A New Advent, A New Style

[RyuSpike]

Advent is going to be revived, but things need to change in order for the system to work. This means that we need to adopt a new method of roleplaying and a new way of organizing it all. I have be researching various sites and noticed a simular problem in each of them.

Continunity.

What is continunity? It is the invisiable knowledge we all carry in our minds of the events that occur within a given subject. Most tv shows and comics use it to tell an over-arching story that their medium can't tell in a given time. How does this relate to Pokemon RPs, you ask? Most RP forums design their character sheets so that players or mods/admins can constantly change over time as new pokemon are added or evovled. Basically, players are using the same character throughout the all their RPs. Hence continunity is created.

While continunity is good, trying to work into roleplaying is a lot less pretty. Most forums, I noticed, tried a location based style where players go between different sections in order to RP. This site did that as well, and look what happened. Here is the problem: RPing requires a lot of posting and I mean A LOT. Players will post a lot in one location then head to another to post some more. Other players will enter the one that is used and post more RPing. The cycle repeats and eventually we come to a realization. Location threads are completely MEANINGLESS!

Those threads serve no purpose other than to become garbage dumps for roleplayers. It is a waste of space and a hassle for those who are RPing. If a trainer wants to battle, they need to go to another thread to do so. If they want to face a Gym Leader then there is also a thread for that as well. Sometimes other players keep using that thread you were on and you will need to waste time looking back a couple pages just so you can catch up. It is a chore and it is not fun.

How roleplaying is suppose to work is that your actions affect everything around in some manner. People, objects, surroundings, etc. The constant changing between locations and battles are just breaking that feel of true interaction. I see too many forums use this method and I say enough is enough! There must be a better way that these RPs can be organized! And there is!

It is has been used for generations by the nation's earliest pinoneers in roleplaying games. I am talking about, ofcoarse, the original tabletop RPGs! This includes D&D, Pathfinder, Hero System, and many more based on existing franchises! Why am I bringing this up? They have nothing to do with Pokemon! And you would be right, normally. You see, we are all trying to create Pokemon RPs with a sense of continunity with a RPing field that is a mess. These games have been around for decades and are still being played today. Maybe we can learn something from these guys about playing with continunity?

Here is the deal. Instead of making location threads, we should set up our threads like gaming sessions. A player posts a session that will provide players a location inside and a quest for them to complete. Players will go from start to finish in a single thread and there won't be ten thousand other players who had posted about their characters using the toliot on that route then leaving. It will only contain content important towards your character and the characters of the players were actually part of the session. It really is that simple.

Now for the hard part. Making it happen.

First thing, first! Characters in relation with their setting. In other words... location. "Hey! Didn't you just told us that location based roleplays is what is killing Pokemon RPs? You hypocrite!" Put down your pitchforks and listen. Yes, location threads is an inferior method of organizing RPs on a RP forum. HOWEVER! This does not mean that location is not important! It is what makes up most of the setting in stories, and RPs are stories written by multiple individuals through action. In a gaming session, characters need to begin at a certian point and end at another. Sometimes they stay in the same location during the whole quest. Other times they travel to someplace else then come back to where they began.

In the world of Pokemon, we are given a lot of places to begin and end. So, unlike D&D, we don't need to create new places everytime we begin a new adventure. Characters must navigate through an existing map and not jump around willy-nilly all over this landscape. Not physically possible. So to help establish our need for continunity and common sense, a method is needed for a player to use so they can join in an open session.

When creating a gaming session, a player needs to state where they currently are in the world. Where that player is located is determined by the last place they had been in their last RP session. Once the starting point has been set, a player must next state their goal. This can be anything like challenging a gym leader or reaching to the top of a mountian. Goals need to be short term and can be completed in less than 100 pages. We want adventures people! Not epics. After a goal is set, the starting players needs to keep in mind where this RP will end. This can be stated early on as being one of the major goals, but sometimes the plans we make can change and result in a different kind of ending. Once the session ends, characters will be located where they were and wait in that point until their players find a new adventure.

With how I explained that, it seems like partaking in other people's roleplay sessions seem almost impossible. It looks like the only way you can join in is if you were in the same starting city as the character who is opening the session. This isn't entirely true. There will be an exception to the rule if you can fit the requirement. You can change your current location as long as you are in a city/town that is connected to the starting player's through a route that isn't obstructed by another city or landscape, like forests or mountians or oceans. Another way to change locations is by using a Pokemon that knows Fly, however, you can only use this by obtaining the Gym Badge that allows you to use the move outside battles. Lastly, if your character is in the travel path of the starting player's session then you are able to join in that person's roleplay. Stated methods of changing locations also apply towards these travel paths as well.

Have a better understanding of how location is relative to joining a RP? Now that you know you can take part in a roleplay, you need to remember the basic rule of engagement within a roleplay. You need to first read the actual RP before joining to see if you actually WANT to be in that player's game. After that, you need to tell the players invovled already that you would like to join through a method of OoC. Make sure to tell them your character's location and any movement he might take to reach the players' current location. This is just basic manners and those who don't respect other players enough to follow etiquette will be removed from the roleplay by a moderator or admin. Those who try to disrupt others in play will likely face suspension from the forum for a limited time. Continued behavior problems with multiple warning will likely result in banning. More on the justice system will be discussed later.

For now, I will have to pause this. Wrote quite a lot and there is a lot more where this came from. The next post will detail the connections player sessions will have with other aspects of the site and how they will affect eachother.

[RyuSpike]

Now we can continue on our journey into the world of Advent's RP management! Today we will discuss how we will organize the site so that it can help aid players with their RPing. The first step is for the players to create a character so that they can actually start RPing. This can be easily done by creating a character sheet.

In the Character Sheet thread, you will likely have two different sections in it. One for the trainer and one for the pokemon. Whether or not these are to be placed in different posts is up to those making the example sheets, aka us admins. It doesn't matter since it won't affect what I will say next. Usually the pokemon section is limited to six pokemon so to represent that they are the current party. Then I noticed something else. We have a PC Board. This is where pokemon we are not using are sent for storage.

I'm going to refer back to the location based threads again for this one. Much like switching between a location and battle thread, this is an overall hassle. This will cause both players, mods, and admins more grief that is needed. Sometimes editting is a total pain because we need to open up multiple pages just to switch one pokemon with another. Transferring information without accidently losing it and being forced to retype it all up. There is easier way to take care of this.

We will have the pokemon section on the Character page hold ALL of the pokemon the character has in both party and storage! How can we tell the difference between the party pokemon and the stored pokemon, you ask? Simple. In the trainer section, you will have six spots reserved for the party pokemon. It is easier to keep track and makes it a lot simpler to edit. No longer will you fear having more than six pokemon at a time! You can have as many pokemon as you desire! Well... atleast a reasonable amount that's higher than six.

Next up, we will talk about something else your character can do. At the of each adventure you go through in the Roleplay Board, a player will have to write a journal entry about the adventure they just had. These Journals will either have a section of their own or be part of the Character Sheet. If they are their own threads then players will have to create a link to that journal in their Character Sheet so that others may have easier access to them without having to travel. This will also make it easier for mods and admins.

In the Journal entries, players will first provide a link to the first page of the ended RP. This will allow others to read the events that had occured. Players will then recount the major events that happened to their characters during that adventure. Since the player needs to provide a link to prove that the events they described, it is highly encouraged that players are honest. Not just because the mods will be checking them to see if you playing fair, but mainly for yourself as player. These Journals will greatly aid you in editting your Character Sheet just in case you forgot something that happened in a past adventure. If one feels the need, they can even do the Journals in-character!

With character relations taken cared of, we now head towards location. "Again?! How many times must we go through this?!" Yeah, yeah I know it's a pain but we have to talk about it anyways. Hopefully this is the last time. Players need a map, but they also need information. They want to know what is important about each of the different cities and town they are in or what cave they are going through. They could go to another site to get this information sometimes it takes to long to find that information you needed. That is why a Codex-like page will need to be made.

This "Landex" will be seperate first by region. Then inside each region will be a list of towns/cities and important locations based on the games. For example, Kanto Region will hold information about the Seaform Isles. Inside the Seaform thread will be posts of details about the area and how it affects you as the player. It'll also list the pokemon that can be found there. Information will be added by admin, who have done plenty of the research on these locations beforehand. This will hopefully make it easier for players to decide where they will take their next adventures.

Now we go into Gym Leaders. The men and women who make it their job to kick your sorry butt so that you can't get their badges. They will have their own page within the Codex. After choosing a region you then go to the thread with Gym Leaders on it. In it, you will see a list of posts that detail each of the Gym Leaders. Also, they will carry on them pokemon that they had in the games instead of any pokemon based on their types since that would allow for too many unrealistic cross-regional combinations. One's imagination can only be stretched so far. This will also be done with the Elite Four members as well.

As a small aside, it'll be best to use the gym leaders and elite four as seen in Silver and Gold for the Kanto region. As for Hoenn, we will have it set to the standard seen in Emerald when it comes to Gym Leaders since Wallace is too much of a show-offy jerk for my taste and I like Juan better. Sinnoh's gym order of Hearthome, Veilstone, and Pastoria City is of the player's choice due to the nature of these gyms in-game. Unova is really straight forward when it comes to order. Overall, some Gym Leaders will likely have a change of pokemon or added on them due to them having less than required.

Pokemon battles and Gym Battles will take place in player post this time around so no switching threads is required. Gym Leaders are NPCs by nature and therefore they will be controlled by mods or admins. How pokemon battles will be conducted will be explained another day. How to get mods or admins to control these NPCs in your adventures is what's important right now. But to understand that, you need to how how mods and admins work.

Admin(istraters) are the folks who design and program everything in the forum. It is our job to make sure that everyone else has an easy time making posts and doing RPs. We are also the ones who set up the rules on how to use the site and it should be us that you go to if you don't understand something. All the creative aspects and work behind it will be our burden to bare. We are not supreme overlords who can boss people around. Keeping the forum running smoothly is our main focus so that players can feel comfortable roleplaying. We are not the law and we shouldn't have to be. That would be the moderators' job.

Mod(erators) are basically the people in charge of keeping order on the site. It is up to them to scan through all the posts on the site so that the admins don't have to. Mods are given the task to make sure that everything is in order. If they see something in your Journal piece that should not be there then they will send you a message to tell you to fix it. They will also crack down on those misbehaving. They will send you a warning describing what you did and tell you not to repeat it. Continued misbehavior will result to a 1 day suspension. Additional counts of unruliness will increase the length of the suspension. Banning is a last resort reserved only to those who don't know how to be part of a digital society. All bannings will have to come with a reason that everyone can agree to in order for it to happen.

So now that you know what we do, you can learn how we would like to spend our free time. Most mods and admins are likely to have playing characters of their own. If they enter a playing session with that character, they can't play as any major NPCs in that session. They can, however, do so with any other RP outside the one they are in. The mod or admin is to be treated as a player in these sessions, and another mod/admin will need to play as the other NPCs. It will also be that mod/admin's job to make sure to lock a thread when it is clear to everyone that the RP has ended.

NPCs are characters not played by the players in a session. These NPCs are controlled by mods or admins instead. Some NPCs, however, can be played by players to an extant. These NPCs are known as Minor NPCs. They are charcters who serve no real purpose in the game other than a way to move the story along without a need of a mod or admin. Minor NPCs hold no power that can alter the play of the game session. Nurse Joy, for example, is a Minor NPC whose only importance is to heal your pokemon and a pokemon center. But sometimes a Minor NPC can evovle into something else when it becomes apparent that they do carry arround some kind of influence.

Thus, Major NPCs come into play. These are the characters that only mods and admins can play as. These character play an important part in your quest and can also be what is hindering you from completion. NPCs can appear and disappear anytime during a RP. How mods/admins can be NPCs must be the first thing that is decided before officially starting a game. When starting a RP, the starting player must wait to see who will join. If a mod or admin comes to ask to join as a NPC then the starting player can say yes or no. Players can't begin without having an assigned NPC position. An alternative towards waiting is sending a request. If you ask a mod or admin to join your RP with a link attached then there is a likely chanse that they will. They do reserve the power to decline much like yourself. As a final rule, only one person is allowed to play as the NPCs during a session.

However, with a system structured like this, there is a chance that this rule may change when the official rules are made. The logical change will be that instead of a mod or admin taking control of NPCs only, we will allow other players to do so. This will, however, mean that they can't use their own player characters in the game for fairness sake. With that said, this also could mean that the starting player can decide to take up an NPC role instead of a character role.

As a small review: Minor NPCs can be controlled by anyone while Major NPCs can only be controlled by a desinated individual. A person to play as NPCs must be choosen at the start before any RPing takes place. The person playing as the NPCs cannot play as a character as well. Sounds like a really easy to understand mechanic and it will also provide a great balance in the RP.

There is still more to come but it'll also be the last of it. I was able to cover a lot today. I'll need to to rest and to gather my notes so to see if I am missing anything. Ask questions in the meantime. It'll help me figure out what I could be missing while also allow me to clarify a weaker subject matter.

[RyuSpike]

This is it. We are almost done. But first, lets reveiw what has been stated.

• RPing will happen within player sessions instead of open locations
  
• You can only be in one session at a time
  
• Someone (probably a player or mod/admin) will be stationed as NPCs
  
• That person can not play as a character if they are NPCs
  
• Players can use Minor NPCs (Nurse Joy, random citizens, etc.) but can't use Major NPCs (Gym Leaders, Elite Four, or anybody of importance within session)
  
• Ability to join sessions will be based on your current location while you are not in a session
  
• Players can change locations if they are within range of the starting location set by the person creating the session
  
• Fly grants players to go anywhere if they have a pokemon with that ability in their active party
  
• Players can not move into starting locations when there is something obstructing their path (water, forests, caves, etc.)
  
• After sessions are over, players write down events relating to their character into their Journals
  
• Journals need links to the game sessions as proof that they happened
  
• Players create Characters in same manner as most Character Sheets are instructed in making
  
• Characters must link to their Journals for quick access if Journals are not part of the Character Sheet
  
• Site will have a quick access codex-like system for players to use in order to find the info they need without opening a search engine
  
• Regions will be organized to hold information on all their locations, Gym Leaders, and Elite Four members
  
• Will be as accurate to the source material as possible, but some things may change in preproduction
  
• Pokemon will be listed on the Character Sheet without seperation between Active or Storage, but instead as a single whole
  
• Character Sheets will instead list the pokemon they are using in their active party
  

That is quite a bit we covered. But it isn't everything yet. There is plenty of points that need to be made so that this can all work out without a glitch. Which will be revealed later tonight. I'm in need of my afternoon nap.

[RyuSpike]

Alright! This is really it! Let's finnish this!

An admendment of the changing locations using Fly statement. Fly can only when one has the badge that allows for the HM to be used outside of battle and within the region only. If you go to another region and tried to use Fly then it won't work since you need that region's badge that allows it. You also can't use it to get to places that you never been to before because that was how the games rolled.

While Fly is a go anywhere for free card, it can only work when you are going to cities or towns. If starting locations are not in any towns or cities then Fly would be pretty useless. That is where the other HMs come in play! If you need to get past a cave to get to the starting local, have a pokemon that knows Flash. Water can be crossed if you have Surf and Rock Climb can help with Mountains. All these are limited by if those pokemon are in your active party or if you have that region's badge that allows it. Easy enough.

Which places that can get passed by which moves will be stated in the codex of the site so that players can be aware of which places they can go during changing. This basically acts as a reward to experienced players who have earned the Gym Badges they fought for. It'll encourage players to obtain the badges so that they can RP with their friends rather than just aiming to go to the Elite Four.

I also came up with a name for those playing the NPCs. The Narrator. They will be in charge of making sure the characters move towards the goal and give players some trouble. The Narrator will be the one who will have the power to play wild pokemon and the pokemon of NPCs. It the battle system planned, Narrators will be the players who'll act as Judges. How will be discussed later. It invovles a lot of math.

Now we need to talk Trainers. The players that will be roaming around. They all need items and the best way is to place them on the Trainer's page. Much like the active pokemon party, items will be changing around a lot. So to best organize these items, one of two things need to be done. Either items are to be placed on the Character Sheet like the active party or they get their own post like pokemon. I prefer the latter because you can create seperate sections within the "Bag" so that you don't get confused of which items you got. Whether they be Key Items or Medicine or Pokeballs, all these items will be placed in the bag and used when pleased.

Now comes to when we should edit these Character Sheets? Well, I am thinking toward AFTER play sessions. Why? Because of two things. One is so that instead of having to go through twenty edits during a single playthrough, you only need to do one big one. This will require players to take notes during their games and use them to adjust their stats accordingly. The other reason would be if a RP goes horribly wrong because of a player has been causing a lot of trouble in the session. If this happens and the thread had to be locked or deleted then all the events in the RP are not canon and no Journal entry can be made. If you already made changes to your character or pokemon then expect a visit from the mods. It won't be pretty so please just take notes during sessions.

Money money money. It is what makes the world go round. It also makes us greedy if we put it above actual relations. Money is used to pay for items or services in our world and in the pokemon world. In the games, you gain money by beating trainers or lose it by being defeated. Basically ten year-old children are making animals fight so that the winner gets the other kid's lunch money.
.....I don't need to say it.

So thank to the efforts of PATMP (Protection from Abusive Training Methods on Pokemon) and Team Plasma, trainers will not be able to gain money through pokemon battles. Allowing such practices to exist will promote children at the age of 10 and higher to join gangs and commit crimes. A recent survey says that 100% of Team Rocket members had gained money through pokemon battles as kids of 10 years of age. We thank Team Plasma for providing us with this survey and it has been very informative. They also say that drugs are not cool. Arceus bless you Team Plasma! How can we ever doubt you?

Money will be instead rewarded through other means. Narrators can set it as a reward for completing an adventure or won by winning the lottery! You could be set an allowance by your parents if they really do love you. Doubt it since they are letting you go off alone into the world with no protection other than the pokemon you have on hand and who knows what kind of pokemon those bad men have on them! So if your parents hate you that much then we here at Advent suggest you get a job.

The currency will be the same as the games, however, the cash value in real life would be closer found in the Japanese yen than an American dollar. Seriously, it does not cost us a $100 for a bottle of water. No matter how bad the economy is right now! Lucky for us the Yen is about equal to a penny so figuring out how much anything is worth is easy enough.

Hopefully I covered everything roleplay related. I will not get into the battling, capturing, or encountering method because those things need to be intergated into the system like everything else. My plan on just the roleplaying needs to be accepted and/or modified before actual design of the battle system can be made. It'll require a lot of math no matter what if we are looking into making battles completely fair.

A lot of things need to go into such things. Experience points to level up pokemon. A method on leveling up pokemon's stats. How much damage is a pokemon capable of doing. Critical hits. Accuracy. Evasion. Moves that increase or decrease stats in battle. A lot of thought and math is needed. Formulas will be needed and have to be easy enough to remember by heart. All this sounds scary, but only to the people who have to design it. Like me.

You should count yourself lucky. You will be getting the easy stuff I'm done crunching it into perfection. Lucky lucky you...

[RyuSpike]

Pokemon and Battles

This is the hardest part when working out a system for pokemon battles where everything is fair and not controlled by the players need to one up each other. Let's face it, none of us like to lose and want to feel like winners all the time. Except for me because I love torturing myself over these little things called problems. So what to do? How do I make a battle system that is fair and believable? The answer?

MATH!!!

Yep. Math. Problem solved. We all can go home now... Oh wait. Most of you are at home, huh? Well this is a bit awkward... What? How will math solve this battle problem? Is it that hard to figure out? I would think you all would know what math can do, but it seems you don't so I'll tell you. What's that? I'm making you feel stupid? That's not true. I'm the one who is talking to nobody right now! And I am expecting answers from that nothingness! Am I just crazy or too stupid to know when to shut up?

Insanity aside, I believe that the answer was much simpler than expected. You see, in order to get into battles you need pokemon. Pokemon have stats. Stats determine the amount of damage a pokemon receives during battle. So rather than starting this discussion in battles, we should look into the pokemon themselves first. May God have mercy on my soul...

Alright, Pokemon will have there own PokeDex within the Codex of the site. Why? Because we will need to make it clear what moves each one is allowed to learn and what requirements will need to be made for evolution and such. This is what players will use to find out what moves their pokemon can learn and what they can do. The pages will also carry the Base Stats of the pokemon so players can get a good look at what stats the pokemon specialize in. It'll be a pain to write up all.... who knows how many there are now! But as long as we organize them right then it'll be no problem.

Now that PokeDex is covered, it is time to get into the Trainer's Pokemon page. Pokemon are required to show their Name, Gender, Height, Weight, Ability, Level, Exp, Stats, and Move Set. Each one will be explained below:
Name: Every pokemon has a name. Most of them by their species. Human trainers that love them enough, however, will call their pokemon by names given to them by that loving trainer. It makes them unique in one more way than the rest of their kind. Or you could just be a jerk trainer with no heart and never name your companions. You are also so unloving that you will make them breed together despite that they are parent and child. You make me sick.
Gender: Gee... I wonder what this could mean? Maybe something to do with monkeys? Or penguins? Or it has to do with your pokemon being a boy or girl. Or neither for some pokemon.
Height: What is this doing here? What does this have to do with pokemon or battling? Not much really, but it does help make your pokemon unique! In the PokeDex, a pokemon with have a Base Height and Base Weight. These are the physical size a pokemon will have in life. But life doesn't work in exacts. With that said, you can adjust the size of your pokemon so that they are either bigger than normal or smaller. This will, ofcoarse, affect a pokemon's weight too like in real life. 50% of an average pokemon's height is atleast 50% of the average weight. Easy math. It'll also be perfect for newborn pokemon. Let's say Snivy are only 0'11" when they are born then gain their 2'0" when they reach maturity. Imagination is the key and we are lending it to you to figure out where it goes.
Weight: Imagination. Now that is covered, unlike height, weight does have something to do with battling. Several moves depend on weight for their power. Grass Knot is stronger when your opponents are heavier. Much like height, your pokemon's weight will be different than what the game's provide you. You can even make your pokemon fat! Doesn't that sound fun? Depending on your training methods, your pokemon's weight can be the key to winning a fight or losing. Makes you wish the games can be like this huh?
Ability: Those from Gen 3 and up know what these are. And much like the games it'll be one per a customer. Abilities that a pokemon can have will be listed in their PokeDex entry. Gluttony also makes your pokemon heavier than normal naturally. It's because they eat too much. Fatties.
Level: This is to indicate the power level a pokemon has. This basically says that I have been trained to be super strong by my awesome trainer! From researching the levels of pokemon in-game and comparing them to the anime, a revelation came to mind. The Elite four are the best trainers in the regions. Their levels in the game only go up to 60 when you first meet them. Battle Frontier always force your pokemon to level 50 in their special arenas. So here is what I think. Level 50 is basically a pokemon's 100% in physical terms. So going over 50 is like going beyond the 100% marker. Makes level 100 an even more unbelievable peak for a pokemon to climb towards. Levels also give you better stats. For those who haven't figured that out yet.
Exp: This is what gives you higher levels. You gain experience from battles. You might also receive it from RPing training, but I am not sure how that is going to work out yet. Experience will be displayed by showing current EXP with the EXP needed to level up. I am also thinking of doing what 5th Gen did with experience where you gain more experience when your level is lower than your opponents. Makes it so much more fair.
Stats: These are what makes battles happen. HP determines how long you can last in a fight. Attack tells you how strong your punches are while Defense is how well you can take those punches. Special Attack makes sure your lazerbeams deal super damage as Special Defense tries to prevents that damage from finishing you off. Speed is your pokemon's speed and is what will determine the order in which you battle. All of them increased through leveling up and all of them used in battle to bring the hurt.
Moves: This is what everybody has trouble with when deciding on limits on the number of moves you can have. Some go with the classic four. Others go for much larger numbers while others take out the limit altogether. The argument being is that four is too small and limited a number of moves a pokemon can use in battle. Many people claim that the characters in the anime have their pokemon use more than four moves all the time. This isn't entirely true. If you take notice, neither trainer or gym leader ever used more than four moves in their battles. And those battles were challenging and awesome. Therefore four is not a small number during fights, but it does limit on the range of moves your pokemon can have. So here is how it is going to happen. Each pokemon will have a max of ten moves that they know by heart. Anymore and their tiny pokemon minds will forget one move for each new one. When entering battles, you get to choose between two rule sets. Official League rules or Freelance. League rules makes it so that you can only use four moves in a battle. Freelance will allow you to use all ten. Gym Leaders and Elite Four always go by League Regulations. This will let you figure out which moves to use for gym battles without losing so many useful attacks. Easy and fun.

Looks like we covered two major things tonight. The PokeDex and the Trainer's Pokemon. Next up will be about the individual stats and how to level them up. Then after that will be the one thing everybody is waiting for. How to conduct battles. Till next time trainers-to-be!

[RyuSpike]

Stats. How do we get them? In the games, pokemon are given Base Stats in which they are number values that all pokemon in that species has while leveling up. The games also have IVs and EVs that alter stats between pokemon. EVs stands for Effort Values. EVs are obtained from battling pokemon and winning them. Every four EV point equals to one stat point. These points can be altered by using berries or medicine. IVs stand for Individual Values. These points are permanent and can not change. They are a hidden value and I personally don't know exactly how much they influence the individual stats they represent.

This is the core problem for us. EVs can be done and is possible to calculate, but IVs are impossible without a special calculator that you can only find on pokemon specialty sites like Serebii. We could simply use just use the calculator to tell us the stats of a pokemon as it levels up, but that is going to be a major pain. Think about it. A player's Charmander levels up. Charmander is going to have a stat increase. Problem is that the narrator needs to calculate how strong that Charmander gets. First they need the player's pokemon's IVs and something tells me that players aren't going to be totally honest about them. Also come into mind that somebody needs to come up with these IVs. Players can't be trusted so the Narrator or admins need to give IVs to pokemon. Now imagine doing that EVERY SINGLE TIME a pokemon pops up in a RP. A real pain.

Long story short is that it will take up a lot of time to just level up a pokemon or even having a wild one appear. Having either admins, mods, or even regular people to go through so much trouble will break the players from their game and go into bureaucracy mode. Nobody wants that to happen. Although, for those curious about that Charmander sample, here is how using a IV calculator would have resulted.

Charmander is at level 10 and going 11. His IVs are 20 Hp, 11 Atk, 11 Def, 21 SpAtk, 18 SpDef, and 28 Spd. His nature is Bold. His Evs are 4 Hp, 16 Atk, 8 Def, 20 SpAtk, 20 SpDef, and 40 Spd.
His stats under these conditions at the level of 10 would be as follows:
29 Hp - 14 Atk - 14 Def - 19 SpAtk - 17 SpDef - 21 Spd
Now evovled to level 11:
31 Hp - 16 Atk - 16 Def - 21 SpAtk - 18 SpDef - 23 Spd
That stats that had been modified were as follows:
+2 Hp - +2 Atk - +2 Def - +2 SpAtk - +1 SpDef - +2 Spd
Now let's see this guy at level 100:
209 Hp - 111 Atk - 114 Def - 151 SpAtk - 128 SpDef - 173 Spd
Now to compare it to a Charmander without EVs or IVs:
188 Hp - 109 Atk - 91 Def - 125 SpAtk - 105 SpDef - 135 Spd
The comaparision:
+21 Hp - +2 Atk - +23 Def - +26 SpAtk - +23 SpDef - +38 Spd

That's a pretty impressive difference for a little guy. It's only too bad that it all might not be truly accurate. I had to do all lot of figuring out just to get what I got. Hence why it is going to be pain for everybody else to do. The simplest, and probably the best, solution to this is to remove IVs from the equation. We will also need to find a new way to deal with EVs as well. I am still experimenting with a method for fast stats increasing without the use of a calculator, but that is still miles away from being a functional method.

For now, it is best to just use a Stats calculator for leveling up and stats. Narrators will need to keep track of EVs gained during battles and also need to know the EVs gained by past battles for that pokemon. Might have to make the Stats on the Trainer's pokemon page be placed in tables so it'll be easier to organized the numbers. Sense we will not likely have IVs be part of the equation, we might as well increase the EV limit so that Trainers can get a wider range of balancing. Since battles will take to long to do, EVs will be able to be gained by doing special training performed in the RP. Thinking about it, Ash trains his pokemon without going into battle all the time so it is only reasonable that you can do the same!

Hrm... This might actually work out even with IVs! If only human error wasn't in the mix! Consider it and state your own opinions!

Now experience gaining! Experience is going to be hard to fully figure out. Luckily we have Serebii and many other similar sites to help out! We will start with gaining experience then the growth rate of experience. The gaining one is much easier to do because it's formula is so simple.... It's simple to me and anybody else who cares for algebra. Those who don't are going to hate this. Especially since I'm using the new Black&White formula.

{(trainer * trade * base experience * lucky egg * defeated pokemon's level)/(5 * # of your pokemon used)} * {(defeated pokemon's level +2)/(your pokemon's level +2)}+1 = total experience gained

What each part means is simple. Trainer represents if it is a trainer battle or wild battle. This becomes 1.5 if it is a trainer battle and 1.0 if it is a wild battle. Trade is if your pokemon that just won was a traded pokemon. It is 1.5 if it is and 1.0 when it's not. [Base Experience[/b] is a set number that a species of pokemon will give and will need to be placed in the pokemon pages we make. Lucky Egg is an item that boosts EXP and is worth 1.5 if equipped and 1.0 if it isn't. The rest is pretty self explanatory. The number of pokemon used part means how many of your pokemon have been used in that battle. Making it a max of 6, but Exp Share pokemon are added in even though they haven't battled. Now that we know what makes the formula, let's use it!

Your lvl 11 Charmander just beaten up that Wild lvl 13 Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur's Base Exp is 64. Nobody was traded, no Lucky Eggs were used, no Exp Share, and Charmander won the fight on his own. Time to use the formula:
{(1*1*64*1*13)/(5*1)} * {(13+2)/(11+2)}+1
(832/5) * (15/13) +1
(166.4) (1.15) +1 **1.15 is rounded up
192+1= 193

Congrats! You know how to gain experience! Easy right? Now to the amount you need to gain... Which involves formulas that are easy to calculate like the one above, but some are missing. So that means we will need to make up new ones for this forum only! So here are the max number of experience you can have your pokemon get. Each of them is placed in their own category.

Erratic - 600,000 EXP
Fast - 800,000 EXP
Medium-Fast - 1,000,000 EXP
Medium-Slow - 1,059,860 EXP
Slow - 1,250,000 EXP
Fluctuating - 1,640,000 EXP

This is to explain just how much work it is to level up a pokemon that has that growth type. Charmander being Medium-Slow makes him harder to level up compared to a Medium-Fast Pikachu. Here are the formulas used to find the current amount of EXP needed to level up.

Erratic - {MAYBE} 0.6(Current Level)^3
Fast - 0.8(Current Level)^3
Medium-Fast - (Current Level)^3
Medium-Slow - 1.2(Current Level)^3 - 15(CurLvl)^2 + 100(CurLvl) - 140
Slow - 1.25(Current Level)^3
Fluctuating - {MAYBE} 1.64(Current Level)^3

Can you tell which ones I had to make up? Good. So example time. Charmander is now level 11. How much experience does he need to level up?
1.2(11)^3 - 15(11)^2 + 100(11) - 140
1.2(1331) - 15(121) + 1100 -140
1597.2 - 1815 + 960 = 742.2

With that taken cared of, we can then place the experience we gained with the experience we need. Charmander had gained 193 EXP from that battle with Bulbasaur so let's add it to our current EXP!
Charmander's EXP: 193/742
Not quite there, but there is plenty of battles waiting for you little lizard friend! Not to mention the training your trainer will put you through!

So that is how experience and stats will work out. In retrospect, Exp is actually the easiest thing to work with while the hard decission making is around the actual stats. And that is still up for debating sense stats make a serious impact in fighting! If we can't make it so that the stats are balanced with the battling system then the entire RPG will crumble into a miserable pile of failure and unfairness. This IS an important aspect and can not be overlooked. Whether or not IVs are used will change your gaming experience completely.

Until next time, I will be putting the finishing touches on the battling system we will use on the site. Something that isn't going to be all about stats and formulas. Something that we allow you as the player to truly express yourself through roleplay! Because if you wanted a simple "I use this and it hits you, you use that and it hits me" method then you a better off playing the actual games. This is a RP forum! With that in mind, the RPG elements of this place should be powered by the Roleplayers! I promise that this battling system will allow for both fun roleplaying as well as calculated statistics that the narrators could crunch on so hard that their teeth will scatter into rainbows! Rainbows that can kill! The same kind of deadly rainbows that will make you explode! TWICE!

Until next time future trainers!

[RyuSpike]

Conducting Battles

There are two solid methods on how this can be done. The first method is that each player calls out their attacks why the narrator writes out the results afterwards. The second method is where a player calls out their attack, the narrator announces the damage then it's the other player's turn. Truthfully, the one that will be used is pretty obvious. Don't see it? I'll give ya a minute.




...Time's up! The first one is obviously the method we will be using. Why even mention the second method if I didn't even plan on using it? Good question, and here's my answer. To truly understand how a battle is to be conducted on a forum, one must know all the wrong ways the battles can be done so that they don't end up with something broken and unplayable. Allow me to demonstrate this.

The second method that has the players announce their attacks one at a time with the narrator telling the damage that will be dealt. This is not a good thing. One reason is that there will be too many posts. While roleplaying will require a lot of posting and the reason why we are giving players individual roleplays is so that they can keep track of all of those posts they made. But sometimes, more is less and that is definitely true for roleplays that involves battles. If battles take up more space on the thread's pages than the actual characters being roleplayed then we have a major issue. Method One would only result in making 3 pages per a turn; Player 1, Player 2, and the Narrator. Method two will result in 4 posts per turn; Player 1, Narrator, Player 2, and the Narrator again. Total waste of space.

Another reason is that it won't allow for players to properly respond to each other's attacks. For example, Player 1's Raichu uses Thunder Bolt then the Narrator calculates the damage. Player 2 has his Jynx use Protect. Narrator would then have to announce that Jynx received no damage. Waste of math. And then there is the issue with Speed! Player's pokemon have different levels of speed and then there are moves that can also increase the speed of the user so that they can move faster than before. What then? Players would have to change up the order a lot. And when changing pokemon for full on battles... Waste of time.

Now you can truly appreciate how more fluid the first method is. If players call out their attacks before the Narrator describes the results then the battle will run quicker and more smoothly. The Narrator can calculate the damage for both pokemon in a single post, and can change up the order they attack since he is aware of whose faster. Moves like Protect and Detect can be used without flaw, and moves like Quick Attack won't get lagged. Let's not forget about status effects and weather conditions! Damage taken during the end of turns will be accounted for without needing to make for than one post. Three posts make a turn in time. You head will be stuck with this rhyme.

Another advantage with having this battling method is that it doesn't matter who goes first as the players are concern. A metagame is going to be part of the excitement and it is all about the speed that players announce their commands to their pokemon. Taking notes from the show to heart, I concluded that when it comes to battling it is all about giving out your orders. In a realistic sense, we are shouting orders to our pokemon for them to follow. Pokemon who are quick on their feet would naturally be able to complete their orders before their opponent does. Pokemon who are at a higher level of training would also likely out-speed a more lower level foe. So this method of conducting is not only preventing postage dumping, but also provides your imagination with fridge logic. Amazing!

And that is how battling is done! Simple right? Players will hardly waste time posting like this. But that isn't everything though. I only just laid the grounds on how battles will be conducted. Now it is time for you, the player, to learn about the true metagame that is pokemon battles. It will contain all the rules of battle and how you can use it to your advantage. If this was the ground work then you are about to go down into the basement!

Strategy is key to winning pokemon battles. Combos, type advantage, mathmatics, stylish moves, and countering your foe. This is where all the real math will take place. Narrators are going get finger sores and headaches from all those numbers that they will be crunching! Dudes. It will be epic... But I won't detail it tonight. One is because I am still working out the formulas into perfection. Two is because I like to jerk your chains. And three is because I really REALLY REALLY want you all to understand of it will all work! The system of damage and stat adjustment and accuracy and evasion needs to be simple to understand so that pretty much anybody can understand it and hopefully we can have more people to take on narration roles more often than depending solely on mods and admins. We have better things to do like increasing the size of the Codex! More locations, pokemon, attacks, and abilities is always fun! Till next time future trainers!

[RyuSpike]

The Battle Challenge

The games have provided us with an excellent choice of how to have bloody little terrors fight each other to the death. There is classic Single Battle, the cooperative Double Battle, the warring Triple Battle, and the cunning Rotation Battle. All four can be played on this site thanks to the "Players Go First" rule I established earlier. I will just go over the alterations and mindset players will need for each one.

Single Battles have you battle up to a set limit of pokemon each player has agreed to use. This is going to be the most common method of battle and will be standard amongst the gym leaders. Unless you have a twin then it's a Double Battle. There isn't much to say. This is the standard method of battle afterall.

Double Battle is a bit more interesting. For these, you have two pokemon out instead of one. Narrators have to do a lot more math for these because of this. For players, it is about strategy there are now two targets instead of one so that means trainers need to point out which of your foes you want to attack. Moves like Surf and Earthquake will hurt your ally as well as your enemies. This is also the mode that allows you to have another trainer join you in a fight against one or two others. This is also likely going to be a common method to battle since it always players to fell like they are truly working together to complete their goals.

Triple Battle is a much larger version of Double Battle in which three pokemon fight three others in battle. This is where placement is important in the games since your ability to target is dependent on where your pokemon are. This is where it gets problematic with roleplays because we don't have visual aids. We could have it so the player announces the location of each of their pokemon whenever they give out a command. The locations will be called Left, Center, and Right. Left and Right can only target pokemon adjacent to them while Center can target anybody. It'll probably be best to order the pokemon in posts with Left being first and Right is last. I predict that this one will be rarely used as much and is best for more advance players.

Rotation battle is going to be fun. Basically, it is Triple Battles minus the large amount of math the narrator has to do. Battles will start when two players went out three of their pokemon. The trainer will choose one of their three pokemon to be the first to go out into battle. The rest of it then plays out as if it is a Single Battle, but with a twist. Instead of using the same pokemon over and over, you can switch pokemon up at the start of each round. The gameplay is smooth and the player only needs to worry about a single target at a time. The best part is that the other two are still on the field so they still get to keep stat boosts they have gotten in battle. This style is also recommended to advance players since it will involve a lot of strategy to win these fights.

Now you know what playing these different battles will be like. Knowledge like this will aid in how moves will be used in Advent. It also means that the Codex will have a list that holds information of every single move that is in the game. So yeah. Us admin have some work cut out for us. Luckily there will be a template for us to use for when that happens. Yay.

[RyuSpike]

The Battle Field

What will make Advent so unique is that unlike in the games, the field in which your battle will take place will effect the pokemon that fight on it. It only makes sense to do so. A lot of the battle system in Advent is based on the show with game mechanics fused into its core. Different battle fields will bring out different effects. When the site makes its official launch, we will have all those field types and their effects listed. Most likely all part of the Narrator's Tools section. A section dedicated to the Narrators so that they can look up formulas and such that won't be listed in the codex. It'll also contain all the rules and set up that regular players don't want to be bothered with.

Back to the battlefield, it is all really simple. The Narrator gives a simple summary of the battlefield before battle and hints at all the things a player can do with it. Can't give away all the answers, right? For example, two trainers are battling nearby a lake. They are given flat land between the lake and forest to fight on. This provides us with several Field Elements where the battle can take place.

These elements are the Lake, the Flat Land, the Forest Trees, and the Sky. The Lake provides Water in which a Water type pokemon can enter into it and increase it's Evasion since Water Pokemon have higher mobility in their natural element. The same can be said for Flying Pokemon if they are airborne. This, however, doesn't mean these pokemon are safe. Pokemon that are in the lake are treated like Water types as in they carry the Electrical weakness. It is basically having Soak being used on you so Ground types in water will suffer badly. But if your pokemon can get out of there then they will return to normal. Nifty, eh?

Flying Pokemon have a different kind of problem. In order to get to the Sky, Flying pokemon if need to skip their turn to move up there. Being in the Sky is basically flapping at two stories and doesn't need the move Fly to reach. Fly is actually a move that brings Pokemon even higher to the point that no moves (except for homing attacks like Swift) can hit it. So Flying types are given three levels of height that they battle in. 1^st Story, 2^nd Story, and Sky High.

1^st Story provides a weak evasion bonus and is the zone where Physical Attacks take place. This means that your opponent can only attack you with Physical moves here if their pokemon can't fly or are no high enough. This is where Flying Pokemon start off in battle (most of the time). The 2^nd Story is a lot more difficult for those that can't fly. Pokemon that move on the Ground can't reach pokemon that are too far up for most of their physical attacks to work. Only long range moves can reach up that high and still hit, but the distance will prove to be a challenge since the open air will give the flying pokemon an even higher evasion boost than before.

Sounds like Flying types are keep buggers, huh? Lucky for you, their powers comes with a price. Flying pokemon with short range moves need to travel towards their opponent to the level they are at. So a Pidgey that is 2 Stories high must go back down to the first story so that he can use Peck on Pikachu. After attacking, the Pidgey must then stay at the height they are flying at until commanded to move elsewhere. This can be good for those fighting an airborne battle in which one opponent will fly higher while the other uses an attack to reach that same height without wasting a turn. Makes battling in the air a lot more interesting.

Then there is the fact that Flying pokemon are too powerful whenever they are in the air. Which is why Trainers need to think outside the box and learn a valuable skill when fighting Flying types. Mostly, Grounding them! When on the ground, Flying pokemon do not have an evasion bonus and are vulnerable to Ground attacks. This is a great way to take down you opponent's Flying Types fast. Another downplay for flyers is the fact that you you won't always have the open skies to aid you. Sometimes you will need to battle in a narrow hall inside a building or in a cave. Height advantage will not be very helpful in those cases.

Sometimes you will find yourself battling in the air alone. This opens up to a whole new way to battle. Now we are given three interactive layers while a 4^th layer is used for Pokemon using Fly. Players have their Flying types start off in the Leveled Layer at the start of battle. By skipping their turn for attack, players can have their pokemon move up or down a layer. The available layers being the Above Layer and the Below Layer. Evasion bonuses are given based on distance an a lot of movement between layers for Narrators to keep track of. Fun for all!

For those fighting in water, we have a familar system. There is the Water Surface, Shallow Waters, and Deep Waters. Shallow Waters is water that non-water types can swim down to while Deep Waters can only be reached by Water pokemon. The difference between the air and water fields is that Water pokemon can travel between the Surface and the Shallow depths without losing a turn. This is logical because it is only a matter of submerging yourself underwater. Going from the Shallow end to the Deep depths is a different matter because that invovles some swimming.

Attacks underwater will be a lot more limiting due to the nature of it. Electric attacks are a lot more damaging to all in the water. Including the one who is using the attack if they are stupid enough to use it in the water. It is also dangerous to stay underwater for too long if you are an air breather. I'll give you three turns max before you are forced back to the surface. Maybe less if you were hit hard enough to loss some of your much needed air. What's worse is that it takes losing a turn to swim back to the surface for surface dwellers unlike the free ride down. If you fail to escape then your pokemon automatically faints, but League Federation laws prevent your opponent's pokemon from forcing such a thing onto your pokemon. Doing so is illegal since this is obviously indangering lives. Any offenders will be penalize for being so cruel. Looking at you Team Rocket/Aqua/Magma/Galatic/Plasma!

Aside from drowning, mobility is also poor for those not of the water type. Their evasion will go down in the water and the accuracy of some moves will also go down as well. Water Pokemon, however, get a major boost in their evasion because of their typing and their Water attack gain a boost in power as well. For those who are thinking it, yes you can still use moves like Water Gun even though you are underwater. Instead of being water, Water Gun will be a jet stream similar to what you find in hot tubs. But more powerful. And Fire types down stand a chance since Fire attacks are worthless underwater.

Much like the air, water can only run so deep. It can also be frozen over by an Ice Beam which can trap your pokemon underneath and will waste a turn just to break out of it. The move Dive has your pokemon go down into the deepest depths of the water then back up a turn later. Fire pokemon can use Fire attacks above the surface and use it on the water to create a layer of steamy fog which will increase their evasion. Water can be relocated if trainers were smart enough to find a way and a smart trainer is also known as a winner.

Another great thing about this is the field of battle can and will change over the coarse of the battle. Rocks that stand in your way can be crushed. Water can be turned into steam. Dirt into mud. A roof into a skylight. The possibilities are as endless as human imagination! Trainers who know how to fight in their environment are the ones who will one day be champions. Even if your pokemon are weaklings compared to your foe, as long as you know how to use a Poliwag, a cup of water, and a rubber ducky then you can win against pokemon like Charizard easily.

Exact numbers and field discriptions will be revealed in their own pages as soon as the site opens. Knowing these things won't be nesserary to play, but it would be great to learn them so that you can better yourself in the art of battle. Knowledge is power and power is best used for victory! Plus, with Gym Leaders like Misty around, this will be a true test of wether you are a true pokemon master or not. So keep on learning future trainers to be!

Because knowing this is only half the battle!

[RyuSpike]

Battle Calculation
I was going to save this on for last because it isn't really all that important. Unless you are going to be a narrator that is then it is very important. You see, this was the hardest formula to simplify because the formula used in the games are so complex. Translating it into RPG Forum format was nearly next to impossible,

Why not just have us use an online Damage Calculator then? Gee golly gosh! I wonder why? Maybe it's the fact that all the damage calculators I've seen use the game's move set only. With a site like this, there is a good chance that we might be adding in new pokemon and new moves. Those damage calculators won't take into account of those kinds of moves. We need a calculator that allows us to set up the power of the move as well as the attack power and the pokemon in battle. So far I haven't found that kind of calculator.

Until I do, we will have to stick with a simplified version of the Damage Formula. But in order to use it, we need to know what is going into it and why it is important. The first major part that needs to be in it is the Pokemon's Attack/SpAttack stat. It is the base of the strength behind those attacks we use on each other. It is what gives those stats purpose. The other major part of damaging is the move's Power. This is the set strength that these moves have. The higher the number, the more powerful the attack. And then there is your opponents Defense/Spdefense. It blocks you.

Now we look into numbers we don't think about in damage. Your Pokemon's level is actually one of the factors used in the game. It is the other reason why your attacks do so much damage because your pokemon is a lot more experienced. Then we have the STAB effect which increases the damage of attacks by x1.5 and the typing of your opponent's pokemon. Items can also aid in making your attacks stronger. Then there is a random number that is rolled in so that it isn't consistent.

So now for formula time! Here is the game's Formula:
((2A/5+2)*B*C)/D)/50)+2)*W)*X)*Y/10)*Z)/255= Damage
A= Your Pokemon's Level
B= Your Pokemon's Attack/SpSttack stat (can be modified in battle)
C= Your Move's Power
D= Your Opponent's Defense/SpDefense (can be modified in battle}
W= Item's Modification
X= STAB
Y= Type Modification (x40, x20, x15, x10, x5, and x0)
Z= Random number between 217 and 255

For some weird reason, the programs made the x4, x2, x1.5, etc. part whole numbers instead of decimals. Luckily my version will be shorter since I'll be getting rid of that unnecessary dividing by 10 part. The formula is mostly perfect except for that random number bit. That is going to be hard to get right and is the reason why we can't use just any random online calculator since they don't make this factor a choice.

Now here is my formula with the valuables being the same mostly:
((2A/5+2)*B*C)/D)/50)+2)*W)*X)*Y)*Z)/100 = Damage
or
((Power Level)(Attack Power)(Move Power) /Defense /50+2)(Modifiers)(Random#) /100 = Damage
A= Interesting note. This number is the one that gets doubled in-game.
Y= Now it is the normal x4, x2, x1.5, x1, x0.5, x0 format.
Z= Random Number between ~85 to 100

An example:
A level 50 Lucario with a SpAttack of 121 uses Aura Sphere with the Power of 90 attacks a Miltank with 90 SpDefense. The Random Number is 100. No held items for Lucario.
((2(50)/5+2)*121*90)/90)/50)+2)*W)*1.5)*2)*100)/100
(100/5+2) = 22
(22)(121)(90) = 239580
239580/90= 2662 2662/50=53.24 53.24+2=55.24
55.24 * 1.5 * 2 * 100 = 16572 16572/100= 165.72
Damage = 165 max
For those interested, the damage would be 310 if it was a critical hit. A lot less than the double damage idea. Even though it's more accurate, I'll go with Critical Hits double the total damage idea. It'll be a lot less work for those Narrators too. It definitely felt like work typing it all down here. Lucky you you, it is easier to just run it down your home calculator then write down the results.

You are probably wondering why I moved that 255 to 100, right? Because I can. Math is involved and it took me a lot of experimenting to find the right set for it. It is also the best way for me to fit it in with the accuracy and evasion method that will be discussed later on. The reason for the ~85 is that I am not sure if that will be the permanent mark for that valuable. That might change when I get into the next part. Until then future trainers!

[RyuSpike]

Hit, Miss, or Move Out of the Way!

Being a pokemon is tough work. You are forced to fight to the death with a bunch of strangers you never met after you beaten up a bunch of wild pokemon who were minding their own business until your master had you attack them. Yep, life is rough for you. Especially when you can't seem to hit the target at all! You keep blacking out after a bunch of pokemon beat you unconscious. Your master hits you for awhile then chucks you into the woods where you get mutilated by an Ursaring. Then peed on.

Well, here is a little tip for you. Aim! Pokemon after you? Dodge! But how?! Easy! You have the narrator roll for it! Simple as that! Hopefully your attack hits your opponent hard and hopefully the same doesn't happen to you! If it does then pray it isn't a Critical Hit.

So now you are wondering how this is going to happen, right? When developing this game, I used influence from some tabletop RPGs that uses accuracy. In those games, they use special dice called d10 which is a ten-sided die that has the numbers 0-9 printed on them. They usually come in different colors for the purpose of being used to roll for Accuracy. Imagine a red d10 and a white d10 pair of dice. Now roll them. Red has the number 4 and the white has the number 2. Red represents the tens spot and the white represents the ones. The number you just got is 42.

D10s are very useful dice because of this. Also, it is a rule of thumb amongst dice users that when both dice show zero then it is considered a perfect hundred. Amazing and simply perfect for what we need. Ofcoarse, for those who don't have d10 dice should use a random number generator instead. It'll be the same as having a pair of d10 dice minus the fun of rolling them.

Here is how accuracy works. Each move has a number like 85 or 100 under the word accuracy. This number is easily seen as the move's hit percentage (so 80 is logically seen as 80%). The max accuracy is 100 amongst all the moves in the game so this must be true. So a move like Zap Cannon with an accuracy of 50 has a 50% chance of actually hitting your opponent. Pretty bad, but if you used moves or items that increase your chances of hitting then Zap Cannon can be pretty strong to use.

The first thing that needs to be done before calculating damage is to keep for Accuracy. If you roll for the move Zap Cannon to hit then you will need to get a number that is lower than 50. What? Lower? Yes lower. Think for a moment. If 50 out of 100 is the hit zone then that means the other fifty are not. If Accuracy was 85 then you will be aiming to get 85 or less. Get it? So when enhancing your Accuracy number, you are also increasing your chances of making a hit.

So now that you know how to hit, it's time for you to learn to dodge. After rolling for Accuracy, the Narrator now needs to roll for Evasion. Evasion works differently from Accuracy. Accuracy gains a base number from the move that is being used whereas Evasion gains a base number from your opponent's Accuracy roll. It's quite simple really. How well you dodge depends on how well your opponent aims. With that logic in mind let's dive into an example.

Pikachu uses Quick Attack on Squirtle with a set Accuracy of 100. Pikachu rolls a 24 so his move is accurate enough to hit. Now it is time for Squirtle to try to dodge it. With an Evasion of 24, Squirtle has a 24% chance of dodging. Now if Squirtle had used moves like Double Team then his chances of dodging out of the way in increased. This should prove to be a fair method since having a set Evasion number would be too much of an advantage for all pokemon and nobody will be getting hit at all.

After rolling for Accuracy and Evasion, it is 100% certain that your pokemon's attack went through. Now it is time for you to roll for Direct Damage. Remember that Random Number in the Damage Formula? This is where it comes in handy. The numbers 85 through 100 are the numbers that will be used in calculating damage. The numbers up to 50 will be resigned to the Critical Hit mark.

Critical Hits occur 6.5% of the time during battles. Increasing your chances of Critical Hits can help aid your chance of getting one just like with Accuracy and Evasion. However, Critical Hits can only go up five stages and the max number is 50%. So basically you need to score a 6 or lower in order to gain the double damage bonus. Take note that all numbers lower than 85 in your roll are automatically change into 85 for the Random Number part of the Damage Calculation.

This means that even though you do land a Critical Hit, it is always double of the minimum amount of damage you can deal. This will make it fair so you don't keep KOing your opponents too quickly. For numbers 85 and higher, the number given will be the number used. Rolling a 95 or 86 will become a 95 or 86 in the Damage Calculations. Nifty huh? This makes it just three easy rolls for every move used, and sometimes you don't need to do more than 1 or 2.

This system makes hitting and missing not only fair, but fun! You always have 1 out of a 100 for all three rolls to chance fate in battle. You get to use only one generator or a pair of dice to calculate it all. And best of all, it is easy to translate this into the field rules for even better strategy. Maneuvering the battlefield so to increase your Evasion or destroying as many obstacles so there is nowhere to hide. Battles get more interesting and the numbers are flexible enough to handle the complexity.

You are ready to battle future trainers of Advent! However, that isn't everything. You only just learned about the basics. Next time, I will be revealing how to truly fight in epic battle! Until the next post future trainers and narrators!

[RyuSpike]

Move Types Clash

We have Fire, Water, Grass, and Electric Types that help determines how much damage an attack can do to another pokemon. But what about the moves themselves? Moves have all sorts of shape and form. Pokemon use different parts of their body to do many physical attacks. Special attacks fire laserbeams and energy balls at your foes. Protect causes a barrier to erect around your pokemon so no damage can be taken. All these attacks have some way for them to work.

Some of these Move Types are easy to point out mainly because of their names. Fire Punch and Drain Punch are both Punch attacks. Triple Kick and Blaze Kick are Kick attacks. And Aura Sphere is a Sphere attack. But other moves are a lot more subtle. For example, Water Gun and Ice Beam belong in the same Move Group called Linear. Many more types will be revealed as the move list is created.

The importance of having the Move Types to begin with is very simple. Several elements within the games have the ability to either enhance or neglect certain moves your pokemon have. For example, the ability Iron Fist gives a 20% increase to the Power of punching attacks. In other words, all the moves under the Punch category will receive a 20% boost in their power. A Drain Punch's 75 Power will now have the Power of 90 which can greatly aid giving the hurt to your foes.

Abilities like Sound Proof can tune out Sound attacks which makes it impossible for moves like Sing and Hyper Voices from harming your pokemon. Close Range attacks like Punches and Kicks won't be able to reach Flying pokemon high in the air. Sky Uppercut being the except due to it's skyward nature. Attacks like Vine Whip, however, is a Long Range physical attack so unlike the Punch moves, the Whip moves can harm those flying birds.

This kind of organization can aid trainers in figuring out what kind of moves are best for a situation while also making it easy for narrators to figure out what enhances what. This will also greatly help us, the admins, in the creation of new moves and abilities to help make the battles more interesting and challenging. These small details can really change up how one is to battle and it really isn't that hard to comprehend them all since we are just putting some logic behind the shape of these attacks.

And speaking of shapes, this also brings an interesting concept that is borrowed from the show. Attacks reflecting attacks or meet at a stalemate. Example time. Eevee uses Shadow Ball and sends it at Charmander. Charmander uses his Ember to try to burst that Shadow Ball before it hits him. For a player to make this happen, one of them has to announce it as part of their attack. Meaning that after Player 1 has his Eevee use his Shadow Ball, Player 2 commands his Charmander to try and destroy the attack before it hits him. Player can only do this, logically, after Player 1 calls out his attack. Also, this kind of maneuver will skip the Accuracy and Evasion step of the opponent's attack. Which means that if your move fails then you will get an automatic hit and your opponent gets a +10 in their Critical Roll (So if they rolled a 1 and gets the Critical Hit Bonus, instead of having a 85 in their Random roll, they will get 95. 90+ rolls will only be 100 however since that is the max number).

Instead of the normal Accuracy and Evasion check, the Charmander will need to perform an Accuracy and Clash check. Clashing is a roll that is based on the Attack Power of the pokemon's moves. To figure this out, you need to first calculator the two pokemon's Attack Power in their moves. Our level 10 Charmander has the Special Attack of 18 with an Ember with a Power of 40. This makes Charmander's Attack Power into 7. The level 12 Eevee's Special Attack is 17 and its Shadow Ball has the Power of 80. This makes Eevee's Attack Power 14. (Everything is rounded up by 5)

The first step in Clashing is to check the difference between the powers of the two attacks. An easy subtraction problem will solve this. 14 minus 7 equals 7. Now for us to see if the attack stands a chance against that ball. If the difference is higher than the Attack Power of the weaker pokemon then that pokemon's attack fails. Since Charmander's 7 is the same as the difference, he fails. Poor little guy. But since we need an example let's give him a +5 to great even. Now that Charmander, kinda, passed that doesn't mean he won yet. Now wee go into the struggle step of the Clash.

This is done by using the power of fractions and subtraction. First you need to subtract the difference from the weaker pokemon's Attack Power. Then with this new Attack Power use this simple fraction to learn the Clash Percentage: Weak Pokmon's AP / Strong Pokemon's AP = Clash%. The reason behind the reducing the already weak pokemon's attack value is because it was the only logical move. Charmander's Ember is weaker than Eevee's Shadow Ball. If I went with the original 7 then the fraction would be 7/14 which makes 50%. Higher if I went with the +5.

Clash Percentage is the value which is needed for the Narrator to determine which pokemon will be the victory. Much like the Accuracy roll, the number that is lower than the Clash Percentage will ensue the weaker pokemon's victory in the clash. To get this value, just simple make your percentage into a whole number. The Charmander example, with the difference subtracted, will have the fraction 5/14=36% (percentage is rounded up). This make 36 the needed value for the Clash. In order for Charmander's Ember to win against Eevee's Shadow Ball, the Narrator needs to roll the number 36 or lower for Charmander to win.

If Charmander does get a number lower than 36 then he is the winner of the Clash! The Shadow Ball is destroyed and Charmander is safe. But no damage is dealt this turn so what is the point of wasting time using an attack when Protect get the job done faster? A Morale Bonus ofcoarse! To make this effort worth it, you will receive a Power Boost for the next attack you use. So Charmander's Ember will have the power of 50 instead of 40 thanks to the +10 Power boost the Morale Bonus gave him. It is only used once and won't be active until your next Clash victory. However, this can work against you if your opponent had won the Clash instead which gives them the +10 boost towards their next attack.

During the event of another Clash happening after the first one, the Morale Bonus a pokemon received will be used in this clash as well. So if Eevee used its Shadow Ball again, Charmander will have a Ember with a power of 50 to help him out. Also as an added bonus, the Morale Bonus increases in power by 5 for every consecutive victory in a Clash. This means that every time you win a Clash, your boost will increase in power so that instead of having a one time boost of +10 you'll get +15. The downside is that if you lose a Clash or fail using a normal attack, your Morale Bonus will be reset back to +10. So hoarding up a +20 Power Boost is not going to be an easy task. It'll take great skill or luck to pull that off. The peak of the Morale Bonus is at 30 anyways. I might lower it if this number turns out to be easier to obtain than suspected.

See how it all works out? Now... what if the Attack Powers of the moves were the same in a Clash? The percentage would be 100% since no difference was used. This would mean that no matter what somebody will won, but who? If this was to happen the one you started the Clash will be the winner. Simple as that. Charmander's Ember burst the Shadow Ball, or a Vine Whip deflects an Energy Ball. The pokemon performing the Clash is not struggling to counteract their opponent's attack since they contain the same amount of power.

Now that you understand what goes into a clash, you are probably wondering what Move Types have to do with it. Well, Move Types determine if Clashes are even possible. For example, using a Punch Move will not stop a Wave move like Surf because Surf can just go around your fist. Punch can, however, deflect a Sphere type move. Types also determine what Clash results you get. The Punch move can probably rebound the Sphere move right back at its user if it wins. The element typings of the move can also result in different effects. Like a Fire attack turning a Water move into steam. Anything is possible. Just as long as we provide it all on a list that is.

Taking all this in thought, it comes to my attention that in order for narrators to get all this math done, they are going to need their own little section on the site that reads out all the rules and calculation they need to know if they want to be a successful Narrator. Failing to do the math can lead to very bad RPing experiences for all involved so having this section secures us from being totally responsible. If the Narrator didn't read the rules then why is he trying to be the go-between for battles in the first place? Now, if a Narrator does have problems with the math but still wants to narrate then they may call upon another more experienced Narrator to take their place for the battle portion. Just to be fair for those who have trouble with formulas and keeping track of them.

So that is basically everything to battling! I hope you all enjoyed this. Clashing is only an option for players to use so if nobody likes to do it then they don't have to do it. It is only there to spice things up. Also, if any of you feel that I am missing anything then please do tell me so I can address it later. Until then future trainers!

[RyuSpike]

Nobody making any suggestions or comments... Huh.

Well... I guess I can put in some things I've seen missing from my overall discussion of the rules. One of the things I noticed is that I didn't mention the Capture Method. I forgotten to talk about this one but I also found that I also didn't want to talk about it. I did the research and I know how it is done, but making it into a written formula for people to use constantly seem like a hassle.

There are several factors that go into capturing pokemon. There is the Capture Rate that each pokemon individually carries, the pokeballs' unique modifiers, the status aliment, the current/max HP the pokemon has, and a random number that is rolled three times. This formula is always changing and is going to be annoying to type it all in a calculator. Unless you have a real top class calculators that are expensive to buy and not the small cheap ones they give you in grade school.

Thinking about the Capture Method's formula problem made me think about the other formula-based checks' problems. I am sure a lot of math smart people out there will be able to handle these formulas, but not everyone can do math so well. There is also the fact that narrators will get tired of having to write down hundreds of sheets just so that they can keep track of everything. The only way to solve this problem of formulas is to have a calculator. But not any kind of calculator.

We need calculators that take into account of all the factors.

Can't I just use the calculators from Serebii or Psypoke? Not possible. Why? Because their calculators use already existing pokemon from the games and will be completely useless for any made up ones we will use. And since their stat calculators have the pokemon listed already, we can not modify the base stats so that the base stats of unofficial can be used. We need a stat calculator that can allow us to input the Base Stats, the IVs, and the EVs so that we can get our main Stats. Having a Nature input would work too and the Hidden Power info as a result would be nice.

Point is, we need calculators that are designed so that we can get results for an RPG. A program that easy to use with everything you need laid out for you and all you need to do is put in the numbers. Damage calculators that allows you to adjust the valuables so that any moves can be used, even ones that are made up. I am searching for a way to get these calculators made so that they can be used here on Advent. That is all I can say about that. Until next time future trainers.