The great Sinnoh Dex debate

[[Desolate Divine]]

My contention is this. Dungeons and Dragons is one of the most popular and well loved RPGs ever made, a mantra among DMs is Fun over rules. This doesn't mean to have no rules, because that would suck. What it means is that flexibility is important, and that a super-rigid, unchanging set of rules can take away from the fun of it. If a choice has to be made between fun or rules, choose fun. Why else do we do Role play? I want to have a similar mantra with running GCEA Platinum. I want people to enjoy themselves and not find themselves frustrated at a GM who is unwilling to budge. One of the fun things about GCEA is roleplaying with your dream team. I recall in the days before Platinum opened, discussing what Pokemon we wanted our characters to end up with. However this rule that I wish to remove, makes having a dream team a lot more difficult, in ways I will explain later in this post. In short, I feel like this rule takes away from the enjoyment of what is usually a fun roleplay.

When I joined on to the wfl I may have helped out but I didn't change rules clearly established on my valuation (not sure that spelled right).

Firstly, this is like comparing apples to oranges, in that the two situations could not be much more different. I joined GCEA nearly six years ago, before being able to GM a story on my own. This isn't a case of me coming in and first thing I do is changing things. My presence, and role with helping develop the story of GCEA began a long time before I started GMing Platinum. This decision to change this rule comes from experience before anything else. In the case of WFL, whilst I don't know specific dates, I highly doubt that your presence in WFL, both as a player, and as a general helper, was anywhere near as long before you became an official. Secondly, the way the game ran and the team structure were highly different. GCEA has two main staff members, being the two of us, whilst WFL had at least a half dozen, and the main story of WFL was run across dozens of threads, as opposed to the roleplaying element of GCEA being in a single thread. To change rules in WFL would be much more trouble getting the rest of the team on the same page, as well as making it not be a detriment to the plot when the playerbase was spread so thin across so many different threads. Thirdly, the role of official in WFL was not as authoritative as the role of the Game Master in GCEA. It was closer to the role of Story Master in GCEA. In addition to this, I was the one who actually completed the story of GCEA Hoenn, as well as started the gears moving again to begin Sinnoh. I don't mean to brag, but there is little to compare between myself and a WFL official.

This issue is as clear as what gcea stands for. In 2012 or 2011 when gcea was created the goal was to catch them all. Directly after the game was created a system was made to challenge the players. One of the basic rules that all gcea have followed was that pokemom that are part of the rp pokedex are not to be gifted or given out freely.

That is fair enough, but in all honesty, how viable, as well as how much of a priority is that goal? I would happily bet money on the fact that the current active members of GCEA joined for the story and the battling system, as opposed to collecting Pokemon, which really, in all honesty, are imaginary and serve no purpose outside of this game. Whilst collecting Pokemon unlocks additional Pokemon, these reward Pokemon are no better than Pokemon that can be caught or unlocked by other means (not saying to make them all legendary, I am just stating a fact), so really serve little purpose outside of either a given player wanting one of these specific Pokemon on their team, or for collection purposes, which as I mentioned before, doesn't really offer much incentive.

In addition to this, whilst the game is called Gotta Catch 'Em All, the current mechanics make filling even the regional Pokedex borderline impossible.

There are 319 Pokemon in the GCEA Sinnoh Regional Dex (as opposed to 210 in the Platinum Regional Dex). This is 39% of the national Pokedex, which is only available via in game encounter. And they are the only Pokemon that count towards these goals for achievement Pokemon. When you only count the base stage, non legendary Pokemon, which can evolve into the rest, that number is still a whopping 136 Pokemon, adding 20 for Pokemon such as Eevee where multiple are required to complete the Pokedex. Then deduct 25 that are only available as rewards. This means that there are 131 Pokemon that need to be caught in order to evolve them and complete the Regional Dex. Here are some figures to put that into perspective:
-In GCEA Hoenn, which took five years to complete, my character had 70 Pokedex Entries. Not 70 first stage Pokemon, but including evolutions, 70 Pokemon, over five years.
-Ash Ketchum, the protagonist of a series where the opening theme song is about catching them all, managed to catch 89 out of 809 Pokemon. I don't think it is meant to be taken too literally.
-Currently the roll rate (which you are correct in stating I set) of encountering a Pokemon in GCEA Platinum is roughly a 1/3 chance. That means that if someone is truly balanced, not lucky or unlucky, it would take them 393 encounters to catch every base stage Pokemon. Platinum has been running for two weeks, and we have had two, with a third planned before we reach the next city (spoilers).
-Even if we removed the Nothing Happens roll, and made the Pokemon encounter roll a 1/2, it would still me 262 encounters. However it gets worse. Each route has a minimum of three Pokemon which can appear. And this is RNG decided. However this RNG system was created by Rival Max. All I created was what happens in an encounter (Nothing Happens, Pokemon Appears, Item, Trainer Battle), which I created four months after Rival Max created the initial Pokemon appearance rate sheet. So basically, if you are trying to complete the Pokedex, and don't catch Shinx in the first four routes (and it isn't likely that you will catch a Shinx specifically), you cannot obtain it without going back to the three routes where it is available and therefore risk throwing off the story, as opposed to waiting for an event to obtain it.

What I am trying to say here is that if the point of playing GCEA is to truly Catch 'Em All, then the system needs a major overhaul to make that easier to obtain, and this removing this rule is actually helping to make that point a reality.

The pokemon are directly connected to unlocks so there is a direct consequence to randomly giving pokemon. Any pokom randomly given could create an unfair advantage for one player or another. To maintain the integrity of the game this minor as it seems rule keep gcea honest.

Because Pokemon in GCEA do not have base stats, this statement of there being direct consequence to giving randomly generated Pokemon in events (such as the most recent Platinum one) is false. Pokemon have a base amount of points, which can only be lowered by berries which are not given out often. If you end up with a Pokemon that has too many points, it can't be used until the player either gets a berry to lower its points (which therefore makes it more even) or has enough badges to control said Pokemon. The recent event, Pokemon were given in eggs which meant that no evolved Pokemon were given out. This in no way creates an unfair advantage. And if I remember correctly, in GCEA Hoenn, we were all given an egg with a shiny Pokemon from our characters native region. Mine was a Torchid (5 Points). Trainer17 got a shiny Druddigon (50 points). We both received our eggs at the same time and it wasn't too long before Trainer17 hatched that egg. But as I said before, measures were in place to prevent him using an overpowered Pokemon.

If the unfair advantage is with regards to completing the Pokedex, there are no time based rewards for completing it, or points for being first or second. The only rewards are the Pokemon, and this goes back to what I said about the GCEA battling system, where outside of legendary Pokemon, no Pokemon will be naturally stronger than another players.

Now if you are in the new version of the gcea, jacob slightly changed the way pokemon appear without even discussing it. The rng was not meant to have a nothing happens option. Everyone is suppose to find a pokemon or very very rarely find an item. That system needs to be adjust or it will throw off the balance of pokemon on teams. I only bring that up because i feel it has directly lead to this.

As I mentioned earlier, yes I created the RNG system of whether Pokemon appear, items are found, trainers challenge players, or nothing happens. However, there was no direct instruction that a nothing happens option was forbidden. I created the system on my own without getting approval from Rival Max, because a few days earlier, I contacted him saying that GCEA Sinnoh has been delayed for way too long because neither of us are willing to look past what we want, and he agreed. The plan was, due to his lack of time, for me to have creative freedom getting GCEA Platinum to a point where we can start. And even then, for the task of finding Pokemon to complete the Pokedex, the RNG system designed by Rival Max isn't much better, as it is still random. That section of the officials guide has no instruction as to what happens if a player encounters a Pokemon they already have, so by default (as I, the GM, was not told otherwise), they will encounter the same Pokemon. If the focus isn't on completing the Pokedex, this isn't a problem. One could do what Matthias (@Brettles) did to the Kricketune he encountered and battle it instead for story purposes (which makes it easier to evolve Pokemon, as there is nothing more irritating than having enough points to evolve your starter, but it has no battle experience and therefore doesn't make sense to evolve).

Finally, the last sentence in the quote mentioned is false. This whole discussion started because Sophie and Matthias won eggs in the tournament that contained Magnemite and Snover respectively. The RNG system I designed for encounters has absolutely nothing to do with why this discussion started. I can provide screenshots if necessary to prove this point.