In most cases the opposite is true:
-Pokemon learn moves earlier before they evolve, if you don't need the immediate power boost you're usually better off clearing out the learnset.
-Eevee specifically has excellent friendship evolutions that can't be forced.
-Most stone evolutions, like Surge's Raichu, lose out on learning most moves once they evolve. Yes, Surge's raichu canonically got screwed over from evolving too early.
You only really want to rush evolution if the early stage is crippled in some important way(e.g. pupa stages like metapod, helpless first stages like Abra) , or if narrative, the species specialty can only be used after evolving and you need more practice in the final form.
Otherwise waiting 10 levels to evolve usually turns out better more often than not.
They actually patched a lot of those issues up as the generations went on so most Pokemon when they evolve nowadays or rather in specifically gen 9+ as is relevant to us due to that being the system we're operating under will inherit the entire move set of their pre-evolutions as moves learned at level one so evolving is typically the fastest way to unlock moves if you have access to the move tutor at least as you can learn moves dozens of levels early.
I didn't talk about forcing Eevee's evolution I talked about achieving it as early as possible, and if you can achieve a friendship evolution early there's no downside to taking it if it's what you're looking for. And, what I mentioned in my first paragraph does also go for stone evolution such as Raichu as to expand further what you're talking about was mostly a generation one to three issue.
That's why the advice generally in generation four and onward is to evolve your Pokemon as quickly as possible outside of a few edge cases.
Weirdly enough I don't think Pineco has actually fainted thanks to Sturdy. She's been brought to 1 HP multiple times, but hasn't actually fainted from what I remember.
[X] Willow - Willow is proud of her third badge but has been thinking over Surge's words. Adding your thoughts could be useful.
[X] Pineco - Pineco would like to be carried along the way, desiring to see the sights. While the two of you do so, it'd be good to just talk.
[X] Willow - Willow is proud of her third badge but has been thinking over Surge's words. Adding your thoughts could be useful.
[X] Pineco - Pineco would like to be carried along the way, desiring to see the sights. While the two of you do so, it'd be good to just talk.
Alright, looks like discussions with Willow and Pineco win. These will be rather interesting social conversations for me to cover, which I certainly enjoy. And as I planned to roll what Willow's Eevee evolves into, I'll do so here.
1 - Jolteon
2 - Espeon
3 - Umbreon
4 - Sylveon
For reference, Willow was planning to evolve Eevee into a Jolteon, but things may develop otherwise.
Scheduled vote count started by Daemon Hunter on Jul 17, 2024 at 6:45 PM, finished with 14 posts and 8 votes.
[x] Willow - Willow is proud of her third badge but has been thinking over Surge's words. Adding your thoughts could be useful.
Willow has quite a fair bit of exasperation herself. She was building Eevee to be a speed demon so Jolteon was perfect for that. Hell, she actually bought a Thunder Stone from Surge but Eevee evolved a few hours too early.
Willow has quite a fair bit of exasperation herself. She was building Eevee to be a speed demon so Jolteon was perfect for that. Hell, she actually bought a Thunder Stone from Surge but Eevee evolved a few hours too early.
I honestly don't know what to replace Umbreon with. That was literally the only pick I could get my hands on after many hours of surveying my options that was bulky enough to endure mistakes made by questors, wasn't just a superior version of Pineco, and brought a large amount of additional value to the Taunt slot on the team. There are plenty of picks that can do two of those but Umbreon was the only one that did all three.
There are even Eevees placed just after where we earn the badge that unlocks our fifth Pokemon slot based on our present routing. Well, I guess we're just both going to have Umbreons then which sucks but there are literally no viable alternatives.
I honestly don't know what to replace Umbreon with. That was literally the only pick I could get my hands on after many hours of surveying my options that was bulky enough to endure mistakes made by questors, wasn't just a superior version of Pineco, and brought a large amount of additional value to the Taunt slot on the team. There are plenty of picks that can do two of those but Umbreon was the only one that did all three.
There are even Eevees placed just after where we earn the badge that unlocks our fifth Pokemon slot based on our present routing. Well, I guess we're just both going to have Umbreons then which sucks but there are literally no viable alternatives.
Ah, that explains why Umbreon was pretty critical. In case it helps, Willow's Umbreon is going to be rather atypical from the norm in terms of stats and use. Namely due to it having an overly large speed stat but a significantly below average level of health and defense.
Edit: As it may be useful to visualize:
Health: C+
Stamina: C+
Attack: C++
Defense: C
Special Attack: C++
Special Defense: C+
Speed: A-
Evasion: A+
These stats look like someone bred an Eevee and a Jolteon with this being the resulting child. Each normal Eeveelution has a set of two or three stats they specialize in after all but this is literally just the stats of an Eevee but with the Speed and Evasion of a Jolteon. As a normal Umbreon would have A rank Health, Stamina, Defense, and Special Defense with everything else being C rank well by comparison Jolteon would have A rank Special Attack, Special Defense, and Evasion with everything else being C rank.
So these stats actually just look like some freaky missing link between an Eeevee and a Jolteon like you would expect to see in real-life evolution.
Willow has quite a fair bit of exasperation herself. She was building Eevee to be a speed demon so Jolteon was perfect for that. Hell, she actually bought a Thunder Stone from Surge but Eevee evolved a few hours too early.
I honestly don't know what to replace Umbreon with. That was literally the only pick I could get my hands on after many hours of surveying my options that was bulky enough to endure mistakes made by questors, wasn't just a superior version of Pineco, and brought a large amount of additional value to the Taunt slot on the team. There are plenty of picks that can do two of those but Umbreon was the only one that did all three.
There are even Eevees placed just after where we earn the badge that unlocks our fifth Pokemon slot based on our present routing. Well, I guess we're just both going to have Umbreons then which sucks but there are literally no viable alternatives.
...we can still get an Umbreon at some point, and also cmon @ "endure mistakes made by questors".
a team doesn't need to be literally perfect the first time around.
Our parents live in the area where Eevees are placed iirc, so idk, could always try to get them to bring one over to Violet
...we can still get an Umbreon at some point, and also cmon @ "endure mistakes made by questors".
a team doesn't need to be literally perfect the first time around.
Our parents live in the area where Eevees are placed iirc, so idk, could always try to get them to bring one over to Violet
Yes, I did say we'll just have to get our own Umbreon because there's not a viable alternative in the post you're quoting. And, I don't really get your point on my commentary about making mistakes as it's not a question of if we're going to screw up but when so it's important not to build a highly volatile team say with something like an Aerodactyl lead that starts every fight off by committing suicide to set up hazards so that we can recover from those mistakes.
With regards to the team not needing to be perfect, this is something I've gone over in depth before. And well I called out a few specific Pokemon we could get our hands on in this specific response below the point of the response stands for every Pokemon that is being examined for viability in our fifth, and sixth slots.
It's not really about Froslass' move pool or her typing although the latter is pretty bad defensively it's about her stats as she's fast but simply mediocre everywhere else so we'd need to spend a long time training an already rare Pokemon if we want her to survive more than the two turns she'd start out having as a suicide lead. The same goes for Aerodactyl although it has a leg up in move pool as well as typing over Froslass, and well Tyranitar has the stats as well as move pool it's sitting on a laundry list of type weaknesses to the point where the vast majority of Pokemon have super-effective if not super-effective STAB coverage for it.
Meaning even with Daemon Hunter openly stating he's taking more of an anime-balancing approach with Pokemon such that they've all been brought closer to the mean in terms of capabilities, and that it is possible to address type weaknesses that still means each of these fixer-upper Pokemon represents a significant time investment on our part to make a functional member of our team.
This is an issue since we're liable to not get any of these Pokemon until the fifth gym at the earliest so we're not going to have nearly as much time to work with them to address their weaknesses as we will the rest of our team. And, well it's nice to think about the quest lasting a long time with the opportunity for Violet to experience many adventures at present we're a few months into a quest that's already died once that's going to need to last around a year just to complete the adventure we're currently on.
All of this is why I keep favoring Pokemon that are just ready to go off the bat for our team since at least this way we have a chance of being successful in our first journey. Plus having a generally bulky team of good quality is another huge plus since that lowers the skill floor to pilot the team by increasing our tolerance for mistakes an extremely important part of any quest since an incompetent vote being passed is a question of when not if.
And, yes the Eevees by our home are the ones I was referring to when I said there were Eevees on our presently charted route after we unlock our fifth Pokemon slot.
Yes, I did say we'll just have to get our own Umbreon because there's not a viable alternative in the post you're quoting. And, I don't really get your point on my commentary about making mistakes as it's not a question of if we're going to screw up but when so it's important not to build a highly volatile team say with something like an Aerodactyl lead that starts every fight off by committing suicide to set up hazards so that we can recover from those mistakes.
With regards to the team not needing to be perfect, this is something I've gone over in depth before. And well I called out a few specific Pokemon we could get our hands on in this specific response below the point of the response stands for every Pokemon that is being examined for viability in our fifth, and sixth slots.
I'm going to cherrypick this from the post in the spoiler to get to what I want to ask.
What was the expectation should a 'perfect competitive team' have been achieved? Narratively, mechanically, what it means for Violet's journey in Kanto, or other regions.
What's the expectation presently by comparison?
I'm making an assumption here, but is it to win the indigo conference, beat the elite four, become champion, so-on?
Is the perfect part of things the important part? For Violet to win every battle and truly be the best there ever was in the Gym Circuit / Competitive Battler track? I suppose ace trainer maybe.
To me it's also possible that even with the perfect composition a trainer like Flynn could be poised to knock Violet out from the conference tournament if it goes that way. For all I know we could be facing a Scarlet / Violet elite four + battle a Champion scenario.
Dratini's Water Gun would devastate Onix, Magnemite had a notable type advantage against Krabby, Pineco could handle Drowzee, and Pidgy was rather inexperienced. She'd been less direct about it, but that didn't change the facts. To his credit, Tetsuya seemed to understand this, even if he was content to accept the situation. Based on what she knew of him, he was the type to continuously slam his head into a wall rather than find a way around it.
Should we have had that perfect team, is it out of the question that a character with a team composition like say Tetsuya's at present could defeat Violet's in the end?
I'm assuming he won't necessarily have a surprise Mega Steelix should he make it to the Indigo Plateu, but I'm also not ruling out that he's more than "if you tried the power of friendship in the pokemon world if it was real, like Ash, you'd lose" as a character study (in that his, I assume, subpar / maybe 'doomed' picks, will actually turn out that way).
I also see it possible that he, same for Willow, or even Violet, won't get all 8 badges before it's time for the year's conference.
And, yes the Eevees by our home are the ones I was referring to when I said there were Eevees on our presently charted route after we unlock our fifth Pokemon slot.
I did see that.
I'm assuming there's a problem with obtaining the eevees that would be in our fourth gym town, upon unlocking that fifth slot?
Is this problem anything other than backtracking? I don't imagine it's strictly necessary to backtrack after unlocking that fifth slot, and I'm also of the understanding I'm quite possibly wrong about that.
I didn't make any suggestions on mons (at no point do I recall suggesting Aerodactyl, and my talk of Froslass in part was a response to you bringing her up as a bad option iirc?).
I'm in this to enjoy a journeyfic about a kid in the setting who makes friends with pokemon and does the gym challenge, regardless of how well she ranks competitively by the end of her first regional journey or not, let alone her others.
I've wondered the specifics behind the QM screen as to how closely we actually need to follow the metagame, as I understand that Daemon Hunter is using iirc Gen 9 for reference on learnsets and so-on.
So I did wonder if there was anything towards the start on how closely this is meant to follow either anime battling or competitive game battling.
Continuing this out would end in a Squirtle victory most of the time, but stunts and good plans can make it less likely. If Charmander's trainer had come up with an interesting plan using Growl and Ember near simultaneously for instance, perhaps it could have had a more effective initial exchange. Perhaps they could have tried to kite the Squirtle or something else.
Another thing to note, is that this combat system is far more abstract and you'll be able to interact with it more as Violet grows as a trainer, as do her Pokemon. As an example, Violet's Perceptive Trait lets her see which actions Pokemon are using in battle, so she would know what the enemy Pokemon is about to use. This can make planning out battles far easier, but beware, for other trainers can have their own traits and abilities.
I'm open to the idea that maybe there's so much more that could be done with the hypothetical perfect competitive team compositions.
I'm also fairly open ot the idea that it's not necessary to have that team to beat one of those teams.
This is a work of fanfiction, and not all interpretations of the game canons / works in the pokemon franchise follow strictly to the metagame. Going with that doesn't make it any more correct or incorrect.
If I'm wrong, and hell the matter of "when" comes to rear it's ugly head, I'll probably still be reading along happily and voting even if it's on a somber note.
As much of a mistake I understand it is for the perfect composition, I enjoy Pineco and Forretress as pokemon and am pretty happy with one being on the team + the character we have. I'm gonna entertain the possibility that maybe we'll have the chance to fix that mistake by trading away Pineco, or team rocket stealing them and somehow never seeing them again. I'm also of-mind that this could theoretically happen to any mon on our team (say for instance Dratini when we were originally in Saffron, though reuniting would've likely happened eventually even if the dice kept fucking us over).
I lean towards anime logic, and I'm used to the idea of journeyfics not necessarily having a static / permanent cast of team members. Ambipom wanted to pursue a different career track, and it's wholly possible that our Chansey might end up wanting to do ther things with her life sooner or later for instance.
I'm pretty sure I'll still be reading along one way or another.
Edit: also hey I did realize a little after typing this that my laugh react was probably in poor taste. I'd read the meme about disappointment being immeasurable and figured it was meant in jest, but with how things went I think that my laugh react is probably just rude.
What was the expectation should a 'perfect competitive team' have been achieved? Narratively, mechanically, what it means for Violet's journey in Kanto, or other regions. What's the expectation presently by comparison?
I'm making an assumption here, but is it to win the indigo conference, beat the elite four, become champion, so-on?
Generally, if you can't find a direct upgrade to any of your Pokemon you've probably got the closest thing you can get to a "perfect competitive team", and at present Pineco is the only one that we could viably find a better replacement for. Theoretically, there are replacements for every other Pokemon on our team that would be superior but they're not viable for us to find due to being in generations so far removed from Kanto although I would note there are plenty of viable side-grades or alternatives.
Is the perfect part of things the important part? For Violet to win every battle and truly be the best there ever was in the Gym Circuit / Competitive Battler track? I suppose ace trainer maybe.
To me it's also possible that even with the perfect composition a trainer like Flynn could be poised to knock Violet out from the conference tournament if it goes that way. For all I know we could be facing a Scarlet / Violet elite four + battle a Champion scenario.
No, perfect is not the important part that's why I've never stated my goal is to make a perfect team, and why it only ever comes up when others such as yourself have thrust it upon me. If I was aiming for perfect I wouldn't have voted to grab Pineco after all I would have said screw it and grabbed a Staryu, Gliscor, or Skarmory something that can do Pineco's job but better, and I wouldn't be aiming to grab an Umbreon either.
And, yes even if we did build the perfect team we could still lose in fact we will lose eventually even if we do everything we can to build the strongest possible team because losing eventually is inevitable as if you roll the dice enough times eventually you'll lose even if it's a one in a million chance. The point though is to give ourselves the best chance of winning we can with a team of uniquely identifiable Pokemon that will each see consistent use.
I did see that.
I'm assuming there's a problem with obtaining the eevees that would be in our fourth gym town, upon unlocking that fifth slot?
Is this problem anything other than backtracking? I don't imagine it's strictly necessary to backtrack after unlocking that fifth slot, and I'm also of the understanding I'm quite possibly wrong about that.
There isn't an issue as that route extends all the way down to border the fifth gym we'd be going to as well, and I really don't know why you think there is an issue as I pointed this out as a viable place to catch an Eevee with no mention of there being any issues with acquiring one.
I didn't make any suggestions on mons (at no point do I recall suggesting Aerodactyl, and my talk of Froslass in part was a response to you bringing her up as a bad option iirc?).
I'm in this to enjoy a journeyfic about a kid in the setting who makes friends with pokemon and does the gym challenge, regardless of how well she ranks competitively by the end of her first regional journey or not, let alone her others.
In the quote of my previous post, I talked about several of what would be considered meta-competitive Pokemon not because you suggested different Pokemon but because you questioned why other Pokemon weren't viable in comparison to the ones I was discussing so I took the time to explain to you some of the specific criteria I was using that ruled them out, and provided examples to go along with that explanation.
I'm glad you're enjoying the quest, and if me designing a Pokemon team that ya'll will actually use all six Pokemon in since they'll each have a dedicated role that doesn't infringe upon that of others, will be durable enough that we can afford to make mistakes with it, and strong enough to give us the freedom to do whatever people vote for interferes with that you're free to vote against me I'm just one person after all.
I've wondered the specifics behind the QM screen as to how closely we actually need to follow the metagame, as I understand that Daemon Hunter is using iirc Gen 9 for reference on learnsets and so-on.
So I did wonder if there was anything towards the start on how closely this is meant to follow either anime battling or competitive game battling.
I'm open to the idea that maybe there's so much more that could be done with the hypothetical perfect competitive team compositions.
I'm also fairly open ot the idea that it's not necessary to have that team to beat one of those teams.
This is a work of fanfiction, and not all interpretations of the game canons / works in the pokemon franchise follow strictly to the metagame. Going with that doesn't make it any more correct or incorrect.
If I'm wrong, and hell the matter of "when" comes to rear it's ugly head, I'll probably still be reading along happily and voting even if it's on a somber note.
There isn't a need to follow the meta-game we've covered this before. But to reiterate we're operating on Gen 9 learnsets with Pokemon stats having had their bell curve tightened up to bring them closer together meaning Ubers Pokemon such as Blaziken have been nerfed well NU Pokemon such as Butterfree have been buffed although with their roles still aiming to be kept intact.
So, non-bulky Pokemon still aren't bulky, Pokemon with no offense still have no offense, and so on with these not only being natural stat allotments but also effectively measures of talent so it'll take vastly longer to improve a Pokemon that has a poor Health stat by one level than it would to improve a Pokemon that already has a decent Health stat. Several additions from the anime are also present with type weaknesses being able to be overcome through training for example but again at a great time cost.
When put together this means effectively that the quest is operating on a tweaked version of an early generation national-dex meta which does lead to some changes hence why I called out some meta picks from the games as not working anymore or not functioning for us specifically. It also means though that any Pokemon given a sufficient amount of training and experience can pull an Ash's Pikachu, and be arbitrarily powerful with no weaknesses.
Hence, why Pineco was fine to pick up despite not meeting my criteria for the fifth, and sixth slots of our team since we'll have plenty of time to train her up over the course of our entire journey meanwhile we'll have significantly less time with the final two members of our team this journey so whichever ones we pick need to be able to perform off the shelf so to speak in the sense that they don't need large amounts of time investment to make them productive members of the team.
As much of a mistake I understand it is for the perfect composition, I enjoy Pineco and Forretress as pokemon and am pretty happy with one being on the team + the character we have. I'm gonna entertain the possibility that maybe we'll have the chance to fix that mistake by trading away Pineco, or team rocket stealing them and somehow never seeing them again. I'm also of-mind that this could theoretically happen to any mon on our team (say for instance Dratini when we were originally in Saffron, though reuniting would've likely happened eventually even if the dice kept fucking us over).
I lean towards anime logic, and I'm used to the idea of journeyfics not necessarily having a static / permanent cast of team members. Ambipom wanted to pursue a different career track, and it's wholly possible that our Chansey might end up wanting to do ther things with her life sooner or later for instance.
I'm pretty sure I'll still be reading along one way or another.
I'm wholly against ever getting rid of one of our team members. Imperfect or not they're ours, and the only way they're leaving is if they want out but even then I'd try to convince them to stay.
[x] Willow - Willow is proud of her third badge but has been thinking over Surge's words. Adding your thoughts could be useful.
[X] Pineco - Pineco would like to be carried along the way, desiring to see the sights. While the two of you do so, it'd be good to just talk.
Route 6 was relatively short in comparison to the other hiking pathways Violet had taken. As well as far less adventurous. The terrain was flat, there weren't many trees, and there were several paved roads on the way. It was complicated by a spur-of-the-moment decision VIolet had taken, namely to carry Pineco rather than have her inside a Pokeball. While the weight wasn't a problem at first, it did start to cause issues for her as the day went on, requiring more than one break.
During one of the breaks, Violet glanced over at her friend and rival who seemed rather introspective. Knowing Willow, she wouldn't voice her thoughts until she had settled on a plan. Admirable, but it could cause issues in the future. "Are you … thinking about what Surge said?"
It was an easy guess, Willow had seemed slightly off compared to normal after that fight. Somewhat tense even after the gym victory, the energetic girl had been quieter than normal. "He was really rude," Willow bluntly stated. "But he wasn't wrong. Both Staryu and Eevee are ready to evolve, I just hadn't realized it was an option."
She was used to the present Violet realized, it was a feeling she had herself. Change was complicated at the best of times, and permanent ones like evolution could be intimidating for Pokemon and trainers. "They … trust you," Violet said before realizing that was a rather generic statement that didn't convey the nuance she wanted. "I-I mean, you're a good trainer. S-so your Pokemon trust that you know when they're ready for something new."
Willow wore a pleased smile on her face, one she likely wasn't even aware of. "Once I make this decision, I can't undo it." A nervous edge entered her eyes, one that very few people could recognize. "It's … " Willow hummed to herself, trying to think of the word that accurately described it. "Intimidating."
"Y-You could always evolve Staryu first," Violet suggested, realizing what Willow was struggling with at this moment. Staryu could only evolve into one Pokemon, but Eevee could evolve into eight different types. Choosing the best option may seem easy at first, but there was far more to it than was visible on the surface.
"That's the easy way out," Willow dismissed, choosing to face the issue immediately rather than put it off for later. "And it'd be unfair to Eevee," the energetic trainer nodded towards the Evolution Pokemon who was currently swimming in the nearby stream. "He thought Surge's Jolteon was cool and wants to know when he can be that awesome."
Violet tilted her head, recognizing a few details hidden in Willow's words. "You bought a Thunder Stone?" There was a hesitance to Willow's posture. "D-did Surge give you one?"
"Yeah," the other girl said with a drawn-out sigh. "He said I was too promising to keep making mistakes like that."
"Are, are you going to use it?" Violet asked, trying to tease out what Willow really wanted. "Or is there … ?" She trailed off, not sure how to directly ask what Willow was seeking.
From everything Violet had learned about her friend, Willow was never nervous without a good reason. She was too upbeat and energetic for that. Rather, there must be something else that she wanted. "Do you think he's ready to evolve?" Unlike Violet, Willow was willing to get to the heart of the matter, albeit after dancing around the question for a few minutes.
The question wasn't entirely unexpected. Violet had very, very good eyes, capable of judging a Pokemon's attributes and skill sets from just a few seconds of looking. And by now, Willow had a very good idea of what Violet was capable of. "I … you're. You're his trainer?"
Violet, however, was still getting used to the idea of being drawn into important discussions. While she had been slowly coming out of her shell and stuttering less, she would still overlook herself at times. "It's why I'm asking," Willow explained, brushing back a lock of her hair out of nerves. "I think he's ready for anything and everything, but you're not as close to him as me."
The shy girl looked at Willow, then at Eevee. "He's ready," she said quietly. "He's starting to copy parts of what Dratini is doing."
"What does that mean?" Willow asked in confusion, not understanding how that remark had anything to do with if Eevee was ready to evolve.
"He's starting to learn Copycat," Violet explained. "He's grown enough to avoid any issues."
Willow stared at Eevee, trying to see if she could spot what Violet did. After nearly a minute, she slowly nodded, seemingly noticing the faint signs of one Pokemon copying another. "Thank you." Willow said simply with a gravitas that was far more meaningful than any explanation she could give.
Rather than reply, Violet simply nodded.
After a few more hours of walking, the two girls set up camp for the night. Where Willow turned in early alongside Eevee, leaving Violet to her own devices. The rest of their Pokemon were also asleep, apart from Pineco who was currently occupied with staring up at the night sky. "Have you ever seen Rayquaza at night?"
Violet's question broke the silence, after which Pineco looked at her. Then looked again, showcasing the universal expression of 'Wait, you actually asked that?'
"Well, they're supposed to be somewhere above…" Violet said as she realized that the answer was almost certainly no. "So it's not impossible."
The Bagworm Pokemon took on a slightly amused expression before shaking her head. She had never seen Rayquaza, although she had seen other Pokemon at night. Tilting her head towards one of the more recognizable constellations, Violet understood what Pineco was trying to convey.
"I see why you like watching things," the sky was beautiful tonight, the lighting conditions being enough to see many stars not visible in cities or towns. "Was this what you did at night before joining me?"
Pineco nodded her head. Back in the grove Violet found her in, the seasons would change slowly, allowing for unique views throughout the year. But the night sky was almost always constant, with only a few changes here and there when shooting stars could be seen. It was the beauty of the world that made Pineco as observant as she was.
"One day we'll head to a new region," Violet said with an eye on the future. After she beat all the gyms in Kanto, she'd have to face a new region to improve. "I've heard the stars are different in some areas."
The Bagworm Pokemon looked at her, highly intrigued by the idea of the night sky being visibly different.
Violet smiled, taking out her phone to show pictures of the skies above Sinnoh. "I want to go there myself one day," she said, even if it wasn't for the reasons Pineco wanted to visit. "Where do you want to go?"
Pineco tapped Violet's phone, causing the trainer to giggle. It fit the Bagworm Pokemon who wished to see new places and landscapes. So far, Violet had taken her places she never would have seen as a wild Pokemon. Being able to visit another region was rarely done by Pokemon without a trainer.
"Is there anything else you want to see?" Violet asked, holding out her phone for Pineco to view.
The Bagworm Pokemon nodded, beginning to indicate a few places she had heard of from other Pokemon and trainers but hadn't had a chance to visit. While it was certainly harder for Pineco to convey the idea of 'The Mountains north of Celadon City' it wasn't impossible. Especially when both trainer and Pokemon were as observant and watchful as they were.
The two ended up spending the night simply searching up natural and artificial landmarks, amassing a massive list of places Pineco wanted to see one day. Discussing some in further detail, the two continued to stay awake as dawn approached. Falling asleep by the campfire, the two leaned against each other as they slept. Only to be awoken by Willow's screech.
"WHY ARE YOU THAT COLOR?!"
A scrambling Umbreon quite literally tore a hole in the tent as Willow and the freshly evolved Pokemon panicked at the loud shout and change in color.
The 21st Week, Pick 1
Pokemon Actions
[-] Catch a fifth Pokemon - Now that your team has its core members, a fifth and sixth member would be useful and have more possible options. However, it's still quite early for that. Locked.
[] Train with your Pokemon - All of your Pokemon are skilled in battle with unique skills. Several of them are near breakthroughs so training would help considerably.
[] Buy and Use TMs/HMs - You're a big enough trainer to afford TMs and HMs for your Pokemon. You should take advantage of it when you can.
[-] Train with Willow's Pokemon - While it would be nontraditional to train with your rival, both of you have unique skill sets that could complement each other. Unfortunately, Willow is busy this week.
[] Review Past Battles - You were so close to beating Flynn, and some of the tricks he tried are giving you ideas. Going over your past battles may help with that.
Battling Actions
[] Challenge New Trainers - Now that you and your Pokemon have developed, fighting a few trainers in rapid succession would be easy.
[] Challenge an Experienced Trainer - Some trainers in the area have two badges, beating them may be a good experience.
[] Look into the Surge in Wild Pokemon Encounters - A lot of trainers have reported being attacked by Eevee on the outskirts of the city. An experienced trainer that was sent returned after being beaten by an Umbreon, Vaporeon, and Jolteon. Something is afoot …
[] Challenge a Saffron Gym Attendant - You need to face one of the attendants before you're allowed to face Sabrina. You're certainly ready for this but not so ready that you can do this and the gym challenge in a single day.
[-] Challenge the Saffron City Gym - Gym Leader Sabrina is one of the more intimidating trainers due to her psychic powers. But she is also an extremely experienced leader with a reputation for having her challenges be notably harder than the norm.
Exploration Actions
[] See the Sights Inside the City - There are a number of interesting attractions in Saffron City. You saw a fair few last time you were here, but far from all.
[] See the Sights Outside the City - With Diglett Cave nearby, it could be fun to spend a few days exploring the cave system and see what interesting locations and Pokemon are within.
[] Explore Unorthodox Locations - Saffron City is a large metropolis with a number of rather unconventional places to explore. See what you can find.
Traveling Actions
*You just arrived in Saffron City and have obligations. You can't leave just yet.
Social Actions (For socials, it's assumed you keep up a basic level of contact through text, choosing a social means I write it up)
[X] Meet your parents - Your parents are looking forward to seeing you again. They took a car from Celadon City just to meet you. Putting this off isn't possible …
[] Meet Tetsuya - An old childhood friend of yours, the two of you drifted off recently. He just lost to Gym Leader Sabrina very convincingly.
[] Meet Willow's Family - You almost forgot that Willow is originally from Saffron City. She's invited you to meet her parents as well as provide a place for you to stay that isn't the Pokecenter.
[X] Meet Willow's Family - You almost forgot that Willow is originally from Saffron City. She's invited you to meet her parents as well as provide a place for you to stay that isn't the Pokecenter.
[X] Meet Willow's Family - You almost forgot that Willow is originally from Saffron City. She's invited you to meet her parents as well as provide a place for you to stay that isn't the Pokecenter.
Violet's already meeting her parents, may as well go meet Willow's too. And if Violet goes with Willow to meet her family, Willow's probably going to go with Violet to meet hers. May as well make it go both ways.
[X] Meet Willow's Family - You almost forgot that Willow is originally from Saffron City. She's invited you to meet her parents as well as provide a place for you to stay that isn't the Pokecenter.
[X] Meet Tetsuya - An old childhood friend of yours, the two of you drifted off recently. He just lost to Gym Leader Sabrina very convincingly.
[] Look into the Surge in Wild Pokemon Encounters -A lot of trainers have reported being attacked by Eevee on the outskirts of the city. An experienced trainer that was sent returned after being beaten by an Umbreon, Vaporeon, and Jolteon. Something is afoot …
[] Review Past Battles - You were so close to beating Flynn, and some of the tricks he tried are giving you ideas. Going over your past battles may help with that.
I've wondered the specifics behind the QM screen as to how closely we actually need to follow the metagame, as I understand that Daemon Hunter is using iirc Gen 9 for reference on learnsets and so-on.
So I did wonder if there was anything towards the start on how closely this is meant to follow either anime battling or competitive game battling.
There isn't a need to follow the meta-game we've covered this before. But to reiterate we're operating on Gen 9 learnsets with Pokemon stats having had their bell curve tightened up to bring them closer together meaning Ubers Pokemon such as Blaziken have been nerfed well NU Pokemon such as Butterfree have been buffed although with their roles still aiming to be kept intact.
As both of these posts are pretty relevant, I thought I'd share my own thoughts on them. As has been surmised, for the Pokemon and their movesets, I'm using the Gen 9 versions, albeit there will occasionally be Pokemon that know a move they aren't supposed to (Dratini and Water Gun for example). But by and large you can generally expect the moves to adhere to the depicted versions in smogon or the games. Where things can differ are in the Pokemon's stats.
For the stats, the average Pokemon generally has a tighter bell curve as Lags indicates, it means that the strongest Pokemon are weaker and the weakest Pokemon are stronger. But it doesn't mean that their places are significantly shifted. As a result, while Onix is more viable than they are in competitive games, they're not a normal choice at high level battles. If you go to the end stages of the championships for instance, things will be weighted towards more meta Pokemon albeit with the caveat that any Pokemon can be made to work. Some just take more effort.
That being said, once Pokemon get to a high enough level, they can generally pick up tricks that are more akin to something you'd find in the anime. While it hasn't been really relevant for you yet due to it not being available at the levels of your current Pokemon, once you get a move to A rank or a stat to S rank you'll generally get some sort of special effect. This is admittedly still being worked on, but it's these things that'll allow for unique opportunities. I should also clarify that the reason Chansey doesn't have special effects for her Health and Stamina is due to starting at that level. She'll get those at SS instead.
I should also add that the current planned Pokemon limits are as follows:
[X] Meet Willow's Family - You almost forgot that Willow is originally from Saffron City. She's invited you to meet her parents as well as provide a place for you to stay that isn't the Pokecenter.
I want to meet up with Tetsuya after this so we can see what happens when the unstoppable gremlin meets immovable himbo in the form of Willow and Tetsuya.
[X] Meet Willow's Family - You almost forgot that Willow is originally from Saffron City. She's invited you to meet her parents as well as provide a place for you to stay that isn't the Pokecenter.
[X] Meet Willow's Family - You almost forgot that Willow is originally from Saffron City. She's invited you to meet her parents as well as provide a place for you to stay that isn't the Pokecenter.
[X] Meet Willow's Family - You almost forgot that Willow is originally from Saffron City. She's invited you to meet her parents as well as provide a place for you to stay that isn't the Pokecenter.
