An Interesting proposition on the subject of Starters.

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, it seemed like it would be best to discuss the availability of Pokemon in the Pokemon forum.

Anyway, I'm sure you're familiar with the current starter system. You choose between 3 Pokemon, your Rival gets the one super effective to you. This is a decent system, but in our game it will have some flaws...

-All teams will have one of the three starters. This is a near guarantee. Most people seem to stick with their starter throughout the whole game. While this may be good in some cases, it also means that the player will use less variety of Pokemon.

-People may actually want to complete the Pokedex. This is a major flaw. As people can only gain one starter, it makes it impossible to complete the Dex, as I assume we will be unable to add trading to this. It could be made so that you can trade with NPCs for the remaining two starters, or find them in the wild, but this drastically reduces the value of Starters. Now they're just regular Pokemon.

Now, I would like to propose a solution to this problem: There is a single Starter. It evolves at around Level 12 or so, and becomes outclassed or unneeded fairly early in, close to an area with many wild Pokemon. The player gets a unique Pokemon that remains purely a Starter, and the player does not keep using the same Pokemon repeatedly while ignoring new ones.

I would also like to suggest how we could make this starter 'Unusable'. Make the second gym completely impossible for the starter to win. For example, if the starter were Normal type, make the second gym Fighting type, with a team of (Fighting Type), (Fighting Type), (Fighting type's Fight/Steel Evolution). In the grassy area nearby would be a Flying type Pokemon, the Fighting type Pokemon used in the gym, a Psychic type Pokemon, and a Fire type Pokemon. This would provide a subtle hint to the player that they need to capture new Pokemon to succeed.

Anyway, apologies for this being so long. It'd be nice if you could state your opinions on the subject, I'd love to know your point of view on this matter.

I'm liking these ideas. However, starters always have sentimental value to me and I like to always keep them with me whether they're good or not. I still think we should have a three starter system, but we can make the other starters very hard to obtain. Maybe, for example, you get one when you complete your regional pokedex, and the other by trading it for a very rare pokemon that evolves at a high level and is hard to train.

It's a cool idea to try making people stop using their starter, but clearly it didn't stop people from using Charmander.

And don't worry about length, it's always okay to make your posts really long as long as they're meaningful.

Interesting idea, but I agree with Gelo. However, you gave me a good idea, you know how I have an idea for water-starters (Teuthnami, Luscagom and Krakenous), Frostie has some ideas (I forget their names...) and Ter (it is Ter right? Pachystar, Shelephant and Cramoth). Maybe there could be all three starters? Pachsytar's line would be more defense oriented, Teuthnami more attack oriented, and Frostie's could be more speed oriented! Opinions?

King Dedede wrote:Interesting idea, but I agree with Gelo. However, you gave me a good idea, you know how I have an idea for water-starters (Teuthnami, Luscagom and Krakenous), Frostie has some ideas (I forget their names...) and Ter (it is Ter right? Pachystar, Shelephant and Cramoth). Maybe there could be all three starters? Pachsytar's line would be more defense oriented, Teuthnami more attack oriented, and Frostie's could be more speed oriented! Opinions?

Four words: no way too many.

Thinking about it, if my single starter idea was used, it could be a bit like Eevee. As long as it's Female Only (So it can be bred easily so more can be obtained for Pokedex purposes) I'd be fine with it. It should be very clear how to evolve it into it's differing evolutions, and what these evolutions look like. This way you can become attached to a starter Pokemon and that starter will keep it's exclusivity.

Gelatino95 wrote:

King Dedede wrote:Interesting idea, but I agree with Gelo. However, you gave me a good idea, you know how I have an idea for water-starters (Teuthnami, Luscagom and Krakenous), Frostie has some ideas (I forget their names...) and Ter (it is Ter right? Pachystar, Shelephant and Cramoth). Maybe there could be all three starters? Pachsytar's line would be more defense oriented, Teuthnami more attack oriented, and Frostie's could be more speed oriented! Opinions?

Four words: no way too many.

Yeah... that's what I was worried about...

But I'm fine if mine is just another Poke'mon.

Ferrety wrote:Thinking about it, if my single starter idea was used, it could be a bit like Eevee. As long as it's Female Only (So it can be bred easily so more can be obtained for Pokedex purposes) I'd be fine with it. It should be very clear how to evolve it into it's differing evolutions, and what these evolutions look like. This way you can become attached to a starter Pokemon and that starter will keep it's exclusivity.

A novel idea, chap. In XD, you got eevee as a starter and you could choose to evolve it into any of its five forms. But I still think it would be a good idea to make the other starters very difficult to obtain.

Gelatino95 wrote:

Ferrety wrote:Thinking about it, if my single starter idea was used, it could be a bit like Eevee. As long as it's Female Only (So it can be bred easily so more can be obtained for Pokedex purposes) I'd be fine with it. It should be very clear how to evolve it into it's differing evolutions, and what these evolutions look like. This way you can become attached to a starter Pokemon and that starter will keep it's exclusivity.

A novel idea, chap. In XD, you got eevee as a starter and you could choose to evolve it into any of its five forms. But I still think it would be a good idea to make the other starters very difficult to obtain.

I'm fine with that, as long as it isn't Eevee. i don't really like Eevee.

I agree with Gelo, let's make three starters as usual and two of them obtainable through the game after completing the pokedex...

And i said it on another post but i think we should wait until we have at least four or five candidates and then vote . It's the "fairest" way.

so you're saying to only have one starter?

oshawott wrote:so you're saying to only have one starter?

That's Ferrety's idea. He wants to have a starter that turns out to be a burden on the team later in the game, forcing the player to use different pokemon.

Yeah, that's basically my idea in a nutshell.

About the starter problem: I have an Idea! How about the starters can appear in very hard to reach areas, and you have few chances to catch it!

Frostiechu wrote:About the starter problem: I have an Idea! How about the starters can appear in very hard to reach areas, and you have few chances to catch it!

That's my idea. Since you can only get one starter at the beginning of the game, and since trading won't be possible, the other starters are made available through very difficult means such as completing the pokedex, fighting very difficult trainers, etc.

Alright then.

Oh wait a second... Completing the pokedex won't work. Because you have to have that pokemon in order to complete your pokedex in the first place.

I thought that, but wondered if it meant all Pokemon Seen. It obviously didn't.

Maybe you could get one from defeating the Villainous Team and one from defeating the Elite Four?

King Dedede wrote:Maybe you could get one from defeating the Villainous Team and one from defeating the Elite Four?

Nah, Elite Four is too easy. However, I like your former idea. Here are the options for getting a starter after the game that I can think of:

• Defeat leader of villainous team after elite four
  
• Defeat another random trainer after elite four (like Red from HGSS)
  
• In-game trade for very rare pokemon
  
• Sidequest after elite four
  
• Elite Four second time

Any of those options would work. We're going to need to use two because there are two starters you will need.

What would be cool is if Team ___ Kidnapped the starters (More likely wild versions).

It could be part of the plot.

Frostiechu wrote:What would be cool is if Team ___ Kidnapped the starters (More likely wild versions).

It could be part of the plot.

That would work. However, one would have to be saved by another trainer (possibly your rival, opposite gender counterpart or a trainer from another game like Red), and the other one would still be in the Team's clutches. Because gaining them both at the same time seems to... overpowered?

I was also going to say that it's capture and two different people have the starters, so you get one when you reach a town and another when you reach a different town.

I actually like the team idea. Two different members of the team can capture the starters, and it will be a little sidequest after the elite four to go track both of them down.

Exactly! It's wonderful!

I actually quite like that idea.