Degree of open-worldness

[Alais]

So PU will be an open world game. You will be able to take your level 5 charmander and walk for 2 hours along various roads until you reach The Plains of Death, and if you so choose, you will be able to encounter level 50 pokemon, and you will be owned for your trouble. All this is well and good (if you wander that far, you kinda deserve what's coming to you).

However.

I think there should be certain (small) islands, caves, hidden valleys etc. which must be unlocked or inaccessible in some way to players who either aren't the right level or haven't completed some kind of quest. Having everything open from day 1 takes away from the feeling of progress and prestige. The reason you can get away with almost full open world roaming in 3D mmos is because the monsters will literally see you and kill you before you can get very far into areas that are too high a level for you. Perhaps if we have large patches of grass which a player must cross, this would simulate such a situation (repels don't work if you haven't got a high level pokemon, as in the official games). This would be in addition to special unlockable areas.

I also think there should be some kind of warning when you walk into or near (maybe within 2 tiles) of a patch of grass which contains pokemon higher than 10 levels above your highest pokemon. Something like "You feel a little uneasy..." in the chat window, visible only to yourself. Then when the pokemon are more than 15 levels above, "You feel a strong urge to turn back...". For 20 levels+, "You feel a sense of immediate danger, as if something terrible might happen at any moment...".

[baralai15]

Sounds good, a bit of freedom and even responsibility if you want to put it that way. You gotta be responsible and train your Pokemon to keep up with the difficulty as you go along your journey. Also if someone somehow gets a master ball then you could walk towards the end of game and catch a very high level Pokemon and zoom through the gyms lol. Only if you have a master ball Good idea though, I admire it.

[Taze]

So basically what your saying is players will have to use things like surf, strength, cut ect ect ect.... 

Obviously some other player could move  a boulder or a cut a tree for you, but in MMO's it could be thought of as a walk through or power leveling. 

If you don't want that to happen then just ask a dev to make it so that you have to have a pokemon in your party at XX level to continue...

[ghostman50]

also think there should be some kind of warning when you walk into or  near (maybe within 2 tiles) of a patch of grass which contains pokemon  higher than 10 levels above your highest pokemon. Something like "You  feel a little uneasy..." in the chat window, visible only to yourself.  Then when the pokemon are more than 15 levels above, "You feel a strong  urge to turn back...". For 20 levels+, "You feel a sense of immediate  danger, as if something terrible might happen at any moment...".

I like that idea but one of the joys of pokemon is the option to run from a battle. Even if a superior wild poke' were to show up, the run option would always be there, making the warnings somewhat pointless in a way.

Instead of a long patch of grass, how about a (somewhat) long line of high level trainers(NPCs), to deter newbs, similar to the handhelds.



I like the idea of unlocking certain areas through quests and etc. If it can be done, im pro-unlockables.

[baralai15]

Yea i like the ability to run, I get annoyed with the weedles and i gotta run lol so im sure they will be there anyways 

[stephenkill2]

I am quite partial to "noob defenses" , as in, the patches of grass they must walk through without repels, and also I feel there would of course be NPC trainers in the area , so it would be like pokemon D-Day walking through these areas for noobs ^_^

[Quote]

That sounds nice, but should there be also words if you are going to a patch of grass that contains pokemon that are to weak?
10- = You feel as if you're being robbed from a challenge if you go here.
15- = You feel like this isn't even worth your time.
20- = You scoff at the pokemon ahead, and know they will cower in fear.


Then again that might get annoying to see every-time you are going to a low level area to catch certain pokemon.

[Alais]

So basically what your saying is players will have to use things like surf, strength, cut ect ect ect.... 

Obviously some other player could move  a boulder or a cut a tree for you, but in MMO's it could be thought of as a walk through or power leveling. 

If you don't want that to happen then just ask a dev to make it so that you have to have a pokemon in your party at XX level to continue...

There would be HM blocked areas but that wasn't what I was talking about. I mean areas which you can't access until you complete a quest. Examples:
Need a boat/plane ticket.
Need a cave entrance unblocked (via quest element).
Need a certain trainer level to get past a guard.
Need an HM that can't be used for you (Waterfall/Rock Climb/Surf move the player, not clear the path)

Btw, I am a dev, lol.

I like that idea but one of the joys of pokemon is the option to run from a battle. Even if a superior wild poke' were to show up, the run option would always be there, making the warnings somewhat pointless in a way.

It is extremely hard to run from a much higher level pokemon. Chances are it will wipe you out before you can successfully escape. I think the messages add a sort of forbidden-ness feel to areas way higher level than you, and everyone likes breaking rules, so they will have to come up with strategies such as using a pokemon with the equivalent of "Run Away" ability, or having a stash of pokedolls.

That sounds nice, but should there be also words if you are going to a patch of grass that contains pokemon that are to weak?

Apart from being annoying, it isn't really necessary. Once you encounter one pokemon in a patch of grass, you know what level the grass is approximately.

[chainedheart]

yea i bileve all these are good point, i agree alot of the fun in the games was encountering pokemon at a much higher level then u and going HOLY CRAP RUN, or in some other kids case HOLDY CRAP CHARMANDER EMBER. ether way its a good idea as well so ether way u choose it sounds like a good idea its a both way kinda thing. XD

[Jerry]

What about making signposts before each route, instead of 'words' that pop up.

Explorers should read any signpost in my opinion, and it's their problem if they didn't read the warning. However, I don't know how what the signposts would say...

Perhaps:
' 'low' level wild pokemon ahead' for 25-35
' 'medium' level wild pokemon ahead' for 35-50
' 'high' level wild pokemon ahead' for 50+

I find not much problem for the high level warning since a well experienced trainer will a team around  level 50 should be able to pawn even a wild Lv 100 pokemon.

[josh_squash0]

What about making signposts before each route, instead of 'words' that pop up.

In his opening post,  he said that the text would appear in the chat screen. Dont see anything wrong with that tbh.


Signposts for every patch of grass would just clutter the world and become a bit excessive.

[Jerry]

It will be easier to implement.

For example, instead of making something which appears to a particular trainer at a particular place, there would be something that will be there, irrespective of the those variables that I stated.

[Kuhns]

*Sighs and remembers Morrowind* Ah, high level areas where level 6's really shouldn't go. Good times.


I think trainers should only be able to go so far into higher level areas. Should they try and exploit certain items and abilities, certain strategic route...houses should stop them from going any father. Kinda like in the old Pokemon games where the guard wouldn't let you through until you gave him some water. It took me forever to figure that out. Curse back in the day when Goggle and walk-throughs weren't available. Except the guard would say something like: "I'm sorry but it's too dangerous for someone of your skill to go any farther." This will insure noob trainers from going to higher-level player cities and towns.... To insure this, the guard-houses would stop the players based on player level and not Pokemon level. >;D

Of course, in the before if trainers want to run away from battles...maybe PU needs a [Run] stat for the players. A player with a [Run] stat of 4 shouldn't be able to run away from a level 56 Ninetales. xD

[Declan_23]

In her opening post,  she said that the text would appear in the chat screen. Dont see anything wrong with that tbh.

Just thought I'd point that out
Seriously though, as far as I can see you guys are all turning the story/gameplay linear! :O
That would be extremely unfortunate. In my opinion, you should start off with all of the first island's cities and towns available to you. With pokemon with a max level of around 20 in the grass between them. The areas with high level pokemon, guards etc. should be either small villages off of the beaten track, caves where you can catch high level pokemon, areas needed for quests (meaning that you have to complete certain quests in order) or possibly gyms.

[kniveslove]

In her opening post,  she said that the text would appear in the chat screen. Dont see anything wrong with that tbh.

In my opinion, you should start off with all of the first island's cities and towns available to you. With pokemon with a max level of around 20 in the grass between them. The areas with high level pokemon, guards etc. should be either small villages off of the beaten track, caves where you can catch high level pokemon, areas needed for quests (meaning that you have to complete certain quests in order) or possibly gyms.

Completely agree with Declan_23.
Human tend to scared of all the animal or we capture the strongest one as trophy whatever the case is. It make sense to have only lower level pokemon surround human cities. Occasionally a high level Pokemon would be nice.
The further you get from the large city the stronger the pokemon will get. We could provide small village or out post in a rest point for the player but not a large city with all modern tech. Having said that the map might have to be change drastically to fit the need of space for the higher pokemon. So i dont know if this is something the PU team would want implemented only because the date of close beta is around the corner.