Ditto on the good idea, that poison team looked epic.
So, we can't hire/interview mercenaries in Pallet, is that right? Is it rude to ask a non-advertising pokemon if they'd be interested in a mercenary contract? Can we check supply prices here, or get a supply price list?
If I'm following the lore, the problem with mercenaries is that they have a shorter timeframe before wild madness sets in? Or that they don't get the pact boosts? Or both?
Other rudeness questions: can we spend our pacted pokemon's cash freely, or should we expect only a portion of it available for, let's call it military officer purposes? Can we set up an automatic tithe percentage so we don't have to remember to tithe later, and if so, what's normal?
On the restrictions, I almost wish we could get a secondary vote from the QM on pacted team size. I would love to restrict down to 4 or 5, but don't see any way to vote for that right now without ending up with the Pallet team. Which, no.
You can, but as a small town in the middle of nowhere, there aren't really that many mercenaries around.
Also, it's pointless to hire a mercenary when you don't even have a mission in the first place? What are you hiring one for; to escort you to Viridian?
Lol.
Actually there will probably be a few mercenaries who'll be interested in that job, because:
1. it'll take one day if you're fast, two if you're not, and it's a pretty low risk of meeting a horde or some shit
2. it'll pay well for the amount of work it'll take
3. they're probably heading out of Pallet anyway because no one comes to Pallet for anything other than temporary jobs
Hmm. I haven't decided what consumables I want to make available for you yet, tbh.
The problems with mercenaries are that:
1. you have to pay them out of pocket
2. they don't get Pact bonuses
3. they leave you after the contract,
3a. and you have to make a new contract if you want to work with the same one
4. they're typically unevolved
5. to resist the Miasma, they need to bring Everstone shards, which while rechargeable, deplete pretty fast
5a. bigger shards last longer, but the price scales up exponentially
No, you can't spend your Pacted Pokemon's cash freely lol. They're characters in your own right and you don't control your Pokemon, only Gary. In combat, they make their own choices and actions, although you can give them advice or order them when it comes to a general strategy you'd like to use. Although Gary *can* take actions such as using items or TMs when the Pokemon are fighting.
The money given to your Pacted Pokemon are their own personal money that they can even choose to spend on their individual vices, if that's what they prefer. It's your responsibility as the Trainer to purchase supplies or anything for the party, although most Pokemon will spend money on personal consumables or equipment, since the party's inventory is the party's.
You can totally vote to auto-tithe later on. 10% is pretty normal. The more religious followers of Arceus tithe 10% from every income, whilst the ones who don't believe in Him so much... they mostly still do tithe, since the Church provides a lot of services enjoyed by the populace.
Gary is a bit of an agnostic; he doesn't know what to believe, but a part of him resents Arceus a bit because you know. Depression in the post-apocalyptic world.
I'm finalising the Pacts next update, so I don't think it's chronologically possible for me to do that... But what I can do is lock the votes first, and then hold a 24-hour window for the secondary vote before the update.
It just. Okay. This is a deathworld, right? So the game probably ends in Gary's horrible death. Saying we're using the Pallet team means I know the basic outline of the game. "Use pallet team, eventually die horrible death (hopefully not too soon)." That's it, that's the game.
Nah, the endgame is way bigger than that lol. Think dispelling the Miasma forever.
is there a large enough difference in the outcome if the poke started as its lowest evolutionary form or is it negligible?
Either way, an "interesting" restriction would be in only Pacting with a Pokemon before its evolution. It would (presumably) take more work to train from scratch instead of an already evolved poke, but an unevolved Pokemon is more common. So maybe the Restriction is too weak to be useful?
Doesn't really matter because most unPacted Pokemon are also unevolved. Those that are will likely be strong enough that they're reluctant to Pact, since they don't feel they could get anything out of it.
Being able to eventually evolve is one of the biggest points for a Pokemon to Pact with a Trainer.