[Meta thread] Iron's PokeRole Adventure: The Skull Ruins

[Iron]

I'd like to give them out more commonly too, but it's not exactly something you can realistically stumble over in the wilderness. I think I'll make them prizes for a few battles and things like that.

[Lord Windos]

I'd like to give them out more commonly too, but it's not exactly something you can realistically stumble over in the wilderness. I think I'll make them prizes for a few battles and things like that.

True enough, I suppose. I honestly expect you to hand out TMs with the Gym Leader like in the base games, but I guess you had something differently in mind for them in terms of rewards, eh? Much appreciated about increasing their frequency, though!

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

I would agree that it feels unrealistic in a believable RPG if TMs can be found with little effort in the wild, especially since they have some sort of special Status in this in-game region. On the other hand, I don't have anything against them being obtainable here and there. Just not...too often, as I feel/fear they'll be exploited then and our Pokemon grow very strong in very little time, which isn't really the intention? How much of fun is it if you can blast the enemy with only one or two attacks if you teach your Pokemon a very good TM move? It's cool at the beginning, but rather quickly get boring to overrun every NPC you meet along the Route in a OHKO in the handheld games.

TMs only being usable once feels like a good compromise to prevent such a thing, by the way, so I actually don't feel too bad with this!

[Lord Windos]

I would agree that it feels unrealistic in a believable RPG if TMs can be found with little effort in the wild, especially since they have some sort of special Status in this in-game region. On the other hand, I don't have anything against them being obtainable here and there. Just not...too often, as I feel/fear they'll be exploited then and our Pokemon grow very strong in very little time, which isn't really the intention? How much of fun is it if you can blast the enemy with only one or two attacks if you teach your Pokemon a very good TM move? It's cool at the beginning, but rather quickly get boring to overrun every NPC you meet along the Route in a OHKO in the handheld games.

I don't believe with TM moves we get would start OHKOing our opponents, as while the battle system is VERY offensive, its not THAT much. Besides, the truly powerful TMs are going to be held back by Iron for special occasions or if we have some seriously valuable Pokémon on hand. Heck, I would be happy with just receiving Status/Non Damaging TMs that I can't use with my Pokémon (or use well), as at least I can share or use them a bartering material.

Besides, our Pokémon are already at the point we can destory just about anything when working together or with prep. Raphael already has the potential to hose down a foe with Nasty Plot + ANY move it has , Michael has Façade and Spore, Apsis will just wear her opponents down no matter what, Lucifer has Iron Tail + Tailwind and Wides Lens, Haneal will eventually get Lava Plume, future Kingdra is strong as hecky even without Rain Dance, Abaddon has counter/Encore shenanigans , Lilith will be getting Tailwind and has Bullet Seed ,Dribur can learn lots of deadily moves....and that is Ven's Pokémon alone!

Point is, EVERYONE is already rather powerful at this point in the story, and yet despite that Iron has successfully balanced his game thus far and provided us challenging fights that don't feel TOO bad struggle with in most cases.

[Dragonstrike]

Man, it took me 45 minutes to type up that 'Journey to the Ends of the Earth' summary...yeesh...

[Spiritmon]

Spoiler

I would agree that it feels unrealistic in a believable RPG if TMs can be found with little effort in the wild, especially since they have some sort of special Status in this in-game region. On the other hand, I don't have anything against them being obtainable here and there. Just not...too often, as I feel/fear they'll be exploited then and our Pokemon grow very strong in very little time, which isn't really the intention? How much of fun is it if you can blast the enemy with only one or two attacks if you teach your Pokemon a very good TM move? It's cool at the beginning, but rather quickly get boring to overrun every NPC you meet along the Route in a OHKO in the handheld games.

I don't believe with TM moves we get would start OHKOing our opponents, as while the battle system is VERY offensive, its not THAT much. Besides, the truly powerful TMs are going to be held back by Iron for special occasions or if we have some seriously valuable Pokémon on hand. Heck, I would be happy with just receiving Status/Non Damaging TMs that I can't use with my Pokémon (or use well), as at least I can share or use them a bartering material.

Besides, our Pokémon are already at the point we can destory just about anything when working together or with prep. Raphael already has the potential to hose down a foe with Nasty Plot + ANY move it has , Michael has Façade and Spore, Apsis will just wear her opponents down no matter what, Lucifer has Iron Tail + Tailwind and Wides Lens, Haneal will eventually get Lava Plume, future Kingdra is strong as hecky even without Rain Dance, Abaddon has counter/Encore shenanigans , Lilith will be getting Tailwind and has Bullet Seed ,Dribur can learn lots of deadily moves....and that is Ven's Pokémon alone!

Point is, EVERYONE is already rather powerful at this point in the story, and yet despite that Iron has successfully balanced his game thus far and provided us challenging fights that don't feel TOO bad struggle with in most cases.

And Heart kinda still a noob. All form 1 Pokemon (except Rose who is form 2) and some more or less moves. No wonder he have such dificult to fight Nathan. And I will not lie, I think one use TM its not that cool. It could be cool to help the other in learn others moves to have cooperation. But since its the GM rules I cant do much.

[Dragonstrike]

Oh, right, TM stuff.  

Quite frankly, I'm fine with the TM stuff the way it's been so far.  Definitely would like to see more TMs in the future, though.

And one TM I CERTAINLY want to see later in the campaign is THUNDER!  Cuz what Compound Eyes Galvantula is complete without that move, right?  Well, could always Tutor it as well, but...

Wouldn't mind a Sandstorm TM for Forthright either, tbh, and we even have access to it now, but...Nathan wouldn't want to get it from the Department Store with his own funds.  Nope.  No way, not happening.  Not an urgent thing anyways, though, since none of Nathan's pokemon really benefit from the weather besides Forthright...

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

Point made, @Lord Windos, the fact that dice rolls can always fail or at least don't work out as expected/hoped somewhat balances things out, now that I think about it. And I trust in GM to not give out any super-strong TMs like nothing.

Hmm, I still feel like Shiva is lagging behind in battle skills still, but I said several times by now that she is unlike the others not too hot for a holding a Pokemon Battle - this has improved to a degree by now, as she is fine with occassional friendly/training battles by now - and just needs more time and experience than the others for her full mischievous potential to shine. If it maybe does at some point, probably near the end of campaign, I believe she'll be able to pull off amazing combinations of moves, abilities and additional tricks with her own Pokemon.

[PhantomUnderYourDesk]

And I will not lie, I think one use TM its not that cool. It could be cool to help the other in learn others moves to have cooperation. But since its the GM rules I cant do much.

It has been like that in Generation 1 and 2, only afterwards they were able to teach the move they contain the data about to more than one Pokemon. I remember this well, it's actually almost luxury to me personally that the TMs can be reused as often as one desires. Well, what I want to say, it's no taken-for-grantedness!

[Dragonstrike]

And Heart kinda still a noob. All form 1 Pokemon (except Rose who is form 2) and some more or less moves. No wonder he have such dificult to fight Nathan.

Well, Shiva's in a similar boat pokemon wise, and Nathan has several unevolved pokemon himself.  The biggest difficulty with fighting Nathan is overcoming him when he gains an advantage, since he has such a big initiative bonus and such large dice pools.  Nathan was just in a...rather moody state back in Arrowroot, so he wasn't really holding anything back at all.  He had his roughest, toughest pokemon on hand at the time, and it showed!  Aside from Calam and Solomon, they weren't using any attacks with more than 3 power (not including STAB and attribute boosts, but including item boosts).

Nathan's big advantage is the speed and dice pools.  That's all it is at base, to be honest.  Well, that, and spread moves are kinda OP when you're fighting multiple pokemon.

Grid is a terrifying little bugger to fight though, I'll have ya know, despite being the smallest pokemon in existence (tied with Cutiefly, Flabebe, Comefey, and Cosmoem).  Love using the little guy, and I'm excited for when he finally evolves.