"Strong Pokemon. Weak Pokemon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled trainers should try to win with their favorites."
-Karen of the Indigo Elite Four.
"It's one thing to enjoy leisurely battles, but real battles can be a severe trial. Truly strong trainers sometimes must be prepared to choose Pokemon that can win rather than their favorite Pokemon."
-Gentleman of the Hoenn Battle Resort.
Truly skilled. Truly strong. Pokemon that can win. Pokemon that are your favorite. It's the frustration brought about by the lack of overlap that led to gene splicing technology. With it, if a Pokemon was incapable of wielding the power necessary to succeed, it could simply be given that power. By combining traits of other Pokemon, it was possible to take the best traits of both. Alternate abilities. Access to new moves. Sometimes, even bodily modification was possible, resulting in a wide range of new, sometimes outrageously powerful fused Pokemon. The rampant Pokemon modification experimentation even led to the Create-a-Pokemon project, bringing about the creation of entirely new species solely intended to experiment with what it meant to be a "strong" Pokemon.
While many enjoy the benefits offered by Pokemon modification, others see it as a crime against nature. Fusion requires two Pokemon, but the end result is that only one Pokemon remains. Only one consciousness is kept through the fusion process, the other only returning with no memories of the interrim if the fusion is undone. Transferring of traits also involves returning the unwanted traits to the donor, which some view as equivalent to imparting it with a disability. By comparison, the Create-a-Pokemon project is often criticized the least, despite the Pokemon scientists involved playing god. Perhaps the precedent of other manmade pokemon has numbed people to it, though their impact on the local ecosystems isn't without consequence either.
This RP is inspired by both Smogon's Create-a-Pokemon project, which uses a series of lengthy voting processes to create pokemon in attempts to experiment with the OU metagame, and Pokemon Infinite Fusion, a fangame with a long-standing community that continuously produces beautiful spritework for the various fusions. All 31 completed CAPs (plus their 34 pre-evolutions, as well as the 32nd CAP, when it's finished) and any Pokemon fusion that has a custom sprite/artwork (which are miles ahead in quality over the hideous auto-generated ones) would be available, although fused Pokemon will be somewhat harder to obtain. In addition, to help out terrible Pokemon who already struggle to stay relevant and tying in with the plot I had planned, granting Pokemon new abilities and moves will be allowed, within reason. Slapping wonder guard or Huge Power on everything isn't gonna fly, but if you want to give Beautifly Drought because it gets Solarbeam, STAB U-Turn, and no other sun setter has a pivoting move, go for it. Might as well give it Weather Ball while you're at it, lord knows Beautifly would still need the help. (Admittedly thin) Thematic justifications, such as Beautifly learning TM Sunny Day and Morning Sun by level up are necessary, though unless it's downright bizarre it's probably fine.
As for the details of fusions, we'll be copying Infinite Fusion's Head+Body system; you select one Pokemon as the head and another as the body. This means there are two possible results for each combination of pokemon. The result uses the stats of the materials, weighted (1/3 to 2/3) so that the body contributes more towards attack, defense and speed, while the head contributes more towards HP, special attack and special defense. The fusion product will have access to any four moves and any one ability of its materials. The fusions continue to evolve as per the evolution requirements of its materials. A Bulbasaur/Pidgey, for example, would evolve into Ivysaur/Pidgey at level 16, Ivysaur/Pidgeotto at level 18, Venusaur/Pidgeotto at level 32 and Venusaur/Pidgeot at level 36. Some combinations might need a balance adjustment, though barring Shedinja fusions and a few others that are extremely difficult to deal with, I'll probably just let it be. The bigger restriction is probably going to be finding a viable combination with the appropriate custom sprite. It's usually pretty glaring whether a fusion has a custom sprite or not.
The RP takes place in a new region, which welcomes both experienced trainers from other regions as well as new trainers, who will have the unique advantage of being offered one of the 3 starter CAPs:
Fawnifer
Smogecko
Swirlpool
As for the actual forum gameplay, I'm very fond of the gradual build up of progress and I don't really mind keeping track of experience points for everyone, though the aspect of grinding is obviously very bad, so I was thinking of just slapping a huge exp modifier like x5 or x10 on everything and calling it a day. For pvp or important battles, the default is an anime-style battle unless someone specifically prefers a more structured, turn-based format, wherein I can acquiesce using PM inputs (probably through discord for convenience) and a damage calculator, if not simply Pokemon Showdown, depending on the details. For less important battles, players can just control their NPC opponents and handle the battle within the same post, with as little or as many details as they'd like.
Besides balance restrictions, I still haven’t decided on what limitations to put on the acquisition of pokemon modifications or fused pokemon, nor what restrictions to put on the teams of incoming veteran trainers so they don't just sweep the region, so I figured I’d get feedback on that while doing an interest check at the same time.
-Karen of the Indigo Elite Four.
"It's one thing to enjoy leisurely battles, but real battles can be a severe trial. Truly strong trainers sometimes must be prepared to choose Pokemon that can win rather than their favorite Pokemon."
-Gentleman of the Hoenn Battle Resort.
Truly skilled. Truly strong. Pokemon that can win. Pokemon that are your favorite. It's the frustration brought about by the lack of overlap that led to gene splicing technology. With it, if a Pokemon was incapable of wielding the power necessary to succeed, it could simply be given that power. By combining traits of other Pokemon, it was possible to take the best traits of both. Alternate abilities. Access to new moves. Sometimes, even bodily modification was possible, resulting in a wide range of new, sometimes outrageously powerful fused Pokemon. The rampant Pokemon modification experimentation even led to the Create-a-Pokemon project, bringing about the creation of entirely new species solely intended to experiment with what it meant to be a "strong" Pokemon.
While many enjoy the benefits offered by Pokemon modification, others see it as a crime against nature. Fusion requires two Pokemon, but the end result is that only one Pokemon remains. Only one consciousness is kept through the fusion process, the other only returning with no memories of the interrim if the fusion is undone. Transferring of traits also involves returning the unwanted traits to the donor, which some view as equivalent to imparting it with a disability. By comparison, the Create-a-Pokemon project is often criticized the least, despite the Pokemon scientists involved playing god. Perhaps the precedent of other manmade pokemon has numbed people to it, though their impact on the local ecosystems isn't without consequence either.
This RP is inspired by both Smogon's Create-a-Pokemon project, which uses a series of lengthy voting processes to create pokemon in attempts to experiment with the OU metagame, and Pokemon Infinite Fusion, a fangame with a long-standing community that continuously produces beautiful spritework for the various fusions. All 31 completed CAPs (plus their 34 pre-evolutions, as well as the 32nd CAP, when it's finished) and any Pokemon fusion that has a custom sprite/artwork (which are miles ahead in quality over the hideous auto-generated ones) would be available, although fused Pokemon will be somewhat harder to obtain. In addition, to help out terrible Pokemon who already struggle to stay relevant and tying in with the plot I had planned, granting Pokemon new abilities and moves will be allowed, within reason. Slapping wonder guard or Huge Power on everything isn't gonna fly, but if you want to give Beautifly Drought because it gets Solarbeam, STAB U-Turn, and no other sun setter has a pivoting move, go for it. Might as well give it Weather Ball while you're at it, lord knows Beautifly would still need the help. (Admittedly thin) Thematic justifications, such as Beautifly learning TM Sunny Day and Morning Sun by level up are necessary, though unless it's downright bizarre it's probably fine.
As for the details of fusions, we'll be copying Infinite Fusion's Head+Body system; you select one Pokemon as the head and another as the body. This means there are two possible results for each combination of pokemon. The result uses the stats of the materials, weighted (1/3 to 2/3) so that the body contributes more towards attack, defense and speed, while the head contributes more towards HP, special attack and special defense. The fusion product will have access to any four moves and any one ability of its materials. The fusions continue to evolve as per the evolution requirements of its materials. A Bulbasaur/Pidgey, for example, would evolve into Ivysaur/Pidgey at level 16, Ivysaur/Pidgeotto at level 18, Venusaur/Pidgeotto at level 32 and Venusaur/Pidgeot at level 36. Some combinations might need a balance adjustment, though barring Shedinja fusions and a few others that are extremely difficult to deal with, I'll probably just let it be. The bigger restriction is probably going to be finding a viable combination with the appropriate custom sprite. It's usually pretty glaring whether a fusion has a custom sprite or not.
The RP takes place in a new region, which welcomes both experienced trainers from other regions as well as new trainers, who will have the unique advantage of being offered one of the 3 starter CAPs:
Fawnifer
Smogecko
Swirlpool
As for the actual forum gameplay, I'm very fond of the gradual build up of progress and I don't really mind keeping track of experience points for everyone, though the aspect of grinding is obviously very bad, so I was thinking of just slapping a huge exp modifier like x5 or x10 on everything and calling it a day. For pvp or important battles, the default is an anime-style battle unless someone specifically prefers a more structured, turn-based format, wherein I can acquiesce using PM inputs (probably through discord for convenience) and a damage calculator, if not simply Pokemon Showdown, depending on the details. For less important battles, players can just control their NPC opponents and handle the battle within the same post, with as little or as many details as they'd like.
Besides balance restrictions, I still haven’t decided on what limitations to put on the acquisition of pokemon modifications or fused pokemon, nor what restrictions to put on the teams of incoming veteran trainers so they don't just sweep the region, so I figured I’d get feedback on that while doing an interest check at the same time.
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