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(03-15-2020, 04:15 PM)Spiritmon Wrote: [ -> ]O.O 
Damn it. You are the guy Mew mentioned aren't you?

Of course I am.  I cannot linger long due to my currently limited power, however, and the information I can share here is limited.  I am here merely because you did not get the chance to ask me your intended question once the Plates were returned to me and everyone made their choices.
Alright, its time for The End of Campaign Critique! Here, I'll be listing what I did and didn't like about The Mount Coronet Mystery story line and gameplay/mechanics, give my experiences with it (a few specific and the overall one), and finally I'll give my honest thoughts on what I hope to see in the coming campaign. With that all said, let's begin!

The Positives!

- First and foremost, I loved the fact that for me and Spirit (at least), you went through the trouble and time to establish some backstory and gameplay via PMs BEFORE the game even began, and were willing and able to find ways to incorporate the various details into the main campaign! It's gratifying to see how even the details not on display to everyone (at the beginning) got so well worked into the story, and its something I hope to see more of in the future!
- Suprisingly, the new combat system was a real fun and engaging blast overall! By its very nature it forced me to come up with fairly creative ways to go about duking it out, and it also prevent opponents from spamming super strong or super bullshit moves too, so it ended up being a lot more enjoyable than I expected it to be!
- The portable PC was exactly the sort of thing I wished for in a Pokerole campaign, as while it eliminate some of the challange that comes with building a good time for various quest, the fact I essentially have my chara's whole party between Encounters is immensely relieving and non-stressing for much the same reasons, as I can choose either an optimized team or one for more enjoyment purposes on the fly! 
- Regarding the characters themselves,I'm glad you were willing to be rather flexible when it came to Ran's total Skill and Specialty scores, as without it he'd be a heck of a lot worse off in the things I wanted to do.
- The fact you were willing to delay the start of your campaign just for our characters to screw around more in Snowpoint, with my and Kogeki's mini-quest to build him a new arm, and exploring Snowpoint Temple itself for everyone (Which turned out to be a semi-optional important plotline, oh my!) !
- Speaking of semi-optional plot lines, I was happy to see you make them in the first place, how you hinted and teased at them nicely enough, and then followed through them with immediate pay-out! From Snowpoint Temple to Ran's Bonus Boss, they were all a hit with me at least, and it leaves me wondering how much more you had or if we managed to get them all.
- The fact you were always willing to work with us on our charas and our Pokemon, through PM or in the Meta !
- Modifying Moves in lovely ways, as befitting the situation, environment, and how they were used!
- In general, the Boss and Boss-like Encounters (Like Shadow Gyarados and Rhyperior) were all well thought out challenges that didn't seem too[/u] unfair or frustrating, and were simply put a joy to overcome!
- In general, the progression through the various parts of the campaign was much the same as you handled the Boss Fights (Which is to say, just right) !
- Lastly, the storyline, while not entirely [i]original
or unique as Iron's, or 'energetic' as mine own, was a nice alternative to either as just a nice, simple Hero's Quest type plotline with some elements of mystery and multi-universe shenanigans to give it some pizazz . The neat incorporation of Mystery Dungeons into your world was a great idea in of itself, and the Colosseum/XD elements were invigorating , to simply put it! Overall, a solid B + to A + on this!

The Negatives!

+ First and foremost, I did not like the Healing System overhaul you did pre-start of the campaign well after me and everyone else already designed our characters and set up our teams. The '3 Times and you're done'  home ruling we did in Iron's and my campaign was (in my opinion) pretty much perfectly fair and balanced, as you have to give up an Action mid combat in order to have a Dice Roll to determine how much HP you got back, which may be none at all or practically none at all if the foe out-damages said healing. Having Will fuel it essentially puts it at a double cost, as now you have to pay an upfront fee in order to get access to the chance of getting your health topped up. Which immediately smacks to mind to the Gamble Berries that Iron made : Rewarding if you get lucky, but worse than useless if the dice are against you. Because of this, I don't think I recall ever using the modified healing system outside of Candice's Gym Battle in the main campaign, and just stuck to Potions, Berries, the Party's Healers, and the Portable PC for heals. It was, to put it bluntly, completely not worth gambling Will on when that could be put towards Consistency or empowering Moves/tasks. Had I known that this system was going in place, I'd have planned my team a lot differently to take advantage of the other non-gimped parts of the Healing System, such as the Drain Moves, Leech Seed, Ability Healing, and the Regen Mechanics like Aqua Ring, or possibly have gown the Harvest Berry + Sunny Day Route that Kogeki tried. 
+ The way you handled Evasion in Candice's fight was, to be concise, not terribly fun to deal with, and essentially exploits the combat system of the newest Corebook in ways that are not fun to experience or us. The fact it can be spammed in a generally no spam system is terrible , and since it didn't count against the 4 - Move Limit (More on that later) their is nothing stopping a fast character from Evanding 3-4 Times, then using their last 2-3 Action to wail on a foes with impunity, since the no-spam rule and the prohibitve Action Cost of Actions after 3/4 prevents a chara from even trying to Attack, Evade, or Clash. The fact that the very best way of dealing with that is to send out a Pokemon slower on the Initiative in order to force an opponent to commit to an Attack first(and therefore can't Evade unless they abort it mid-way through, in which case you have your Pokemon just do something else/nothing to counter that) or Encore Lock them is, to put it lightly, not fun. It's interesting to see that having a high Initiative isn't always a good thing, but it's something I could done without. I was glad that this issue didn't come up for the rest of the campaign, and I hope going forward into your main one that its properly balanced or nerfed into the ground.
+ The 4 - Move Limit in official Trainer battles , in conjunction with the new Action Cost Mechanics, suck, since it means that unless you have a LOT of Accuracy Dice your Pokemon is restricted to 2-3 Action in a battle throughout most a campaign. The fact that Action costs are static rather than modular means that while the early Actions are relatively easy to pull off, later Actions are exponentially harder to land, creating a sort of 'Threshold' System where a chara or Pokemon has to sufficiently get past each Action cost in Order for it to be worthwhile to risk it. Sure, the static cost makes it so their is virtually no penalty to ordering as many Actions as your Pokemon can possibly do, but I find the lack of modular dice cost to be less fun to work with. In Iron's and my game, you could Order less Actions in order to make it more likely you'd hit something, or go all out and suffer higher Actions costs that are more balanced around the fact that the Pokemon should have the Dice to burn. That, and comparatively its cheaper to do Actions Iron's way the more you do them per Round, which is rewarding in of yourself once your character can afford the ground costs of high Action counts per Round. Taking out that aspect of challenge is efficient, but ultimately less rewarding, at least in my humble opinion.
+ The changing of game mechanics mid-campaign was, and will always be, a highly contentious point for me. On one hand, I understand and can accept some of them if they're reasonably explained or if they're too broken as they are, but on the other hand changing well establish and perfectly fine as they are mechanics like how Status or Cover works is....less than stellar. I for one don't want to see the new Pokemon Cover mechanics implement in the next game, as if they take a Action to use period (let alone one for every Action you want to stay Covered/be the Cover) , I rather try my luck with Evasion, Clashing, or straight up tanking and spanking. Cover is only useful if you can use it to Attack and Defend simultaneously in a System like Pokerole, so if I have to choose between both, I'll go with the option that is more proactive and will get my character out of a jam faster.
+  The reliance on Mystery Dungeons for the....well, dungeons of the campaign and avenues where Encounters crop up is nice enough, but you lose out on the handcrafted non-random dungeons in the process, which while time consuming to make and plan out can offer a lot more environmental and unique story telling events than a RNG made dungeon can provide unless you just make a bunch of pre-made 'Rooms'  and let probability dictate when and where a player will stumble across these more carefully designed areas. I do hope that we'll get at least some dungeons like the Scimitar Base or Skull Ruins in your main campaign, and some good old fashion Route Travel Paths were Encounters can just happen in a linear and laid out fashion.
+ If our charas (or new charas) go to the Pokemon World of Mystery Dungeons, there's the matter of where they're existing Pokemon partners are going to end up, and if they do come to be in the same world as their caretaker, when they'll reunite and how badly they'll be affected by the transfer. There is also the fact of how Gummis/Food consumption, IQ, Learning Moves outside of TMs and leveling up, making friends and communicating with Pokemon in the new world, and how in the heck that will work with recruitment on top of just growing our charas is probably going to a real challenge to adjust to, which is going to naturally kill the early game's pacing. It won't be too much of a problem for me, since I'll be making an entirely new character in mind for all that with you, but for the others.....
+ Finally as a minor nit-pick, I kinda felt that Berries and Held Items weren't as ubiquitous or useful as they could be, but that could only be because we had so many Pokemon and so little time to really put them to good use (Neither of which should be a huge problem in your main campaign....I hope)

Overall:

Simply put, I enjoyed the game you made, but their were a few moments that I felt let it down gameplay-wise, and some of the changes made could've been worked out better or not put in at all. The story telling was top notch throughout the whole campaign, though, and I can only see you continuing to go from strength to strength in that aspect as a DM! All you have to do is iron out the rough spots or find news ways to iterate and improve upon them, and I think you're all set to make a real home run of a sequel campaign! No matter what you do, though, I will always be looking forward to roleplaying with you Dragonstrike, be it as a fellow player, as player of my campaigns, or as a player of your campaigns. MCM was a real treat , and I know your next adventure will be just as sweet!
[/i]
(03-15-2020, 04:19 PM)Dragonstrike Wrote: [ -> ]
(03-15-2020, 04:15 PM)Spiritmon Wrote: [ -> ]O.O 
Damn it. You are the guy Mew mentioned aren't you?

Of course I am.  I cannot linger long due to my currently limited power, however, and the information I can share here is limited.  I am here merely because you did not get the chance to ask me your intended question once the Plates were returned to me and everyone made their choices.

That's something I would like to ask about it. There 18 types, not counting Nuclear, Shadow and Typeless or (????). 

You now recover the Water, Fire, Poison and Psychic Plates. That's 14 left to find. Correct?

Is there Plates from the other three types mentioned?
Oh, so you're the other Legend / Mythic with 4th Wall Awareness, Arceas. In hindsight, that shouldn't have been a surprise, but hey, I was bit distracted trying to plan a way to take down your.....'wayward child' lets call them with minimal FUBAR happening, so eh.

For your shake 'Dragonstrike's' Arceas, I do ask you refrain from investigating my universe, or worry about this Darkness from your next of the woods (so to speak) messing with it. My Arceas is a bit.......twitchy when it comes to Outsiders investigating what she considers her domain, even other versions of herself, and if That Darkness is dumb enough to try and set up shop in Zuryk's back yard......well, I say to them good luck, cause they'll need it. I rather not cause an inter-universal war between our respective 'settings' or give them a potential foothold into yours, so.....

Also, if a madman by the name of Arial and his Solgaleo happen to Ultra Teleport to your neck of the woods somehow, please pay them no mind and I'll try to get them back to mine ASAP, and fix up any messes they'd cause. They're wild and a bit amoral, but they ultimately won't mean any harm if none is given to them.
(03-15-2020, 04:32 PM)Spiritmon Wrote: [ -> ]That's something I would like to ask about it. There 18 types, not counting Nuclear, Shadow and Typeless or (????). 

You now recover the Water, Fire, Poison and Psychic Plates. That's 14 left to find. Correct?

Is there Plates from the other three types mentioned?

That, I can indeed answer.

To keep it brief, the 4 you found already do not count for the world you are about to travel to.  I need you to find all 17 Plates in the Mystery Dungeon World.

And yes, I am not miscounting.  There are 17 Plates, not 18, as Normal does not have one due to it being my default Type.

Nuclear, Shadow, and Typeless/??? do not have Plates either, as those types do not naturally occur in nature.  My ??? forme exists mostly as a placeholder should my powers ever be robbed from me.
(03-15-2020, 04:28 PM)Lord Windos Wrote: [ -> ](...)If our charas (or new charas) go to the Pokemon World of Mystery Dungeons, there's the matter of where their existing Pokemon partners are going to end up, and if they do come to be in the same world as their caretaker, when they'll reunite and how badly they'll be affected by the transfer. There is also the fact of how Gummis/Food consumption, IQ, Learning Moves outside of TMs and leveling up, making friends and communicating with Pokemon in the new world, and how in the heck that will work with recruitment on top of just growing our charas is probably going to a real challenge to adjust to, which is going to naturally kill the early game's pacing. It won't be too much of a problem for me, since I'll be making an entirely new character in mind for all that with you, but for the others.....(...)

Ah, that's something that's on my mind as well and which I'm quite curious about... But quite honestly, as long as Kee is going to be reunited with dear Octavia sooner or later, I don't think I'll really miss his other Pokemon. I DO feel a bit bad for them, but...¯\_(ツ)_/¯
(03-15-2020, 04:39 PM)Lord Windos Wrote: [ -> ]Oh, so you're the other Legend / Mythic with 4th Wall Awareness, Arceas. In hindsight, that shouldn't have been a surprise, but hey, I was bit distracted trying to plan a way to take down your.....'wayward child' lets call them with minimal FUBAR happening, so eh.

For your shake 'Dragonstrike's' Arceas, I do ask you refrain from investigating my universe, or worry about this Darkness from your next of the woods (so to speak) messing with it. My Arceas is a bit.......twitchy when it comes to Outsiders investigating what she considers her domain, even other versions of herself, and if That Darkness is dumb enough to try and set up shop in Zuryk's back yard......well, I say to them good luck, cause they'll need it. I rather not cause an inter-universal war between our respective 'settings' or give them a potential foothold into yours, so.....

Also, if a madman by the name of Arial and his Solgaleo happen to Ultra Teleport to your neck of the woods somehow, please pay them no mind and I'll try to get them back to mine ASAP, and fix up any messes they'd cause. They're wild and a bit amoral, but they ultimately won't mean any harm if none is given to them.

I am well aware of those situations, for I share the knowledge of all other Arceus.

So long as you work towards stopping this trouble before it worsens, I do not expect there to be issues in other universes.
(03-15-2020, 04:46 PM)Dragonstrike Wrote: [ -> ]
(03-15-2020, 04:39 PM)Lord Windos Wrote: [ -> ]Oh, so you're the other Legend / Mythic with 4th Wall Awareness, Arceas. In hindsight, that shouldn't have been a surprise, but hey, I was bit distracted trying to plan a way to take down your.....'wayward child' lets call them with minimal FUBAR happening, so eh.

For your shake 'Dragonstrike's' Arceas, I do ask you refrain from investigating my universe, or worry about this Darkness from your next of the woods (so to speak) messing with it. My Arceas is a bit.......twitchy when it comes to Outsiders investigating what she considers her domain, even other versions of herself, and if That Darkness is dumb enough to try and set up shop in Zuryk's back yard......well, I say to them good luck, cause they'll need it. I rather not cause an inter-universal war between our respective 'settings' or give them a potential foothold into yours, so.....

Also, if a madman by the name of Arial and his Solgaleo happen to Ultra Teleport to your neck of the woods somehow, please pay them no mind and I'll try to get them back to mine ASAP, and fix up any messes they'd cause. They're wild and a bit amoral, but they ultimately won't mean any harm if none is given to them.

I am well aware of those situations, for I share the knowledge of all other Arceus.

So long as you work towards stopping this trouble before it worsens, I do not expect there to be issues in other universes.

You may share that knowledge, but mine....doesn't. She's......well, the equivalent of a very control minded hikkamori with some.....unique complexes, so she pretty much has her own universe and my setting on complete lockdown and isolated from all other realities as much as she can, including herself. So while you somehow know what she knows - I won't ask how, as the mystery behind that amuses me too much to ever want to figure it out - she knows pretty much nothing outside her sphere and is generally to busy micromanaging her universe to bother paying attention to the finer details of things (which includes a lot of her own universe's details, ironically enough). And knowing her, I don't think she'd appreciate being enlightened about the Arceas Network monitoring her and 'intruding' on her privacy and 'property', so again, please don't bother her. I rather not deal with her going into her own version of a Control-PANIC! attack, which are always fun to deal with......

I will, or rather the avatar I make / draw forth from the well of infinite possibilities will. If anything, you pretty much don't have to worry about me never being able to not help, because if my new avatar / ward of my will dies or abandons your divine quest, I can just keep bringing more in until one of them does the job right or something else stops me. Having an 'upper' universal Outsider invested in your cause does have its perks, no matter how morally and ethnically questionable they are in regards to screwing around with 'lower' universes , but hey, its for the greater good of all, right?
(03-15-2020, 05:04 PM)Lord Windos Wrote: [ -> ]You may share that knowledge, but mine....doesn't. She's......well, the equivalent of a very control minded hikkamori with some.....unique complexes, so she pretty much has her own universe and my setting on complete lockdown and isolated from all other realities as much as she can, including herself. So while you somehow know what she knows - I won't ask how, as the mystery behind that amuses me too much to ever want to figure it out - she knows pretty much nothing outside her sphere and is generally to busy micromanaging her universe to bother paying attention to the finer details of things (which includes a lot of her own universe's details, ironically enough). And knowing her, I don't think she'd appreciate being enlightened about the Arceas Network monitoring her and 'intruding' on her privacy and 'property', so again, please don't bother her. I rather not deal with her going into her own version of a Control-PANIC! attack, which are always fun to deal with......

I will, or rather the avatar I make / draw forth from the well of infinite possibilities will. If anything, you pretty much don't have to worry about me never being able to not help, because if my new avatar / ward of my will dies or abandons your divine quest, I can just keep bringing more in until one of them does the job right or something else stops me. Having an 'upper' universal Outsider invested in your cause does have its perks, no matter how morally and ethnically questionable they are in regards to screwing around with 'lower' universes , but hey, its for the greater good of all, right?

Then let us hope that no issues arise if this universe's Mew ever decides to accept your offer and pay your universe a visit.

Hey, I heard that!

*chuckles*


-----------

Indeed, it is for the greater good.  As well as your own enjoyment.  *chuckles*  I do not mind.  Neither does Mew, though she would be very much broken hearted if she ever lost the one she's bonded so closely to.  Let us avoid revealing as much to the universe, however.  It is a moral and ethical quandary that is honestly not worth the trouble.  You have plenty of your own problems with that in your universe's setting, after all.

...honestly, Arceus, do you really have to continually poke fun at me every chance you get?

*chuckles*

Well then, I am afraid my time here is up.  The connection between here and the Hall of Origin is wavering.  We will speak again, however.  Not soon, but eventually.  Farewell, good luck, and above all, have fun.
Agree on accounts! Fare thee well, Arceas! Hopefully we'll get things back under your control and not make too much of a mess in the process! Or at least not ones we can't fix or make something useful out of them!

Well, now that I've finished speaking with your setting's/universe's god creator, I have a question for you Dragonstrike: What's the ETA on when you'll be ready to start your next campaign? Couple of weeks, couple of months, or even longer? I don't mind if their's a long wait, but I'd like to know none the less.