Pokemon is going VOIP!

HMTKSteve

If you have not heard the news yet, the new Pokemon DS games will have voice chat!

This means I can berate Scott when I crush his Borlax with my Mudkip!!!

Apreche

wtf is Mudkip?

Anyway, I learned that if you put GBA Pokemon games in the GBA slot, you can copy them over to the DS game. This means I will almost certainly be going to pick up Pokemon Leaf Green in order to get the "real" Pokemon. It helps that it's a Player's Choice game, so I'll pay $20 at most.

HMTKSteve

If you would read some of the blogs run by the listeners you would be better prepared for the coming games.

AFIK: Moving Pokemon from GBA to DS is one-way. I can only hope that Pokemon Battle Stadium will have some sort of Pokemon Box features.

Apreche

I don't do the console Pokemons.

HMTKSteve

I don't do the console Pokemons.

You can't play ten console Pokemons!!!

Interestingly enough, the news from Nintendo is that up to eight players will be able to link up and battle...

The original games were one-on-one. The GBA games introduced two-on-two. Will the DS games introduce four-on-four?

Starfox

The original 150 (or 151, whatever) rocked. All other Pokemon suck. No debate.

HMTKSteve

The original 150 (or 151, whatever) rocked. All other Pokemon suck. No debate.

Those are some big words!!!!

We'll see what happens when the DS games come out and we battle!!!

Railith

Smogon

I highly recommend Smogon for all of your pogeyman needs. They have a bunch of guides for basic team construction and effort value sets.

HELPFUL HINT:
Make sure your team can deal with Gyarados, Garchomp, Blissey, and Heracross.

HMTKSteve

Make sure your team can deal with an evolved Mudkip too. i.e. a ground/water pokemon!

Railith

Swampert can be dealt with by the attacks grass rope and energy ball.
The pokemon I listed need specific other pokemon to deal with them. Garchomp is the nastiest pokemon that is not an uber.

HMTKSteve

I know Gyarados, and he is a pain. Blissey is a pain due to high hitpoints and regeneration.

I do not recognize Garchomp, is it one of the new ones?

I've never been up against a high level Heracross, what makes them so bad-ass?

Railith

This post basically says why Garchomp is a beast. He can basically kill anything in the game in 2 hits after one swords dance.

Heracross will have two base power 120 STAB moves that run off of his 125 base attack. He has several different and effective sets that can be used so it's hard to tell what he's going to do. His most effective one in the advance games was to use a combination of Endure, Reversal, and a berry that would increase his speed to destroy entire teams. The new pokemon Lucario will be doing that more which means Heracross's choice band sets will come into play more.

I'm going to make a full thread about pokemon battling for D/P a little closer to release because this is just about voice chat. :P

Erwin

I bow on the mighty of the pokemon nerds.

Sail

Fuck yes. This is shaping up going to be the ultimate Poke'mon game. I've been beefing up my Fire Red, Emerald, and Sapphire carts in preparation.

Kiey

I wish I had played Emerald or Sapphire, simply because the battery on my Gold cart died so I lost my awesome Pokemon I had had since Blue.

My poor awesome Gengar... lost to the ether...

Sail

I wish I had played Emerald or Sapphire, simply because the battery on my Gold cart died so I lost my awesome Pokemon I had had since Blue.

Yeah, same thing with my Silver cart. But my Red cart still works fine...huh...Perhaps that generation of carts has defective batteries.

VentureJ

Railith, it seems that you are also quite versed in the way of the NetBattle. Do you think that Pokemon DS will make NetBattle obsolete?

Railith

They will release Competitor which is NetBattle with D/P support. Pokemon D/P will be more casual than NetBattle because you do not have the control over your pokemon in D/P like you have on NetBattle.

Competitor will probably be used more for unoffical tournaments because it's just eaiser to set up than D/S friend codes.

Apreche

I forgot about Gengar. I had him, he was teh awesome with his nightmare.

VentureJ

They will release Competitor which is NetBattle with D/P support. Pokemon D/P will be more casual than NetBattle because you do not have the control over your pokemon in D/P like you have on NetBattle.

Competitor will probably be used more for unoffical tournaments because it's just eaiser to set up than D/S friend codes.

Competitor, you say? Interesting.

Yeah, it's true that NetBattle allows for you to completely customize your pokemon's EVs, IVs and the like, but I just feel that taking the time to train your Pokemon really adds a lot to the whole battling experience. NetBattle is definitely a lot of fun (and challenging at times), but I can't wait for an actual Pokemon battle.

I just don't want to see a whole lot of Ubers beings used. More UU plx!

VentureJ

I don't do the console Pokemons.

I dunno, although I had always thought that the console Pokemon games were quite dubious, Battle Revolution looks quite fun. Especially since you can control your Pokemon on-screen with your DS wirelessly. You can battle online, you can trade online, you can access union rooms and chat with other Pokemon trainers. All in 3D. Adding a 3D aspect to Pokemon never really appealed to me, until I saw some videos of Battle Revolution. Now I'm definitely pumped for it.

Sail

No console Poke'mon game has been as good as Stadium 2 in my opinion. Stadium was revolutionary because of being able to train your Poke'mon from the carts on your N64. That was huge. But neither of the GC games had the same awe as Stadium 2. I feel though that Battle Revolution is going to bring that awe of Stadium back with all of the wireless functionality. Though, I do miss all those mini-games from the Stadium series

HMTKSteve

That is why I am not too worried about fighting ubers. Most kids will not be training their Pokemon with EVs and such things in mind, I have been.

Also, there will be some sort of check sum involved with Pokemon online play to insure that the Pokemon were not created by a cheat. Anybody can pick up a cheat kit and max out their stats but, a Pokemon with stats of 999 is a dead giveaway!

Also, I prefer battling with low level Pokemon. It is far more challenging to build a 3 man team with total levels under 50. I will probably not be battling level 100's.

Apreche

I'm actually pretty worried that battling Pokemon online will simply be a game of who has the highest level Pokemon. Whoever has spent the most time training their Pokemon wins! I think a good way to fix this would be if the game forced you to have equal Pokemon to your opponent. Before each battle you choose what Pokemon you are going to use. If the other guy doesn't have any Pokemon over 50, it doesn't let you choose your level 51+ Pokemons. Or maybe it decides in-game a level-cap for the fight, or maybe you can battle online with completely random Pokemon teams!

Personally, I think the only major flaw in the Pokemon games is the leveling. If I had designed the game, I would have made every Pokemon equal but different.

HMTKSteve

The GameCube games have enforced options. You can set it up with a max level total and individual.

I will not do very many lvl 100 vs lvl 100 battles because of the cheese factor involved. I will be game for "Pika" cups (max levels 30, 3 Pokemon) and other low level battles.

I feel that training a low level Pokemon to be tough is a greater challenge than training a high level Pokemon. Part of that comes from move selections. A low level Squirtle has to deal with weaker attacks. Also, some Pokemon are outclassed as the game goes on but kick ass at low levels.

VentureJ

I'm actually pretty worried that battling Pokemon online will simply be a game of who has the highest level Pokemon. Whoever has spent the most time training their Pokemon wins! I think a good way to fix this would be if the game forced you to have equal Pokemon to your opponent. Before each battle you choose what Pokemon you are going to use. If the other guy doesn't have any Pokemon over 50, it doesn't let you choose your level 51+ Pokemons. Or maybe it decides in-game a level-cap for the fight, or maybe you can battle online with completely random Pokemon teams!

Personally, I think the only major flaw in the Pokemon games is the leveling. If I had designed the game, I would have made every Pokemon equal but different.

I know for a fact that there are different modes of online Pokemon battling.
- You can select the option where levels DO matter and everyone is at different levels. I'm not sure, but I think that you are usually paired up with someone that it around your average level.
- There is an option where everyone is level 50. Everyone is either boosted or downgraded to level 50, increasing or decreasing their stats accordingly, though the move-list and attitude stays the same. The benefit of leveling up in this mode is to get access to the attacks you want your Pokemon to have.
- There is another option where everyone is level 100. This is exactly the same as the level 50 option, just with a higher level.

VentureJ

No console Poke'mon game has been as good as Stadium 2 in my opinion. Stadium was revolutionary because of being able to train your Poke'mon from the carts on your N64. That was huge. But neither of the GC games had the same awe as Stadium 2. I feel though that Battle Revolution is going to bring that awe of Stadium back with all of the wireless functionality. Though, I do miss all those mini-games from the Stadium series

Agreed. Battle Revolution does look very promising. One problem I had with the original Stadium games were that people could see your move-list. With wireless DS functionality, that problem has been fixed. It is definitely very exciting.

Apreche

That "everyone is 50" mode sounds good to me. Get the pokemon you want with the moves you want and nothing else matters. That's my kind of action.

Railith

The benefit of leveling up in this mode is to get access to the attacks you want your Pokemon to have.

The pokemon also keep their IVs and EVs that effect their stats as well. So if you train your pokemon to have max attack it will have more attack than a pokemon that did not. The auto level 50 will even things out a bit, but if my pokemon kills yours in two hits instead of three it can win me the game.

Apreche

The benefit of leveling up in this mode is to get access to the attacks you want your Pokemon to have.

The Pokemon also keep their IVs and EVs that effect their stats as well. So if you train your Pokemon to have max attack it will have more attack than a Pokemon that did not. The auto level 50 will even things out a bit, but if my Pokemon kills yours in two hits instead of three it can win me the game.

*sigh* I've noticed this problem a lot in Nintendo's multiplayer. They tend to make multiplayer games that downplay skill a lot. Excite Truck, Mario Party, Pokemon, Smooth Moves, etc. all have multiplayer modes where skill is not the major factor in victory. Meanwhile, some other Nintendo games like Smash Bros., Tetris DS, Wario Ware (GameCube), where skill is the #1 factor in winning, are the games that retain the most replay value over time. The thing is, the games where the multiplayer sucks are the games where you really really want the multiplayer to be good.

Here's a note to all game developers out there. If you make a competitive multiplayer game or game mode, as in non-cooperative. it should be primarily a test of skill. Victory should not be decided based on how much time a person has played, on luck or on arbitrary knowledge. The player who has a greater level of skill should win the vast majority of the time. If your multiplayer game does not follow this rule, then it is basically not worth playing. You might as well have not made it at all.

Loganator456

Pokemon D/P ftw!