Other [Legacy] Project Sandbox

[Deo]

Welcome to the Project Sandbox!

The concept of this thread is simple: post something for feedback, and or give feedback to others. If you want to get some quick feedback on plot ideas or game design elements before you even start your game or if you have a thread, this is the place to do so. If you're thinking about starting your own thread for your project but need some help determining if your first post is up snuff, this is also an ideal place for you to do that too.

Please keep the following in mind while using this thread:

• If you notice something that has been posted but hasn't received any feedback, please consider providing the poster with some form of feedback before you move onto later posts.
• Put some thought and effort into your feedback. While not all short feedback is bad, generally you want to make sure you're offering something worthwhile to the person requesting feedback.
• On a similar note, make sure what you're requesting feedback on has some substance to it. You don't have to provide multiple paragraphs explaining your idea, but don't be vague and leave nothing for anyone to comment on!
• Be respectful and civil. This thread isn't an excuse to be rude to another person or to tell them their idea is bad, be helpful instead.

While this thread is meant for general feedback, Relic Castle also has other threads for feedback on screenshots, maps, and such. If what you're seeking feedback on is more suited there, please post it in the appropriate thread:

• Screenshot Showcase
• Map Showcase
• Fakemon Feedback
• Pixel Art Lounge

 

[Hematite]

@West, I think you might get more of a response if you post that in the Fan Game Discussion forum. This thread is mainly for feedback and criticisms about your own project - if you want input about how everyone is handling that in different ways, that's more of its own topic!

-----

I also have a thing to share!

Basically, I've updated the base stats of all of the canon Pokémon to be slightly more balanced; it was also of use with keeping my Fakemon's stats reasonable, because it's easier to fit with the standards of the existing Pokémon if I was also in charge of balancing those, haha.

(The first tab shows the old and new stats side by side; the second tab shows the positive and negative changes. I would have had them all together, but it was really cluttered that way.)

Mostly, there are some straight-up buffs of varying intensity to Pokémon that didn't manage to have decent stats in any area, especially focused on making the Pokémon's highest three stats decently workable. This was intended to make every Pokémon best at the role it's already designed to fit - for instance, Furret has high Attack and Speed, making it fit to be a sweeper, but also high HP, making it slightly more capable of taking a hit, while Butterfree has high Special Attack, Special Defense and Speed, making it perfect to use Quiver Dance, which boosts all of those stats. Despite this, neither one is actually good with any of those stats, so those are the stats that I chose to improve - it's my hope that every Pokémon will still be used in the same spirit that it's usually used, just better - so you can feasibly keep any Pokémon you catch with you the entire game and so they would (in theory) feasibly be competitively viable.

I didn't want to flat-out normalize the BSTs or perfectly scale stats or anything, because that just leads to minmaxing, nor did I want to completely redetermine every stat, because (although I dabbled with that a little) it ended up just making every Pokémon too unfamiliar so players wouldn't even know what enemies were threats (and honestly I would have a harder time figuring out what Pokémon are threats, and I have to make the enemies!); instead, for the most part, I only affected a few stats per Pokémon, mostly just adding points to reach a particular, healthier threshold, and left the rest the same. I also generally didn't change the strongest Pokémon at all. (I would have a much harder time balancing stats if I completely improvised both ends of the scale...)

I also cut down the Attack and Special Attack of almost every Pokémon that managed to exceed 130 in either, with some exceptions, like Legendaries, Mythicals and pseudo-Legendaries that were supposed to have high stats, as well as Pokémon that had some crippling weakness to counteract it, like Archeops with Defeatist, Slaking with Truant and Rampardos with its lack of speed or bulk, keeping them from making especially good use of those high stats (I think they were the only three).

That said, it's massive and I don't really expect an in-depth response - there's obviously no need to respond about every Pokémon, haha. But if anyone is willing to take the time to look through part of the list, would you point out anything that stands out or needs to be fixed?

-----

Minor note: I do have the base stats for all of my Fakemon determined; I'm just not posting them yet because nobody knows anything about most of them anyway. XP And I wouldn't want to reveal my whole Fakedex like that anyway! Major spoilers, jeez.

Other minor note: this doesn't account for new moves and Abilities, which should in themselves shake things up quite a lot further. I haven't finished distributing all of those, so I guess I'll be back here with my updated learnset list when I finish that? That's not any time soon, though. XP

Third and final minor note: there are Mega Evolutions in my game, but none of the official Megas are included, so those aren't reflected on this sheet (and you don't have to worry about, say, Mega Mawile being overpowered since Mawile's Attack has been buffed, because there is no Mega Mawile, only the buffed normal Mawile).

Edit: Horizontal rules break things now, so I just caught that part of this was invisible and replaced it with a few hyphens!

 

[TechSkylander1518]

I'm not sure how qualified I am to assess this-I tend to have a hard time understanding just how far base stats can go-but I think it looks very balanced! The changes tend to be very moderate save for single-stages like Quilfish and Dunsparce, so I think you're doing a great job of keeping Pokemon at the power level they're intended to be while still making them more viable!

 

[zarexraze]

@West, I think you might get more of a response if you post that in the Fan Game Discussion forum. This thread is mainly for feedback and criticisms about your own project - if you want input about how everyone is handling that in different ways, that's more of its own topic!

---

I'll be honest, your work here is absolutely phenomenal. I was actually planning to do all of this sort of stuff myself, and your work is actually a good backbone to what I plan to do.
I hope you don't mind if I use your stat changes as a base to work with? I mean, my final cut would almost definitely be different to what your list has, as mine does take into account what I'm doing with Mega Evolutions, plus a whole bunch of other changes I'll post about later, but your stuff is seriously a god-send for me. Thank you so much.
While I've only skimmed it right now, there are a few things that jump out at me, though bear in mind this is assuming that other people might use this for other purposes and not just for a simple, non-competitve game like I assume your game is going to be:

--- Dugtrio's highest stat is now Sp.Def, as a whopping 121. That's surprising, but hilariously good.
--- Still just skimming through them, but I keep seeing a new 100 Speed for a lot of Pokemon. I can understand if it slightly varied like from 95-103 or something, but when a whole bunch of Pokemon have the exact same Speed, that leads to Speed ties, which leads to RNG-stuff, and for competitive sakes that's not good. My suggestion would be to look at all the new 100 Speed Pokemon and basically say that this 100 Speed guy should be slightly faster than these guys, this 100 Speed should be slightly slower than these bunch, etc.

----- Most times when people do this, they generally do it in simple regard to the individual Pokemon itself, and as a result, what happens when one does this is two things: ruins the RPG elements, and creates a power creep, in addition to complicating the game as a whole.
1. When I mean the RPG elements, I mean for example, say you got an average, basic mage near the beginning. But as you progress through the game, you find better and better mages for your team. This is considered a staple element in every RPG game ever, and Pokemon is no exception. You pick up a Pidgey in the beginning, then later you find Spearow, who is better than Pidgey, then later on you find Doduo, who is better than Spearow. This encourages players to constantly pick out the best team members over time, instead of just picking a few Pokemon in the early routes and be done with it. If one did that for every Pokemon game, they'd get bored real quick. This is why all Pokemon could never be equal. It's why Legendary Pokemon statistically have higher stats than average. It's not just because for their status as Legendaries, it's how hard it was to catch them and find them. It's why on average pseudo-legendaries evolve late or are hard to train.
TL;DR version: I don't think that just buffing all the Pokemon's stats are inherently good, as it ruins the RPG elements that are present.
2. This is both the solution and what leads to power creep. To be more technical, this makes all Pokemon under a common power level, one that has all been established by those who extended that power level from what it was in Gen 2. The idea that this only chugs the whole system into accepting the problem bluntly is a little distasteful for me, but I'm probably just nitpicking about this one. You've already established that Fakemon of your design do fit into this model of yours, so it's not a big issue, more if other people start blindly using this method.
3. I feel that the game as a whole really do need to have some Pokemon that are better than others (not including the obvious stuff like Legends, pseudo-legends, and mythicals), but not things that are broken, but they're just slightly overpowered, so that players will use that commonly, then people start running the thing to counter it, then people start running the thing to counter that, etc, etc. There's actually a video by Extra Credits that goes a bit more into detail about this system, commonly termed "Perfect Imbalance": link.



So uh, sorry for the text wall, it's why I often times don't post much on here, but again, your work is just phenomenal and from my perspective, you have absolutely achieved what you were going for with this. My applause to you, @Hematite, this tool is awesome.

 

[Hematite]

Thank you both so much!!

@zarexraze, I'd be totally happy if you were to use this as a starting point for your stats!! And you've definitely raised some really good points, so here's my perspective on those:

"Dugtrio's highest stat is now Sp.Def, as a whopping 121. That's surprising, but hilariously good."

Haha, whoops. :'D I did pay attention to make sure that only the top three were affected if anything got buffed, but I didn't think about which Pokémon got different single highest stats - that's a consequence I hadn't even considered! I don't think Dugtrio will be any sort of a special wall even with with 121 Special Defense with only 35 HP - usually, the Pokémon with low HP have really high defenses to compensate (like Shuckle's 30 HP but 230 in each Defense, or Carbink having 15 more HP than Dugtrio and still 29 more Special Defense, being better on both fronts), but that's actually kinda funny, haha.

"Still just skimming through them, but I keep seeing a new 100 Speed for a lot of Pokemon. I can understand if it slightly varied like from 95-103 or something, but when a whole bunch of Pokemon have the exact same Speed, that leads to Speed ties, which leads to RNG-stuff, and for competitive sakes that's not good. My suggestion would be to look at all the new 100 Speed Pokemon and basically say that this 100 Speed guy should be slightly faster than these guys, this 100 Speed should be slightly slower than these bunch, etc."

OH, SHOOT!! I thought I accounted for that, but being the genius I am, I... think I may have gone through the unmodified stats to make sure there weren't too many base 100s there... I'm such a ditz sometimes, haha. w ELP ANYWAY, I will definitely take your advice and fix that!! Thanks for pointing that out!

Your point 1: This is actually the only thing you've said that I don't agree with, I'm afraid - while most RPGs do play that way, it has never been the ideal way to play a Pokémon game; the story focuses on bonds with Pokémon and sticking with weaker Pokémon, and just about every Pokémon is and always has been a viable option for the main campaign at least until you get to competitive stuff and battle facilities, so I'd rather encourage people to stick with their team by making Pokémon that they get early on feasible to stick with rather than favor the traditional RPG's system of replacement. While from a gameplay and balance perspective, it's more important to get players to use stronger Pokémon later, from a player's perspective, I've never actually enjoyed having to cut a team member and raise a different one for the same role just because the first one was lagging behind! It's a lot more enjoyable to me when my earlier team members pleasantly surprise me by holding their own than when they have to be replaced outright (or, as is usually the case when I play, when they stay on the team but become harder to maintain and I have to fight the urge to replace them, haha - I don't think I've actually cut a team member in years). Especially since the first Pokémon you catch are usually the ones to which you're most attached, it's more frustrating as a player to have to give it up just because it's outclassed. In a way, I'm kind of glad you feel this eliminates that! XP But don't worry - there ARE plenty of neat options for players who hold off on filling their team early and wait to see the later options. People will probably end up with significant team diversity anyway - there are 340 species to find in my region, plenty of them Fakemon but plenty of them not, so I sure hope people aren't only using the first ones they see or the strongest ones in the game!

Your point 2: That is definitely true - I hope I avoided doing that too much, but I do think it's worth noting that a fair number of Pokémon from every Generation got buffed this way! It's nothing like "Generations I and II were boosted to catch up with VI" or "canon games were boosted to catch up with Fakemon" or anything - more just that I wanted every Pokémon, original or new or old, to be worth something. For instance, Shiinotic got as big a boost as Parasect, and Slurpuff, Furfrou and Vivillon were buffed quite a lot! While there are a few new Pokémon like Talonflame/Mega Kangaskhan in Gen VI and the UBs/Guardians in Gen VII that got ridiculous, the majority of the new Pokémon lagged behind just as much as quite a lot of the old Pokémon - there have always been standout Pokémon in a Generation, so I don't see this as embracing power creep so much as (trying to) circumvent it! and hey, unlike Game Freak, I don't have to somehow top this next Gen because I'm only making one Generation of Fakemon anyway, so the power level everything is at now is probably how it will stay! :D

Your point 3: I actually love that series! And no need to worry - there's definitely plenty of fair imbalance from things like moves! For instance, a bunch of Pokémon got buffed to 110 Special Attack/100 Speed, but Butterfree has the powerful combination of Sleep Powder and Quiver Dance, and the physical Mimikyu with the same stats for Attack and Speed has the incredible Disguise and Swords Dance to a similar end - meanwhile, others like Bruxish have nothing of the sort, making Bruxish inherently inferior to Butterfree or Mimikyu despite their identical stats in those areas. In addition, while I carried some lower Pokémon up to those levels, things that already hit harder or were faster, like Weavile, Mienshao, Salazzle and Delphox, still do; I didn't give every Pokémon the same stats, just made sure that those that didn't have any to be proud of could achieve something! There's a lot of buffing going around, in both stats and other areas, but none of it is going to make everything perfectly equal - there will definitely be some variance like you recommend, don't worry! C:

(I should clarify, since I mentioned that moves and Abilities are getting updated: that actually isn't meant in the same way to make things equal! It's mainly to catch Pokémon up with the new moves and Abilities in my game and make it feel like there's more to discover rather than making people only want to use the Fakemon - like when old Pokémon get new moves in the canon games every Generation, a lot of it will end up being basically flavor anyway and won't make a huge difference, but should give them something new with which for players to have fun!)

Overall, I'm really glad you think I did well overall and really flattered that you want to use this!! Thanks so much for your detailed post!! C:

 

[Taq]

@West, I think you might get more of a response if you post that in the Fan Game Discussion forum. This thread is mainly for feedback and criticisms about your own project - if you want input about how everyone is handling that in different ways, that's more of its own topic!

---

I can't believe this...
This is the nicest thing you did.
I find this very good to exist that proves balance can exist and heavily appreciate you making this. Thank you!
I hope your okay if I can use this? (With credit of course).

 

[Hematite]

Oh, man, I'm really glad so many people are happy about this! Yeah, you can definitely go ahead and use it!! Minor note, but I just corrected the Speed stats (and made a minor fix to Miltank's stats so it and Tauros would be equal - most counterparts match in totals but I missed them because I wasn't paying close enough attention!), so the link is the same, but if you had already copied it, you should make sure to update that, haha.

The following species were affected since my last post:

Spoiler

Butterfree
Beedrill
Fearow
Ninetales
Venomoth
Golduck
Tentacruel
Farfetch'd
Kingler
Voltorb
Kangaskhan
Mr. Mime
Jynx
Pinsir
Furret
Girafarig
Qwilfish
Heracross
Delibird
Stantler
Miltank
Linoone
Beautifly
Dustox
Masquerain
Breloom
Delcatty
Medicham
Volbeat
Illumise
Flygon
Altaria
Claydol
Staraptor
Bibarel
Kricketune
Roserade
Cherrim
Skuntank
Chatot
Lucario
Lumineon
Rotom
Watchog
Unfezant
Basculin
Krookodile
Swanna
Klinklang
Diggersby
Vivillon
Oricorio
Comfey
Bruxish

Edit: Also Arceus oops! Sorry, just noticed it had a small stat change that doesn't really make sense outside of the context of my game, whoops.

 

[greatmaccao]

I was thinking about creating a more unusually-structured Pokémon game and had the idea of a 7x7 grid of island maps in the vein of Wind Waker, where you're given free rein (and a Surf item) to explore after a short tutorial on the first island. Any thoughts/suggestions on what I should do with it or whether it's a good idea overall?
More importantly, any suggestions on what I could do with a story? I don't want to force the player to be stuck into a specific route through the islands, so I'm not sure what to do there.

 

[Taq]

I was thinking about creating a more unusually-structured Pokémon game and had the idea of a 7x7 grid of island maps in the vein of Wind Waker, where you're given free rein (and a Surf item) to explore after a short tutorial on the first island. Any thoughts/suggestions on what I should do with it or whether it's a good idea overall?
More importantly, any suggestions on what I could do with a story? I don't want to force the player to be stuck into a specific route through the islands, so I'm not sure what to do there.

This is an interesting idea...
I think it would be fun however you would need to plan a way for you to explore the islands. Maybe you could do something similar to wind waker's story if it's inspired by it. Another is maybe look into various cultures and make your own reincarnation of that.
Just a thought.

 

[leilou]

I was thinking about creating a more unusually-structured Pokémon game and had the idea of a 7x7 grid of island maps in the vein of Wind Waker, where you're given free rein (and a Surf item) to explore after a short tutorial on the first island. Any thoughts/suggestions on what I should do with it or whether it's a good idea overall?
More importantly, any suggestions on what I could do with a story? I don't want to force the player to be stuck into a specific route through the islands, so I'm not sure what to do there.

I like the idea. The world has to be interesting though.
If you're going to have it be open world ... maybe do lots of island stories instead of one overall story so the order doesn't matter. Or maybe every island story giving different hints to solve a certain overall mystery.
I'd also advise you to do level scaling.

 

[CyndaKory3]

I NEED YOUR OPINIONS!

Lately I've been very interested in creating my own fan game unlike any other. This would be a game where you take on the role of GIOVANNI the mastermind behind Team Rocket.

The game would start off 30 years before the events of Pokémon Red and Blue on Giovanni's tenth birthday when he is gifted a Persian from his mother and father. This game would show the unraveling of events that turned the young pokemon trainer into a corrupt businessman, gym leader, and villain. This story would be unlike any other because we would finally be the villain instead of the hero and see things from another major character's point of view. Terrible events have caused the young boy known as Gio to become the person you know now.

I do have some script already wriiten out but maybe you guys could give me your thoughts before I post them.
Thanks

 

[Hawky]

Imagine, a pokemon game without pokeballs....

alright hear me out before dropping a piano on my head lol I've played a lot of pokemon fan games, and canon games too and while I enjoy them, most of the time it's the same sort of thing:

stop the bad team, complete the pokedex, maybe find a shiny or two and defeat the gym becoming champ

now I'm not saying that's BAD far from it, it's a very enjoyable experience when done right which many many games do right but here's what I was thinking for a different sort of fan game:

You run a small piece of land you inherited from a relative (say a grandfather, or an aunt or something) and that small patch of land will one day become a large thriving safari zone (or a ranch if you want to think of it that way instead I just thought a canon word would be better to use) but how do you do that? Easy first you have to buy more land by attracting trainers to your safari zone and as you buy more land you can unlock new areas to get new types of pokemon like an ice cave or a desert patch things like that. But what's the use of land without pokemon to fill it? That's the next step, getting more pokemon. You'll still have a region to explore and discover new things, but this time you are doing it for the purpose of studying pokemon in the wild so you can learn ways to attract them to your safari zone (like planting certain berries, adding decorations like lily pads to make an area nicer looking, that sort of thing) and as you get more pokemon your safari zone could go up in rank and you can charge more money and attract more trainers, maybe even hire some NPC breeders to help work on the land later

what do you guys think of the idea? I had it just this morning so it's a bit bare boned but I thought it was worth the share

 

[zarexraze]

I NEED YOUR OPINIONS!

Lately I've been very interested in creating my own fan game unlike any other. This would be a game where you take on the role of GIOVANNI the mastermind behind Team Rocket.

The game would start off 30 years before the events of Pokémon Red and Blue on Giovanni's tenth birthday when he is gifted a Persian from his mother and father. This game would show the unraveling of events that turned the young pokemon trainer into a corrupt businessman, gym leader, and villain. This story would be unlike any other because we would finally be the villain instead of the hero and see things from another major character's point of view. Terrible events have caused the young boy known as Gio to become the person you know now.

I do have some script already wriiten out but maybe you guys could give me your thoughts before I post them.
Thanks

I don't want to say much, since it seems that you have a good amount of this thought out already, but it would be cool to see that he'd have basically started his evil schemes years ago if it wasn't for his newly-born son, Silver. Maybe at that point he becomes really, really close to going back to his nicer ways, but then buckles under the last moments as criminal activity is all that he knows at this point.
Also, I'm all for those who try to make their protagonist not just some blank slate character, it really showcases the creators writing skills and are always a treat.

Imagine, a pokemon game without pokeballs....

alright hear me out before dropping a piano on my head lol I've played a lot of pokemon fan games, and canon games too and while I enjoy them, most of the time it's the same sort of thing:

stop the bad team, complete the pokedex, maybe find a shiny or two and defeat the gym becoming champ

now I'm not saying that's BAD far from it, it's a very enjoyable experience when done right which many many games do right but here's what I was thinking for a different sort of fan game:

You run a small piece of land you inherited from a relative (say a grandfather, or an aunt or something) and that small patch of land will one day become a large thriving safari zone (or a ranch if you want to think of it that way instead I just thought a canon word would be better to use) but how do you do that? Easy first you have to buy more land by attracting trainers to your safari zone and as you buy more land you can unlock new areas to get new types of pokemon like an ice cave or a desert patch things like that. But what's the use of land without pokemon to fill it? That's the next step, getting more pokemon. You'll still have a region to explore and discover new things, but this time you are doing it for the purpose of studying pokemon in the wild so you can learn ways to attract them to your safari zone (like planting certain berries, adding decorations like lily pads to make an area nicer looking, that sort of thing) and as you get more pokemon your safari zone could go up in rank and you can charge more money and attract more trainers, maybe even hire some NPC breeders to help work on the land later

what do you guys think of the idea? I had it just this morning so it's a bit bare boned but I thought it was worth the share

This is something that requires a whole backlog of pre-planning, and it's also something that absolutely requires knowledge of coding in some sort. That being said, this is a really cute concept, and it aesthetically reminds me of Stardew Valley (though I've yet to touch that game at all, lol). My only questions is the where, and the why.
My personal thoughts is that your piece of land is actually an island in a large archipelago. And when you go to catch Pokemon for your Safari Island(s), you're actually sending out hired Pokemon Rangers to safely transfer them to your hub. One good piece of inspiration is the Zoo Tycoon series (minus the Xbox entry, that is barebones compared to it's previous entries), you can easily find those if you look enough, and there's a fair amount of dedicated players still around.
If I may add something, the whole "not using Pokeballs thing" and the Safari Zone mechanic seems a bit off if the player is also supposed to go and challenge gyms, deal with whoever wants to take over the (insert area here), etc. If it was me, I'd rather just have the Safari Zone mechanic and the Pokemon Rangers you send out to "regions" (for example, it'd be a small hub area called Kanto where the Ranger journey's out for some time). That way, the actual player can work on treating the inhabitants of your Safari Islands, cleaning up your islands, customizing your hub/visitor area, and cleaning through newly purchased islands, maybe even adding small attractions later on, idk.
If you can't tell, I was a big fan of those games in my youth.

I'm not saying to absolutely do it that way, it's a bit much and I sort of rambled. But if you're asking about the concept by itself, it is really neato. It's still a lot of coding either way, so maybe try to do small experiments, testing the very basics of the idea, before attempting to make this idea physical. I'm not a coder myself, but I hope it goes well for you!

 

[Mr. Gela]

What are some "meaningless" details you plan ahead of time religiously? I'm trying to find small stuff that some games do that others do not, such as:
- Having a "canon" main character name
- Naming characters after plants following the trend started with Oak and then pushed forward in later gens

I'm trying to plan something, but also want to drift off from time to time and distract myself with this sort of silly things.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

The only thing I can think of right now is to have a pattern for names of towns, like how Kanto had each location named for a color or how Sage has music terminology in each name.

 

[HollowGap]

I'm planning to make a short Pokemon game. Nothing too fancy; I just wanted to make one decent game and actually get it done.

I won't go with the usual fakemons or even the usual 8-gym-badges quest. That will take too much time and energy anyway. So I want to know if this plot works:


"In the midst of Pokemon smuggling operation, a trapped eyewitness must fight her way out of the seemingly endless syndicate territory."

And here is the map draft of a hidden harbor used by smugglers to transport exotic pokemon. It's supposed to be crowded with poachers. Always hide behind objects and use their blind spots; any eye contact will result in a battle for your life (instant game-over if you lose).

 

[zarexraze]

Umm, pretty random idea, but what if a single Pokemon could have two item slots? A.k.a. be able to hold two items at once. The catch being that some items take up both slots. And in the event of things such as Thief, Knock Off, or Recycle, it could just assume the first slot when doing it's effects.

Random idea, but thoughts? And how would someone go and decide which items would take up double slots?

 

[TechSkylander1518]

So I want to know if this plot works:


"In the midst of Pokemon smuggling operation, a trapped eyewitness must fight her way out of the seemingly endless syndicate territory."

I think it definitely works! Short stories in fangames can still be quite fun, and judging by your map, you definitely have the skills to make it an adventure!

Umm, pretty random idea, but what if a single Pokemon could have two item slots? A.k.a. be able to hold two items at once. The catch being that some items take up both slots. And in the event of things such as Thief, Knock Off, or Recycle, it could just assume the first slot when doing it's effects.

Random idea, but thoughts? And how would someone go and decide which items would take up double slots?

I can kinda see that working-from a gameplay perspective, at least, I don't know how easy it would be to code. But it'd be a pretty delicate process-you'd have to consider not only how multiple items could interact, but also how those items interact with a Pokemon's abilities and stats.

Leftovers, Mega Stones, and Choice items should definitely be two slots. There's some items I feel would take up one slot normally, but shouldn't be able to be paired up with others of their "class"-type boosting items like Charcoal and Mystic Water, for example-and doubling up on items should probably be blocked, too.

Or, alternatively, maybe you could implement a "crafting system" where players mix together held items to get new items? By creating new items instead of a new system, you get more of a hold on the meta-you don't have to worry about new combinations that never occurred to you, because anything you didn't think of just doesn't exist. You could even include some "overpowered" item combinations and lower their boosts-maybe someone wants both the health recovery of Leftovers and the Fire-boosting power of Charcoal, but the result isn't quite as flammable and doesn't taste quite as good, so its boosts aren't quite as strong as the Leftovers or Charcoal would be individually.

 

[zarexraze]

I'm planning to make a short Pokemon game. Nothing too fancy; I just wanted to make one decent game and actually get it done.

I won't go with the usual fakemons or even the usual 8-gym-badges quest. That will take too much time and energy anyway. So I want to know if this plot works:


"In the midst of Pokemon smuggling operation, a trapped eyewitness must fight her way out of the seemingly endless syndicate territory."


And here is the map draft of a hidden harbor used by smugglers to transport exotic pokemon. It's supposed to be crowded with poachers. Always hide behind objects and use their blind spots; any eye contact will result in a battle for your life (instant game-over if you lose).

That's weird, I thought I responded to this, but it says I didn't. So I'll do it again, I guess.
Story alone, I'm really the kind of person to judge the whole story via the whole book, but that being said, the premise is very enticing, especially for those sick of the original formula. I'd really like to see what you do with it.
And as for the image itself, just like what @TechSkylander1518 said, it seems you have the skills to make your project happen, so now I'm that kind of gal who's interested in the title of the project. The use of trying to hide from the grunts is very neato, I'd love to see what you do with it, considering it being a reversal of the Trainers line of sight mechanic. Lastly, I know this isn't the Map Showcase, but the ports tend to blend into the terrain very easily, at least for me. Maybe giving them a slightly darker color to resemble them being soaked from the water would help, though it could also be helped by a fog effect of some sort.

I can kinda see that working-from a gameplay perspective, at least, I don't know how easy it would be to code. But it'd be a pretty delicate process-you'd have to consider not only how multiple items could interact, but also how those items interact with a Pokemon's abilities and stats.

Leftovers, Mega Stones, and Choice items should definitely be two slots. There's some items I feel would take up one slot normally, but shouldn't be able to be paired up with others of their "class"-type boosting items like Charcoal and Mystic Water, for example-and doubling up on items should probably be blocked, too.

Or, alternatively, maybe you could implement a "crafting system" where players mix together held items to get new items? By creating new items instead of a new system, you get more of a hold on the meta-you don't have to worry about new combinations that never occurred to you, because anything you didn't think of just doesn't exist. You could even include some "overpowered" item combinations and lower their boosts-maybe someone wants both the health recovery of Leftovers and the Fire-boosting power of Charcoal, but the result isn't quite as flammable and doesn't taste quite as good, so its boosts aren't quite as strong as the Leftovers or Charcoal would be individually.

To be honest, it's an idea that spawned from the fact that some item holding situations just seem like the Pokemon should be able to hold more, so it's not set in stone just yet, and even then there's my Pokesword concept from the early Relic Castle that I'm still using, which in a nutshell grants one items effect to all party members, usually with reduced effects, and some items being unable to be used as a Pokesword item (think Kingdom Hearts and the charms attaching to the Keyblade), and trying to make the double item slots while also doing the Pokesword concept is a little much right now, so I think it's something that will have to be explored later.
That being said, your suggestions are really cool of you, and I didn't really think of blocking the player from doubling up or using items of the same class, good catch there. To be honest, I'm not the biggest immediate fan of the whole crafting concept, I understand why people have tossed it about, but it seems a little predictable to me to shoehorn in crafting. Maybe for a few items they're obtained by crafting, but I doubt every item will be obtained by this, or even maybe some Pokesword functions are unlocked via crafting/forging or something, idk.

 

[HollowGap]

I think it definitely works! Short stories in fangames can still be quite fun, and judging by your map, you definitely have the skills to make it an adventure!

That's weird, I thought I responded to this, but it says I didn't. So I'll do it again, I guess.
Story alone, I'm really the kind of person to judge the whole story via the whole book, but that being said, the premise is very enticing, especially for those sick of the original formula. I'd really like to see what you do with it.
And as for the image itself, just like what @TechSkylander1518 said, it seems you have the skills to make your project happen, so now I'm that kind of gal who's interested in the title of the project. The use of trying to hide from the grunts is very neato, I'd love to see what you do with it, considering it being a reversal of the Trainers line of sight mechanic. Lastly, I know this isn't the Map Showcase, but the ports tend to blend into the terrain very easily, at least for me. Maybe giving them a slightly darker color to resemble them being soaked from the water would help, though it could also be helped by a fog effect of some sort..

I hope this is a good sign for the project, which up until now, doesn't have any name yet. Somehow when you put "Pokemon" as the first word in the title, the next word to fit in becomes awkward. The only exceptions are Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Conquest, and Pokemon TCG. They are good titles because they give a clear hint to what the game is about. While the rest is... well, somehow Pokemon Fire Red has no correlation with flames and we never see jewelry heist or trainers wearing high-class outfit. So that's my dilemma.

As for the map, I still need better tilesets and autotiles to complete the job. I don't know if I should use fog for this location. The intention is to give each location a theme. For instance, when the MC ran into a huge forest, the player doesn't hear music even in battles. Instead, they will hear ominous rain and sometimes, the sound of exhausted breath. All to create an atmosphere of getting lost. The harbor is supposed to be a place where the player is most vulnerable to getting caught. So I think the addition of fog might give the opposite effect. On the other hand, fog definitely helps to create an immersive environment.

Honestly, all I care is how do I get this thing done. It bugs me all the time. I came up with that simple premise, but now my brain is driving its owner insane. It wanted trope subversion. It said "you have to use the usual formula so it still feels like Pokemon, but in the end you have to play with it." And that led me to more risky modifications:

- Instead of choosing starter in a lab, the MC's situation is different. You have one Pokeball and three caged "starters".
- You are not in a safe place. You can get caught. You can die when trying to survive by eating the wrong berry. With limited resources (no PC or Mart), the game adopts survival/strategy genre.
- You can caught other Pokemon, too. Just... make sure every ball counts.
- "You get $100 for winning!" phrase now makes more sense. After all, you knocked them unconscious and steal their wallet (and belongings).
- Once the plot is resolved, the game is finished. This is probably the riskiest change.

Please tell me it's stupid so I can stop bothering myself.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

I hope this is a good sign for the project, which up until now, doesn't have any name yet. Somehow when you put "Pokemon" as the first word in the title, the next word to fit in becomes awkward. The only exceptions are Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Conquest, and Pokemon TCG. They are good titles because they give a clear hint to what the game is about. While the rest is... well, somehow Pokemon Fire Red has no correlation with flames and we never see jewelry heist or trainers wearing high-class outfit. So that's my dilemma.

Well, there's some more freedom to a fangame-you don't even have to have Pokemon as the first word. (Home and The Secret of Cinnabar are two great story-driven projects that got on just fine!)

- Instead of choosing starter in a lab, the MC's situation is different. You have one Pokeball and three caged "starters".

I think that works out great with your plot! (it's certainly nice to have an explanation as to why exotic Pokemon are there-I'm still waiting on the canon games to specific why only professors have theirs...)

- You are not in a safe place. You can get caught. You can die when trying to survive by eating the wrong berry. With limited resources (no PC or Mart), the game adopts survival/strategy genre.

Survival-based games can be pretty fun! I'm a little confused as to how it'd work, though-will there be a meter the player has to replenish? Or will there be points in the story where the protagonist must choose a berry to eat?

- Once the plot is resolved, the game is finished. This is probably the riskiest change.

Honestly, it seems pretty safe to me. Story-driven games tend to have very little to do afterwards.

Please tell me it's stupid so I can stop bothering myself.

Too late! You have our support now! :P Don't stress about getting it done as soon as you can, though! Taking breaks and pacing yourself is an important part of working, too!