New Pokémon Presents on 8/3

[Perkilator]

Yay, after months of nothing, we’re finally getting another Pokémon Presents (hopefully more Scarlet / Violet info)

[Lord_Brand]

Well, they mention Scarlet and Violet in the tweet you quoted, so I think it's safe to assume there will be some SV info.

[King Marth 64]

I'm going to predict that they'll might showcase some content for the upcoming Pokémon Scarlet & Violet. I might think we'll might see:

1. Evil Teams Reveal
2. Pokémon Gym Leaders & Exclusive Versions Gym Leaders
3. More new Pokémon 
4. Some more important characters
5. What's exclusive in both Scarlet and Violet (more than just Exclusive Pokémon)
6. Expansion Pass

Edited August 1, 2022 by King Marth 64

[Fabulously Olivier]

Pokemon Warriors, let's freakin go!

[Punished Dayni]

Usually the non-mainline stuff bores me, but I got here pretty early.

Spoiler

We started with tournament news, which I guess fits. It has Unite and Go tournaments, which admittedly the latter surprises me.

Go apparently has a plot. The professor fell in a wormhole. Okay.

More Unite news. Skip.

A bit with a trainer approaching Red, which is confirmed to be Pokemon Mastersex. Skip.

A hungry Mewtwo leads to Cafe Remix rereleases. Huh.

Finally we get to the news we were waiting for for S/V. First a sweeping shot fading from place to place showing different pokemon in the setting and then we see a school where a teacher talks to you before we get to see the regional legend bringing the player place to place alongside more shots of the region. Frame rate's not great, but there's definitely new pokemon alongside a variety of new ones

Also, apparently treasure's a thing the region focuses on. to the point some pokemon have new gem focused forms. Guess we're getting out gimmick after all. And they're really making the legendaries a part of this game.

Paldea's the name, you get a legendary super early as your transport, you're in a school (DAMM YOU 3H!) where you're put on a treasure hunt, which apparently leads to three different stories (The gyms are non linear!), they seems to suggest all three are accessible in the one file.. We also get the name of the teachers, some other rivals and some of the gyms. What was that bus?

There's a Mud Wooper, a doughy dog named Fidough, an Ice type named Cetitan and I don't think we saw others. Then we get the Terastal gimmick (which is the cause of our gemmy mons. It's looks like it's similar to Dynamaxing but more done with the typings, but those can be different across individual pokemon. These are more common in Tera raids, which look like they free up timings for people to make their moves, which is cool I guess.

They also reveal a Pikachu that gets balloons in it's Terastalising and becomes flying.

TL:DR: Probably should have waited for it to finish so I could skip the first half. Not the worst news for S/V, but making a gimmick that feels so close to Dynamaxing is awkward. This could be something, but there's a few more months to see.

[Lord_Brand]

Gen VI: Mega Crystal Transformation
Gen VIII: Kaiju
Gen IX: EFFING MAJESTIC

[henrymidfields]

@Awoken DayniI thought the Terastal was a variation of Megas. Particularly the type change.

[vanguard333]

It almost always comes back to crystals. First, it was mega evolution requiring mega stones, then it was z-crystals, and now it's the Pokémon itself becoming a crystal.

Being able to tackle the gyms in any order sounds cool. I wonder how they'll balance that; will it just be that the levels of the Pokémon increase the later the player tackles a gym, or will the number of Pokémon that the gym leader has also increase?

The mascot legendaries being the main form of transportation is just hilarious. Other regions revere the mascot legendaries and build mythologies around them, while this region uses them as horses and gliders.

[Punished Dayni]

4 hours ago, henrymidfields said:

@Awoken DayniI thought the Terastal was a variation of Megas. Particularly the type change.

I made the comparison on gameplay aspects: that any pokemon can access it, that a subset can gain these type changes (vs. Gigantamax not being available to all wild pokemon).

Admittedly I did think the video suggested turn limits, but it seems that's not the case.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

"Terastallizing" sounds pretty cool. I love the idea of changing a Mon's type temporarily. Although, I'll need to see how it functions mechanically to gauge how balanced it is.

Having an open world is great, but I'm worried we'll be facing "empty open world" syndrome, with a whole lot of areas where nothing's going on. That's kind of how the trailer looked, but I could be wrong.

Making the legendary your "ride Pokemon" is a pretty transparent effort to avoid having to make ride models for each Pokemon in the game. Hard to argue against its convenience, though.

On 8/1/2022 at 1:08 PM, King Marth 64 said:

• Evil Teams Reveal
• Pokémon Gym Leaders & Exclusive Versions Gym Leaders
• More new Pokémon 
• Some more important characters
• What's exclusive in both Scarlet and Violet (more than just Exclusive Pokémon)
• Expansion Pass

Believe you can claim 2, 3, and 4 to your credit. 5, too, if we're counting the "Naranja/Uva" Academies.

[Lord_Brand]

6 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

"Terastallizing" sounds pretty cool. I love the idea of changing a Mon's type temporarily. Although, I'll need to see how it functions mechanically to gauge how balanced it is.

I think it temporarily adds a third type. Which alone gives it some novelty compared to Megas and Dynamaxing. I'm not crazy about the aesthetic, though.

6 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Having an open world is great, but I'm worried we'll be facing "empty open world" syndrome, with a whole lot of areas where nothing's going on. That's kind of how the trailer looked, but I could be wrong.

I recall they mentioned there being two or three story threads you can pursue at your discretion? So basically, the Gym League, the Team Story, and something else I don't recall off hand. That sounds positively brilliant, honestly. I think separation of Gym League and Team Story allows for a great deal of flexibility in how you approach each one. Like, you could meet a Gym Leader through the Team story first, and have them acknowledge your first meeting when you battle them at their Gym, or you can meet them in the Gym first and then they recognize you when they jump into the Team story.

6 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Making the legendary your "ride Pokemon" is a pretty transparent effort to avoid having to make ride models for each Pokemon in the game. Hard to argue against its convenience, though.

Not to mention a great way to add significance to the legendaries beyond being powerful endgame mons that you won't be allowed to use in most competitive tiers anyway. I like that the past three generations have all been experimenting with interesting twists on the mascot legends: Cosmog evolving into Solgaleo or Lunala, Zacian and Zamazenta appearing early in the story and helping you fight Eternatus, and now Koraidon and Miraidon serving as rides.

What if a future Pokemon gen has you start with a weaker version of the Legendary who evolves after a major plot point or upon acquiring a key item (perhaps through a sidequest)?

Edited August 6, 2022 by Lord_Brand

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

On 8/5/2022 at 10:42 PM, Lord_Brand said:

I think it temporarily adds a third type. Which alone gives it some novelty compared to Megas and Dynamaxing. I'm not crazy about the aesthetic, though.

Does it add a new type, or overwrite the existing ones? How are pre-existing STABs affected? And how does the Tera boost compare to STAB? Still a lot of questions to be answered.

The fact that there's "one for each type", and any Pokemon can use them, reminds me a lot of the Z-crystals.

On 8/5/2022 at 10:42 PM, Lord_Brand said:

I recall they mentioned there being two or three story threads you can pursue at your discretion? So basically, the Gym League, the Team Story, and something else I don't recall off hand. That sounds positively brilliant, honestly. I think separation of Gym League and Team Story allows for a great deal of flexibility in how you approach each one. Like, you could meet a Gym Leader through the Team story first, and have them acknowledge your first meeting when you battle them at their Gym, or you can meet them in the Gym first and then they recognize you when they jump into the Team story.

Assuming they think to program in those event flags. Anyway, I'm kind of worried that the three stories are gonna be "Gym Challenge, Evil Team, Contests". Like, it's not actually any more content than previous games in the series, they're just spreading it out over three "stories". But in terms of giving the player more freedom in their approach... I like the sound of that.

On 8/5/2022 at 10:42 PM, Lord_Brand said:

Not to mention a great way to add significance to the legendaries beyond being powerful endgame mons that you won't be allowed to use in most competitive tiers anyway. I like that the past three generations have all been experimenting with interesting twists on the mascot legends: Cosmog evolving into Solgaleo or Lunala, Zacian and Zamazenta appearing early in the story and helping you fight Eternatus, and now Koraidon and Miraidon serving as rides.

I'd like to see the story rationale, though. Why is my character, presumably a random kid, gifted with the exclusive ability to ride on a legendary Pokemon? At least with Gen VII's "Call Pokemon", it could be assumed that other Trainers were able to summon those same Mons for aid. Still, it would give them more visual presence, that much is true.

On 8/5/2022 at 10:42 PM, Lord_Brand said:

What if a future Pokemon gen has you start with a weaker version of the Legendary who evolves after a major plot point or upon acquiring a key item (perhaps through a sidequest)?

Truthfully, for a while I've wanted to see a starter that evolves this way. Rather than simply grinding them to whichever level, there's an in-story event that causes their evolution. Kind of like Lords with story promotions. Maybe part of your quest can be figuring out how this new, little-understood Pokemon evolves?

[Lord_Brand]

4 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Truthfully, for a while I've wanted to see a starter that evolves this way. Rather than simply grinding them to whichever level, there's an in-story event that causes their evolution. Kind of like Lords with story promotions. Maybe part of your quest can be figuring out how this new, little-understood Pokemon evolves?

That's an interesting idea. Would be a good way to explain why you generally only find one per game; the Starters are so rare that they're practically legendaries themselves. Would breeding them result in offspring of their mate's species?

Heck, what if a future game had you start out with a Normal-type Pokemon who evolves twice, the first time into a Pokemon with the type of your choosing, and the second time into a dual-type Pokemon with the secondary type of your choosing? For example, Normal > Grass > Grass/Flying, or Normal > Fire > Fire/Fighting. In total, that's 18 different possible Stage 2 evolutions, and with 17 possible different Stage 3 evolutions per Stage 2, that adds up to 306 possible stage 3 evolutions! Unless of course each type pair is a convergent evolution, in which case we cut that number in half to 153 possible end results, which is still enough to fill a Regional Pokedex on its own.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

8 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

That's an interesting idea. Would be a good way to explain why you generally only find one per game; the Starters are so rare that they're practically legendaries themselves. Would breeding them result in offspring of their mate's species?

I would definitely keep it possible to breed the starters. That's basically necessary to fill your Pokedex, and to get ones with competetive IVs, Nature, etc.

8 hours ago, Lord_Brand said:

Heck, what if a future game had you start out with a Normal-type Pokemon who evolves twice, the first time into a Pokemon with the type of your choosing, and the second time into a dual-type Pokemon with the secondary type of your choosing? For example, Normal > Grass > Grass/Flying, or Normal > Fire > Fire/Fighting. In total, that's 18 different possible Stage 2 evolutions, and with 17 possible different Stage 3 evolutions per Stage 2, that adds up to 306 possible stage 3 evolutions! Unless of course each type pair is a convergent evolution, in which case we cut that number in half to 153 possible end results, which is still enough to fill a Regional Pokedex on its own.

Could be a neat way of doing a future starter. That said, instead of making each typing a distinct species, I'd make them all formes of a single species. So you don't need all of them to fill up the Pokedex, unless you're going the extra mile of "register all formes".

[Lord_Brand]

3 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I would definitely keep it possible to breed the starters. That's basically necessary to fill your Pokedex, and to get ones with competetive IVs, Nature, etc.

Could be a neat way of doing a future starter. That said, instead of making each typing a distinct species, I'd make them all formes of a single species. So you don't need all of them to fill up the Pokedex, unless you're going the extra mile of "register all formes".

That's the general idea. I was thinking of that "class change" Pokemon I've pitched before. Each type is tied to a particular class, thus the stage 3 evolutions are essentially multiclasses.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

On 8/10/2022 at 6:42 PM, Lord_Brand said:

That's the general idea. I was thinking of that "class change" Pokemon I've pitched before. Each type is tied to a particular class, thus the stage 3 evolutions are essentially multiclasses.

I was thinking more about this: perhaps the stats could be "additive", so to speak? Like, the first stage has a round 50/50/50/50/50/50 spread (300 BST). But for the first evolution, it's variable: the Psychic-type could be 70/50/70/90/70/70 (420 BST), while the Electric-type is 50/70/70/70/70/90 (420 BST). Then, the Psychic/Electric final stage would be 70/70/90/110/90/110 (540 BST), regardless of the route it took to get there. Certain final-stage formes would have 130 in "mutual buff" stats, and/or 50 in "mutual nerf" stats. That way, there's additional variation to consider, beyond just the typing.

[Lord_Brand]

On 8/15/2022 at 8:27 AM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I was thinking more about this: perhaps the stats could be "additive", so to speak? Like, the first stage has a round 50/50/50/50/50/50 spread (300 BST). But for the first evolution, it's variable: the Psychic-type could be 70/50/70/90/70/70 (420 BST), while the Electric-type is 50/70/70/70/70/90 (420 BST). Then, the Psychic/Electric final stage would be 70/70/90/110/90/110 (540 BST), regardless of the route it took to get there. Certain final-stage formes would have 130 in "mutual buff" stats, and/or 50 in "mutual nerf" stats. That way, there's additional variation to consider, beyond just the typing.

That sounds sensible. I'd be intrigued to see what stat spreads you'd give to each Stage 2, which in turn would make figuring out the stage 3 spreads trivial since you combine the modifiers from the constituent Stage 2s. The basic template is +20 for four stats and +40 for one stat, right? With six stats and eighteen types, that means each stat could have three types that give it +40 and three that don't boost it at all, leaving twelve that provide a +20 modifier.

My bro and I have been working on a list of modifiers ourselves. My bro suggested shifting the spread so two stats get +40, two get +20, and two get zilch. I in turn suggested making the "nerf" stats gain +10 each, so there's always a gain in each stat, it's just smaller for some stats than others (which would mean the BST goes from 300 to 440 to 560). Below is a link to the spreadsheet we made for better legibility.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12EJkOHZvuD99W5fWmnxldI5Jt9r4Vd2NcW2R2UgR4gQ

Ultimately though, a simpler tree would probably be a better step into starters with branching evolutions. We're working on a set of starters that each have two possible first evolutions and three possible final evolutions.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iF_UKiEoSW6BQwz16XFWn0C00zftEep-OWAaFvjgNg8

We should probably shift the discussion back to Scarlet and Violet, though. ^_^;

Edited August 17, 2022 by Lord_Brand