Midnight Island Discussion Thread

[Loki]

This is where people can ask questions on the Journey to Midnight Island campaign. Additionally, please use this thread to make plans and coordinate what you're doing. This goes beyond coordinating attacks, but I will not discuss that until after the campaign officially begins.

Feel free to also make comments here.

[Talon87]

Click Here - Talon87 / Xuande's Registration Post

I will be bringing the following Pokémon (levels may vary; species are 100% accurate):
o Level 28 Chikorita (Grass attacker)
o Level 27 Hoppip (Grass setter-upper)
o Level 27 Torchic (Fire attacker)
o Level 28 Mankey (Fighting attacker)

I wrote other stuff, but it turned out to be pretty unnecessary.

[Loki]

You don't need to post your teams here, as eventually you will need to write out your team in the main campaign thread with levels, moves, held items, etc. Please don't forget the last day is February 4th, one week from today.

[Talon87]

I don't think you understood why I posted that here, so maybe it wasn't clear ... which means it is not clear to my colleagues. Hmm. :\ Time for an explanation so we can have as much kick-ass fun as possible on this quest!

The reason I listed my team was so that people could (ahead of next Monday) get a sense for what types will be coming. As a newb, what I can bring is limited. People can't tell me, "Talon, don't bring a grass-type, we already have 4 of those" because grass is half of my team and I only have four usables anyway! >_< And I dunno about you guys, but I think we ought to have as many of the 17 types on this adventure as possible.

So the reason I listed my team now, ahead of time, here in this tactics-discussion thread, was so that OTHER members -- seasoned veteran members -- could say, "Hmm ... I see ... so, he's bringing this, this, and that, but he's not bringing this, this, or that. Hmm ... well then, I better be sure to bring one along for myself, and for the sake of the group as a whole, so that if Loki decides to do this or to do that, we can take it on." Example:

- people can see I have zero water Pokemon. So maybe they'll be kind and bring two, and (as in the journey) they'll say to one of their water Pokemon, "Quick! Use Surf to save Cyrus and his team!" if you send a tsunami our way.
- people can see I have Pokemon with Cut and Strength, so they don't need to bother bringing along their Cut Whore. (I'm aware that most seasoned vets' Pokemon know all the HMs they can learn, but I'm just saying this as an example. -.-)
- people who enjoy roleplaying can bring suitable Pokemon to roleplay alongside mine (e.g. somebody has already created a Pokemon, long before I even signed up, that is a huge flirt with grass-type females. They may want to bring that Pokemon along seeing as I've got two female grass-types coming along. You get the picture).

I originally wrote a ton of explanatory stuff like this, but I deleted it thinking it was superfluous and boisterous. Your post has given me second thoughts, but it's too late now. ^_^;

[Loki]

You're stressing too much about my message of coordination. People should bring who they want to bring and should not think, "Oh! Talon has a Mankey. Let's leave Hitmontop home." What if Talon gets spanked so hard he ends up wearing his ass for a hat. Then you'll be like, "Oh that Hitmontop would have been so sweet right about now!" So yeah, bring who you want. Coordinate when you see the situation presented before you.

The only reason I wanted to mention coordination was because when I was running the Water Zone, I had like a half dozen members fight the Team Aqua boss and his super black Dragonite. Everyone did something completely different and if I were more of a dick at the time, I would have had the Pokemon crashing into one another like bumper cars and lots of friendly fire going on. It was really ridiculous. Someone ordering Flygon to use Strength and the next guy asking for an Icebeam. I wanted to Flygon to run up to, pick up Dragonite, and get shot in the back with the Icebeam, freezing and doing double super effective damage. But I was nice and it didn't happen.

So when I'm asking people to coordinate, I don't want to see everyone doing their own thing even though they're all dealing with the same one or two enemies. It's asking for accidents.

[Talon87]

I see. (Although I still don't think my idea about us making sure we've got all the types was a bad one. >_>)

So I'm assuming this is the sort of thing you were thinking?

DON'T: each of you all declare 3 attacks against a boss, for a total of 36 attacks
DON'T: one of you declare his 3 attacks while the other 11 of you wait your turn
DO: maybe one or two of you declare attacks against the boss while the rest of you do other stuff that helps out. Like healing the aggros who are taking the boss on. Curing them of status ailments. Busting out potions and revives when the aggros' trainers are too busy (turn-based-wise) to use them themselves. Using Ice Beam not on the boss himself, but maybe on the ground he's standing on. So on and so forth.

In other words, you're taking your inspiration straight out of the pages of a World of Warcraft raid. Where if you have 40 guys all aggro'ing in the hopes of beating the über-boss, they're screwed. Where what you need to have happen is people coordinating the fight roles, with only a few people -- the ones best suited to the task -- doing the actual heavy hitting, while the others are the item users, healers, etc.

[Loki]

Not necessarily to the level of MMORPG task taking. What I'm saying is, you should try to combine attacks or work together as much as possible when there are situations where clearly one person should not be capable of handling.

For example, player 1 and player 2 can order their Blastoise and Raichu respectively to do a combo of Hydro Pump and Thunderbolt. The water helps conduct the electricity and results in a nice high damage combo. Meanwhile, I don't want to see player 3 to order Ivysaur to do Razor Leaf while player 4 orders Typhlosion to do Flamethrower. In this situation, the Razor Leaves will fly out, then the Flamethrower will shoot past it, burn away the leaves, leaving one guys attack completely worthless, wasting an allies energy and actually helping the one who they wanted to defeat.

Another situation where you'll need coordination is when there are multiple enemies. For example, player 1 can order Machamp to thrower Golem with Strength while player 2 can order Snorlax to throw Hitmonchan with the same Strength. While separate, each attack is good, if the were to say, ask Snorlax to throw Hitmonchan into a wall, then have Machamp throw Golem onto Hitmonchan while it's still on the wall. This would result in Golem crushing it's own partner, adding to it's damage.

You can choose to attack in waves or all attack at once or have some attack in the front, others from the back and others helping the attackers. It's all up to you guys. But the main thing is TEAMWORK. Not everyone fighting for the glory or self victory.

Oh yeah, I have no problem with backstabbing xd. You might actually see a different ending that way ;D

[Talon87]

Sounds cool. Sounds like we've got a really wise, excited, and prepared chief leading us. This is going to be interesting. Also ... what you're describing (about ideal and non-ideal move combos) reminds me so much of our AIM chats about the Pros and Cons of GameFreak's writing decisions. Just to run this by you ...

- in your campaign, will Steel-type Pokemon be weak to electricity? (e.g. Skarm is Magnezone toast?)
- in your campaign, will Sunny Day (if used at night) turn the land to daylight?

Two examples of changes to the fundamental game mechanic that I could see you running with, but am wondering if you have either the intention or the authority to do so in this setting. (Note: I'm 100% for you doing it! Would be very exciting.)

[Loki]

Sunny Day does not make sunlight. It clears the sky of clouds. So at night, it increases moonlight. I should probably write that into the attack descriptions. Anyway, this isn't exactly the synergy thing we were talking about. This is more like combo/chaining attacks.

Anyway, many of the examples I've named are stuff we've seen in the show. Like when Ash saved the island of Squirtles and Wartortles and sleeping Blastoise with a Jigglypuff in it's cannon.

Or when Ash lost to someone in the Orange Island's arc because he couldn't coordinate Pikachu and Charizard's attacks while the Orange Island leader was able to get Alakazam and Marowak to work well.

You'll need to use basic logic to determine whether you think a combination will work or not. If you want to run it by me here before doing it, I'll say whether it's cool or not. So be creative. Basic, "Use Mach Punch! Then hit it with Mega Punch!" gets boring. It's why I left ASBL. That and the fact it was dead for a LONG time prior to Ron bringing it back, then Muyo bringing it back now.

I won't be changing the weakness/resistance chart despite mentioning that in our AIM chat. It's a fundamental of the game I won't edit.

[Sandaa]

Sweet, I'm in! like a first for me, kinda

Well I have a *slight* idea of who I'm gonna bring along... Chances are I'll take my Mantine for aquatic mobility, so you can cling onto him if needed Talon xD

[Betagold]

I've only got 4, but one is Level 25 and 3 are Level 7. I've got 1 Surfer, 1 Flyer, and 1 that will know Strength by the end of this week. The other one is essentialy left up to creativity. I'm thinking, if we get stuck in a giant boss fight, we circle it, and all our attacks will hit it, not only doing max damage, but trapping it in a circle of attacks, with some firing from the ground and some firing from the air.

[Dark Fire]

Thing about encircling a boss and attacking randomly will eventually result in the same thing Loki mentioned earlier, friendly fire. Too much choas to really make sense of what's going on. Not to mention if the boss jumped as two ... I don't know ... Hyper Beams were fired from opposite ends of the circle, we'd be mega screwed. Although potentially we might resort to encircling the boss.

[Sandaa]

Lol don't worry, just leave the boss thing to me and Typhu! xD

Nah, just kidding, I'm not that arrogant lol

I have an idea about half the pokemon I want to bring so far... the rest depend on everyone else's teams I guess.

[Loki]

I like chaos. It would be interesting to see people lose in the campaign xd.

It'll be like all GAME OVER

[Talon87]

You will be just as lame as Raul Julia's M. Bison as he boomed those words in Street Fighter if you do that to me. :P

[Loki]

Originally Posted by Xuande

You will be just as lame as Raul Julia's M. Bison as he boomed those words in Street Fighter if you do that to me. :P

Who will be more lame? The one who lost? Or the one who said 'Game Over'? :4

[Talon87]

The one who said "Game Over," of course. I was pretty clear about that. The only possible exception to that rule would be if Zora was on this adventure and Zora was the one doing the losing. Then your use of "GAME! ........ O-VER!" would be slightly more acceptable and less lame than his losing. ;) :P

[thed3]

Well I'm definitely bringing...
Muk Level 68 (On Monday) *Land-based*
Tropius Level 28 *Flyer*
Sharpedo Level 36 *Water-usage*
Butterfree Level 14 *For RPing since it's young*

I'm just unsure if I should bring...
Blastoise Level 100 *Starter*
Trapinch Level 15 *For RPing since it's young*
Shedinja Level 100 *Nifteh Ability*
Lapras Level 25 *Never RP'ed with*
Marowak Level 100 *Haven't RP'ed with in a long time*

[Sandaa]

Well if that's the case, maybe I wont have to bring my tropius after all... maybe I'll take my Charizard instead xD

[Stark]

As long as people are posting who they are planning to bring, I might as well do the same, if only to help those of you who are still unsure of your own teams. I plan to evolve some of these little ones by Monday, but since I haven't done so yet officially, I'll just post where they are now and what level/evolution I plan to have them at by the time they finish raiding about 1/3 of my candy supply.

Level 50 Cyndaquil: Will be leveled up to 52 and evolved into Typhlosion to be my Fire based powerhouse
Level 20 Spearow: Will be leveled up to 25 and act as my Flyer
Level 17 Houndour: Will be leveled up to 25 and act as my Dark Pokémon
Level 26 Buizel: Will be leveled up to 27 and evolved into Floatzel to be my Water Pokémon
Level 26 Shinx: Will be leveled up to 30 and evolved into Luxray to be my Electric Pokémon
Level 1 Treecko: Will be leveled up to 11 and act as my newbie/Grass Pokémon

[Lee-san]

Well, if everyone's doing it..

The ones I'm bringing for sure are:

Lv. 62 Ivysaur
Lv. 48 Aipom
Lv. 49 Elekid

which leaves me with 3 open slots..possibilities:

Lv. 48 Geodude - I love battling with him, but he's my most used Pokemon so far, so I guess I'll give my other ones a chance
Lv. 56 Arcanine - also one of my favorites and major powerhouse, but again, I used him quite a bit already
Lv. 51 Pidgeot - a flyer will be pretty useful I guess, but I haven't tought her all her new D/P moves yet, so, yeah..
Lv. 53 Jolteon - haven't used him that often, but since I'm already bringing an Electric type, he's probably out
Lv. 11 Treecko -
Lv. 11 Squirtle - these two are my newest Pokemon, so I'd very much like to use them in this campaign; I got enough candies to level them up as much as I want, and I'll probably level them to Lv. 25-30 this Monday, that way they'll still be "young", but also not totally useless in the campaign

So far, looks like I'll bring Ivysaur, Elekid, Aipom, Treecko, Squirtle and either Arcanine or Pidgeot.

[Sandaa]

Well seeing as people want to bring pokemon I'd normally bring, I guess I'll make half my team some of my powerhouse battlers... we could use the extra lv.100's in the big battle lol

[Talon87]

o Level 28 Chikorita | Grass | Cut | attacker
o Level 28 Mankey | Fighting | no HMs | attacker
o Level 27 Hoppip | Grass/Flying | no HMs | setter-upper
o Level 27 Torchic | Fire | Strength | attacker

o Level 68 Muk | Poison | ?? | ??
o Level 36 Sharpedo | Water | Surf et al | ??
o Level 28 Tropius | Grass/Flying | Fly | ??
o Level 14 Butterfree | Bug/Flying | ?? | baby

o Level 52 Typhlosion | Fire | Cut | attacker
o Level 30 Luxray | Electric | Strength, Flash | attacker
o Level 27 Floatzel | Water | Surf, Waterfall, Rock Smash, Strength | attacker
o Level 25 Spearow | Flying/Normal | Fly, Defog | attacker
o Level 25 Houndour | Dark/Fire | Rock Smash | attacker, setter-upper if needed
o Level 11 Treecko | Grass | Cut, Rock Smash, Strength | baby

o Level 62 Ivysaur | Grass/Poison | ?? | ??
o Level 49 Elekid | Electric | ?? | ??
o Level 48 Aipom | Normal | ?? | ??
o Level 25 Treecko | Grass | ?? | ??
o Level 25 Squirtle | Water | Surf et al | ??

o Level 50 Gyarados | Water/Flying | Surf, Waterfall, Rock Smash | attacker
o Level 50 Goldeen | Water | Surf, Waterfall, Whirlpool | ??
o Level 16 Drowzee | Psychic | no HMs | support
o Level 16 Skitty | Normal | no HMs | ??
o Level 16 Numel | Fire/Ground | no HMs | ??
o Level 15 Paras | Grass/Bug | no HMs | support

Types:
Normal - |||
Fire - ||||
Water - |||||
Electric - ||
Grass - ||||| ||
Fighting - |
Flying - |||||
Ground - |
Poison - ||
Bug - ||
Psychic - |
Dark - |

HMs:
x3 Cut
x3 Fly
x5 Surf, Waterfall
x4 Strength
x1 Flash
x4 Rock Smash
x1 Whirlpool
x1 Defog

Levels:
68, 62, 52, 50, 50, 49, 48, 36, 30, 28, 28, 28, 27, 27, 27, 25, 25, 25, 25, 16, 16, 16, 15, 14, 11
Median: 27
Mean: 31.9 ( 798 / 25 )

[Stark]

HMs for Talon to add

Typhlosion - Cut
Luxray - Strength
Floatzel - Surf, Waterfall, Rock Smash, Strength
Spearow - Fly, Defog
Houndour - Rock Smash
Treecko - Cut, Rock Smash, Strength

My team is more or less made up of all speed based attackers. Houndour is the only one on my team that really has more than two or three status affecting moves.

Final Notes: While Spearow may know the move Fly, his size makes it pretty unlikely that he would be able to carry anyone larger than a small pokémon. Luxray knows the ex-HM Flash. Floatzel does not know the ex-HM Dive.

[Loki]

You should get Pokemon with Whirlpool. You'll need Whirlpool. You know... for Whirlpools.. that may or may not be there.