will also have different classes; for example a Pokémon Trainer, a Pokémon Breeder, or a Swimmer. Each Class will vary slightly from the other classes, with each having a few unique features and different costumes.

A progress update on the project: 20% of the first region has been made.

 

[Sabrewulf238]

I think you should focus on the main regions and maybe the sevii islands. Taking on the anime and spinoff regions too sounds a bit crazy...at least right now.

I also think it might be a good idea to go basic on the graphics. Straight out use default pokemon tiles from the GBA games if you have to. Whatever has to be done to reduce complexity.

In terms of pokemon levels, personally I feel the best tactic would be to do something similar to the anime where you can't bring your current pokemon to the next region until you defeat it's elite four. Perhaps you could add some sort of trainer skill level that doesn't reset between regions...just to have a level that stays consistent.

I fully support a game like this and really if people are so pessimistic about it....then it will never happen. I would think the undertaking should be realistic though (no fluff or major differences from the official games) and you'll need to be eternally committed to doing it.

You'll probably need to have a team of people too.

 

[Badhaas]

A small report on the project;
Yes, I am still working on this. However the focus of the project is slowly changing. Including all regions has lowered somewhat in priority, this will be something which'll come over time. Right now the idea behind the project is to give players the idea that they are actually living in, and are a part of, the world of Pokémon.

Concerning the Pokémon levels; I don't think players are keen on being forced to leave their Pokémon behind until they defeat the next elite four. This practically means that you have two (or more) games in one. Other possibilities include resetting a Pokémon's level to i.e. 5, yet this would mean that all hours spent training where wasted, and thus is a terrible possibility. Increasing the maximum level would cause a whole lot of different problems which are best to be avoided.

A team would be nice, yet this is something I don't expect to happen (any time soon).

 

[FangOfDrknss]

If you want to try and give the game some natural dialogue, i.e. no useless tidbit information where a random npc in the Player's hometown would say something like "Prof.___'s lab is ___" which is something the character should already know, having lived there X years. For this kind of inspiration, you should try and play DarkDoom's Super Eevee Edition, which has the best flowing dialogue I've ever seen imo(Minus the occasional grammar mistakes anyway).

And about balancing Pokemon levels(Something I really fail to understand why it's a problem), you've heard of Pokemon Nuzlockes right? If not, basically, it's a way of making a regular Pokemon game challenging by counting every faint as a death(And either releasing it, or putting it in a PC box labeled dead). From what I've seen on the Pokemon Essentials help forum, it is possible to do the above and lock it to make it unusable.

It's just a suggestion though, and could be done in a better way, like substituting PC transfers & locks with storing the Pokemon into a variable(tombstone event) which you would be able to check its summary(Again, probably sounds simpler than it is). Hope this idea helps.

 

[frankiesay]

This is a very ambitious task!

I was thinking about how you could manage the levels and stuff... I am inclined to agree with the idea of a sort of reset at the end of a region. But! Not every region. If you split the base-regions into equal parts, you get the game split into about a half (Kanto-Johto-Hoenn and Sinnoh-Unova-Anything extra).

Part way through your first half (Kanto-Johto-Hoenn) you have a storyline-enforced reset. To challenge the E4 of Kanto and Johto you have to conquer all the gyms in both regions due to new rules. So by the end you should be at a highish level. Perhaps around 50s to 60s. After beating the E4, the regions are both frozen (by whatever mishap floats your boat... legendary Poke-wrath or possibly a bad case of swine flu) so you involuntarily leave your Pokemon behind and head over the next region (Hoenn?) to warn the E4 of the threat that hit Kanto/Johto. And to see them... you need 8 badges. Then after you reach the 50s-60s again (not sure when that could be!), you are able to regain your old Pokemon from the other region. I think this would take the levels into account. The final boss (E4 or whatever legendary/team leader) should definitely be around level 100.

Of course, the order of the regions can be changed to whatever suits plot etc. But I think to do every region justice the mini-reset needs to happen. As you say the alternative is to make levels harder to achieve as in Black and White, but for taking on this much in one game, you would need to slow it down even more. However I think if you do that too much then it might slow down the pace of the game too much too. You would also need to re-adjust every Pokemon's moveset to compensate for the slow level-gain, as some Pokemon would take a long time to be effective. Also, the climb to every level might make the gameplay drag and make training for levels an unnecessarily tedious grind.

 

[FangOfDrknss]

^What you've just described about the plot seems to be a recreation of BW2, and not to mention reminds me of a Pokemon Parody(No offense). It just seems unfathomable you have to get 8 badges just to warn of the region's doom, seriously, dialogue would probably go something like this.

(Player pants after long run, or calmly walks out of a plane/train before hurriedly panting, shouting out at wherever he was dropped off, "...Kanto...in an iceage...it's coming for you." Townsfolk looks at the stranger mumbling about crazy tourists, before this one believer runs up, and says, "Hey, I believe you, my ____ called me about it. If you want anyone to listen to you though, you're going to have to get our 8 badges, it's a respect kind of thing.")

Not going to troll you with the rest of the dialogue, but you get the idea the game would be one of those "Confident about saving an entire region, Crap I forgot my mons even though we had a very strong bond, Bitter towards these new Pokemon until I get attached, and half of the region is frozen by the time we get to the league, with the survivors all gathered there to come up with a plan." If you're going for a funny game though Badhaas then by all means go for it(Just make sure you have a good mapper though).

 

[Gfx]

What if you did it to where you can choose to keep 3 of your Pokemon from each region. However, they will not obey you at all until you get up to the badge that corresponds with their level. Like normal trades.
I don't see this happening, but if it does, it'd be awesome.

 

[Darkroman]

I remember having this same discussion about this same idea before. Everyone says you'll reach level 100 by the time you get to the 3rd region. I keep asking myself... how? By the time you finish G/S/C or HG/SS up to the point before Red, and before the 2nd E4 battle challenge, your main pokemon party's average level is 58-62 (at least it was for me... I don't spend a whole lot of time grinding). I'd say by the time you reach the very last region, then maybe your pokemon levels will be 100. Of course, it also depends on how many trainers you'll implement in your game, how high the pokemon levels for each trainer will be in each area, gym leader pokemon levels... etc.

EXP needed to go from 99 to 100 for certain Pokemon.
Erratic: 8,118
Fast: 23,761
Medium Fast: 29,701
Medium Slow: 32,757
Slow: 37,127
Fluctuating: 68,116

That's just one level, plus leveling erratic Pokemon, or fluctuating Pokemon don't level in an ever increasing EXP needed fashion, for instance, erratic Pokemon from 97-98 need 12,206 EXP to level (compared to 8,118 EXP from 99-100).
https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Experience

EXP, if a problem, won't be the only one for making a Pokemon game with all regions. Besides the sheer size, a decent storyline is needed. What motivates the player, and your protagonist to even travel every region? If people wanted to just play in a certain region, they'd boot up the official game and play there. Think about that. Don't make a lazy storyline like you just go to each region to stop their respective villain organizations... that's just... dumb. If I wanted to stop Team Rocket in Kanto, I'd fire up FR/LG, if I wanted to stop Team Aqua or Magma.. I'd fire up Ruby/Sapphire.

If I wanted to battle every gym leader and champion, I'd go play Black/White 2 and play through the Pokemon World Tournament.

Seriously, I don't think the hardest part would be to get all the sprites, music, sounds, maps, bitmaps... whatever... that's cake, but an original, and decent storyline? Good luck with that one, bub!

That's my take on it anyhow.

 

[frankiesay]

^What you've just described about the plot seems to be a recreation of BW2, and not to mention reminds me of a Pokemon Parody(No offense). It just seems unfathomable you have to get 8 badges just to warn of the region's doom, seriously, dialogue would probably go something like this.

(Player pants after long run, or calmly walks out of a plane/train before hurriedly panting, shouting out at wherever he was dropped off, "...Kanto...in an iceage...it's coming for you." Townsfolk looks at the stranger mumbling about crazy tourists, before this one believer runs up, and says, "Hey, I believe you, my ____ called me about it. If you want anyone to listen to you though, you're going to have to get our 8 badges, it's a respect kind of thing.")

Not going to troll you with the rest of the dialogue, but you get the idea the game would be one of those "Confident about saving an entire region, Crap I forgot my mons even though we had a very strong bond, Bitter towards these new Pokemon until I get attached, and half of the region is frozen by the time we get to the league, with the survivors all gathered there to come up with a plan." If you're going for a funny game though Badhaas then by all means go for it(Just make sure you have a good mapper though).

Haha! I haven't played BW2 just yet, so it was purely a coincidence! Yeah it's a bit crap, but trying to fit in every region without an over-arching storyline is/would be tough. I mean, wanting to be "the very best" is all well and good, but the game might feel super-stale without something to drive you through. But in defence of leaving the Pokes behind, it's not that they are forgotten. More like, whatever the problem is leaves your Pokeballs busted and unable to function (kinda like what has happened on occasion in the Adventures manga). Bear in mind though that despite it sounding awful (as it does in hindsight), it's not as if it needs to be like high art or something. It's Pokemon. Campy "teams" and cute baby monsters shaped like adorbs animals. Depending on the choices made regarding levels and stuff, you just need a believable excuse to justify your choices that fit within the constructed universe.

Darkroman you make a very good point in your post, and I doubt I could put it any better. In fact when I read that I completely veto the idea of the team reset part-way through. After all if you can't fight against Roxanne with a (Mega!) Blastoise, then there really isn't much of a point.

 

[FangOfDrknss]

Nah, the idea wasn't that bad. After I started writing that dialogue, the plot actually sounded pretty decent, just needs some tweaking on prolonging the game after a logical warn. And yeah, I know, your wording just kinda made it seem like the character went noob. Not a good thing if the character's suppose to feel alive.

Badhaas, if you do get a chance to read this, you should probably get some help either in the Scripts & Tutorial section if you do decide to go with the whole faint=death thing. A user brought up the Nuzlocke mode I mentioned, and Nickaloose(If he/she is willing), or perhaps Rayd12smitty could help you out. If not, I'll try and find that PC lock method.

 

[Sabrewulf238]

What motivates the player, and your protagonist to even travel every region?

A desire to travel the world, have new experiences? If you have the means to do so you don't really need a reason to travel beyond just wanting to. I'd imagine the champion of a region would have the money to travel wherever they wanted.

Why did Ash Ketchum ever leave the Kanto region?

 

[Darkroman]

A desire to travel the world, have new experiences? If you have the means to do so you don't really need a reason to travel beyond just wanting to. I'd imagine the champion of a region would have the money to travel wherever they wanted.

Why did Ash Ketchum ever leave the Kanto region?

What a way to nitpick a single sentence out of my post where my next sentence starts the explanation.

If people wanted to just play in a certain region, they'd boot up the official game and play there.

Now read on from there.

As far as Ash Ketchum leaving to other regions, it's only to continue the Pokemon anime storyline with the same character. He wanted to travel the world, and there were some storylines to the new region (weak, maybe, but that's not the point). For the Pokemon games, to have all regions, travelling it with one single character just for the sake of travelling might not be enough. It might be a little more logical in an official Pokemon release to have all regions, where catching Pokemon actually matters. That way you can catch every single Pokemon (barring certain legendaries) with one single game.

 

[MegamanDX]

Im going to give you some of my insight on this.

So basically,your trying to make a all-regions version game. Thats whats im seeing from a simple glance at your paragraph with your OP.


Its a okish idea,but personally because your leaving the mechanics pretty much unchanged from the version games,starting off with Kanto and traveling to all the other regions for example just seems kind of strange and doesn't make much sense.Its feel in the mechanics of your idea just dosn't...*ugh*.

I'm trying to not sound so harsh for ya but I really never liked the idea of a all regions game because in order for it to work right,it probly had to be made into a MMO in order for it to make sinse. and I also hear people saying that a all regions version game would be the perfect Pokemon game....Its not. It just inforces much more how badly the mechanics in the version gamez needs a MAJOR overhaul because its just not what Pokemon is.


Here's something for you to realize:Most ideas really don't make it very far in development,even epic ideas thats better then a franchises version of the game wont do very well at all. I'm that example.

8 years ago,I had a dream that someday I be playing a real Pokemon game,not a game that focuses only on its mechanics or trying to get everything right like a chess game. That idea I had is called this "A Traditional Pokemon RPG with a All-In-One Pokemon experience.",that idea I had is called "Pokemon Battle Network" because one guy from a different company make a profit from that idea and made his own franise called "Megaman Battle Network".

This like your idea has never happened before and it probably wont happen anyways because there's just too many factors that's preventing me from making it. Even if I did acquire the programming skills,it probly be more then 10 years from now before I get a "basic" knowledge of programming. That's right,you need to learn how to program before you can make anything on a computer(its not easy at all).


I really do feel bad for you but again,maybe I dont. There's just no support for ideas that really do have a chance. I'm being really creative with what I need to do so I got nothing.


If you can get this made I personally will be your god. I give you the best of Good Luck!