Set Battle Style - Real Solution to Difficulty?

[Metrolol]

Hey guys, my name is Metro. I run multiple media properties, most applicably a youtube channel where I cover Pokemon games a lot recently.

I got into a discussion with Chappy on the IRC in which I asked if you guys are married to the Set Battle Style in this game or if you were considering other options. I asked because I wasn't sure if it HAD to be this way because there was technical limitations to separating PVP as set and pve as shift. If this is the case, I totally understand that and respect it.

 

But instead, I was met with a response along the lines of

"This is an mmo, you can't just make everything easy by switching out."

 

That would be my first question then: Do you guys actually believe the set battle style makes this game / server any more difficult?

If so, I am here to suggest why that is very short sighted and some solutions to the problem of difficulty in general.

 

First things first, the set battle style does not actually make this server difficult at all. Pretty much everyone is a member at this point, and all this does is greatly inflates a single pokemon in levels. Essentially every gym or lengthy trainer battle I come to, I just use one pokemon because making a switch for a super effective typing means I lose a turn and likely a pokemon. Instead, I simply keep the one in I have and just hit two times for a kill. I haven't done ANY training outside of mandatory battles and have yet to wipe to a single gym leader. I just beat the grass gym, and my flying type is now 41 when then rest of my pokemon are low-mid 30s, all because I couldn't justify switching them in.

So in my opinion, this is not working to your design.

 

Second major point would be that the set style hinders a lot of skill and preparation based decisions.

As I said, I cover a lot of games and my favorite part of pokemon pve is that you can set up 100 percent win conditions with preparation. Because its a set style, instead of preparing, I would be much more inclined to just keep one pokemon in who has a chance to kill them all. This greatly hinders my intellectual process and makes the game very spammy - just pressing my best ability on my best pokemon and kill everything, even if its not very effective.

 

Third major point is how to solve the difficulty concern. It seemed to me that Chappy (the one who replied to my concern initially) has not played many fan games, as he was surprised to hear me list these ideas. I apologize if they are something you are well aware of, but regardless, I'll explain their worth in making pve a much more balanced and fun challenge.

 

1. Level Cap / Increased Levels.

This has become a very popular thing to do in many fan games and is really step one in creating a balanced challenge. If you can simply out level a challenge, then it is not a challenge at all.

The best iterations I've seen of this are where it is actually impossible to gain experience past a certain level without a badge.

I do not recommend this for this server though, but there is a variance that you can employ.

Since the levels are already hidden, you can make them even higher - or better yet make them scale. The average of the team that battles them +5. This way, even if you try to overlevel, you are still faced with an adequate challenge.

 

2. Field Effects.

This has also become extremely popular in the fan scene, and rightfully so. It makes the game MUCH more tactical. For example, the Volcano Top effect used in the last two battles of Rejuvenation allows for some crazy preparation and manipulation. It really is a HUGE part of why I love these games and find them to be a very well balanced challenge despite made by a very small group.

Once again, I don't know if this is something you can implement, but I would encourage it to be done if you can. It creates a REALLY customizable challenge that you can tune as the months go. You can make the gym leaders harder or easier just by what type of field you battle them on, and its a very anime-cannon idea.

 

3. Counter-counters.

Third this is the real big fish in the sea in terms of making a difficult pve experience.

For example, the Pikachu you face after coming out of the Celadon Gym. It has surf! That's thinking along the right lines. I think that's the first battle I simply was not prepared for and lost outright.

More ideas like this make the game MUCH more satisfying in terms of its challenge.

 

Without some innovation, it just feels like a boring vanilla experience.

I agree, the Set style can make the game INSANELY difficult if its already got all three of these enhanced difficulties in, but as of right now its just a bother and making things very forced and repetitive.

 

TLDR:

The Set style does not effectively make this video game more difficult in pve. It propagates massive level inflation and makes training against actual trainers quite a bother.

It limits the amount of preparation based decisions that can be made, and is not followed up by any other difficulty mechanic to equate to anything past an annoyance.

 

As an aside, I am a HUGE fan of this server, so don't get me wrong. This isn't a rant or an "im quitting if I don't get my way." I just want to see the game succeed the best it can, and feel this level of work can REALLY set it apart from the competitors. It is already so amazing!

I am more than happy to offer free consulting on these ideas if you'd like to discuss them more, but hope you have taken the time to read them and will at least consider them provided this is an intentional decision you have made.