Bay 12 Games Forum

I wish there was a way to take a program like Showdown and get a "homebrew" version of it. Like, one for the hacked versions, where you could place your own moves and pokemon and items in, etc., and distribute that "ruleset", so that others could battle you. For instance, I was coming up with a starter line and a bunch of moves for fun- an early-learned move of each type with power 40 (20 for the fire, it was a Fire-type Doubleslap, basically) with a unique effect- the fire was multihit, the Water had greater crit chance, and the Grass would disable a move used by the opponent. May not be balanced, but it's something I'd like to be able to do one day.

I was going to start a pokemon hack, but nope, waaaaaaaay to lazy, waaaaay too little time.

I got really, really bored in class today. Like, way more than usual.

The result?

AN ENTIRE TOWN GENERATOR BASED ENTIRELY ON D8s. There's one d4, easily rollable with a d8. I didn't want to write the same thing twice four times is all.

With it, you can generate or choose the size of the town, then what concentration of shops, residential, and governmental buildings are around, the general town layout, types of roads, average level of wealth for citizens, educational opportunities for citizens, what types of stores are around as well as their quality, pricing, willingness to buy items from adventurers, and willingness to haggle, what kinds of houses are around, what government facilities there are around and their quality, the economic basis of the town, it's community focus, recent/quest events, factions within the town, level of crime, and any special buildings not relating to shops, houses, or the government.

As a general rule, 1s are horrible for the player, 4-5 is average, 8 is fantastic, unless it's a classification (such as store type).
I'll post the whole thing at some point if people are interested.

Town Size is important as number of shops, houses, and government buildings directly tie in. A Metropolis (largest size) at absolute minimum will have 5 shops, 5 houses, and 5 government buildings, as well as at least one special (like a bar.) At the absolute maximum it has 11 of each type plus four specials, meaning a Metropolis can have anywhere from 16-37 places for players to visit. A Hamlet, the smallest possible town size, is capable of having 0s in every category, and might require rerolls, although I like to stick with the results as is. Abandoned towns may crop up in such a way, adding intrigue.

Most options won't have much bearing- such as Economy. Economy boils down to "We import and export", "We make it ourself", or "We make some things on our own as well as trade with other towns." There's also no option for how towns are ruled, though they could be pretty easy- if you had city-states, you might want to choose between government types and officials morality/benevolence level. Kingdoms would be under one person and may encompass many towns, so I left it out.

Some things do require GM input, such as the "Special" shop type. These are shops that may be like others, but sell unique items. Maybe a town has no Apothecary, but has a Special. The GM might choose to say the Special is a "confectionary", selling various candies made with potions mixed in, giving limited but delicious effects. Players may pay to mix in their own potions, although effects are lessened in the candies, though they are very portable.

I should likely research the actual cards then.

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Story ideas I have are yet-another-mecha-game, where parts are now much more, erm, varied, in that you can now have Joint parts.

Let's say you've got a heavy tank-tread build. You know you're going to be deployed in an aquatic enviroment- this would require different legs, and therefore, a whole different build. However, with a Joint Part, you can add a Joint Pontoon between the leg and core parts, allowing sea travel. You wouldn't be able to do this with a quadruped or biped, because of waterproofing issues, but your gun-tank is now amphibious.

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Another is sort of a monster-breeder meets Spore, in that you become part of a Pokemon-esque world. You aren't actually raising existing Pokemon- you're going to be using various monsters and combining their traits. Most are personified in some way- they also have types (going to take it directly from Pokemon here, it's premade and comprehensive).

Breeding works as follows- two compatible monsters enter, one resulting monster leaves. Most of the time all you need to worry about is magnetism: +, -, or =.

A + and -, a + and =, and a - and = may be fused. Matching pairs may not mix.

Moves, types, and other abilities will be passed down, influenced by magnetism.
+s are considered dominant in physical traits, and -s are dominant in mental ones. =s are recessive in both cases.
A Slime(+) and a Galespirit(-) are fused. The result is a Bubble Slime(-).
The resulting magnetism matches that of one of the parents, therefore, that parent passes down any specific ability (in this case, "Insubstantial- phys attacks almost always fail". If it matched neither, the ability is created new.
The Slime involved was a +. Physiology was passed down- the resulting Slime is Water type, and is resistant to physical attack. ((Dosen't actually matter due to ability, but strengths/weaknesses not involving elements are passed down))
The Galespirit involved was a -. Skills and resistances are passed down- the Slime knows low-level Flying attacks, and is immune to Ground.
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Another is sort of a amaglam of previous ideas- you're an average household mechanical device turned mini mecha! You're put on a team, and you've got to defend the living room/kitchen/house from the other team!

There are seven areas to the house, and four are given out at the start of the game, three are neutral. Sides fight for control- they must Build a Base on unclaimed land, and then until that base falls, it is theirs. When one team has 6/7, or has held 5/7 for ten turns or longer, they are the winners and a new house is generated.

Player skills are determined entirely by what they are. Say, I chose a 3DS. The 3DS transforms, gaining...
1. Advanced Scanning: Enemies in adjacent territories are scanned in 3D! All info is revealed after 3 scans.
2. Data Disk- RPG: This unit has a 1/6 chance to get a +2 to an attack with a weapon.
3. Stylus Sword: A weapon that cannot be dropped or lost, the Stylus Sword is the choice weapon for the 3DS. It retracts when not in use!

Players can absorb fallen enemies to gain their powers. Say, a Microwave defeated my 3DS, and it absorbed me. On top of it's heat-based attacks, it's time-delayed attack, and it's ability to "eat" opponents, it can now steal one of my abilities.

I've made two Grass Gym challenges- each player uses 3 pokemon. They both have a similar, yet very different, gimmick.

I'll try to make one or two for every type, each one having 3 pokemon, unified by a single type.

The rules for making a Gym-team under this format are:
Use only 3 pokemon, of different species, and without using Legendaries.
All items are allowed, but only one of each.
All abilities are allowed.
You must have some sort of unified type.
Your pokemon are set to lv.100, so this isn't a true gym-leader as it would be in the game, but it fits for Showdown.
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Generally, challengers shouldn't build a team devoted to type-raping their chosen leader, though they can. Personally, I'd like to see people pick dream teams or whatever and challenge us in that way. Feel free to make your own and anything to go with it, even if we wind up with all the same types it's OK.

Cynri as a psycho chef-chemist with nothing better to do than make milk gas grenades "It's good for your bones!" feels right. Really, she's just an overly kleptomaniac person with aptitude for science and the ability to cook.

I don't actually have Showdown working yet... I keep getting disconnected over and over, and choosing a name dosen't work. What am I doing wrong?

So, all the pokemon in Gen 6 are in but the tiers aren't fully up yet?

To re-hash an old Brawl saying...

I never pay attention to tiers, I use what I want to get jobs done.

I'll be building a team on Showdown, though I will take in-game requests, however, I won't be serious on the actual game.