The Battle System

[Guest]

Hello fellow Trainers,

I am here today to discuss the Broken Battle System. First of all, yes, I am new to Pokemon World Online. I do not know the ins and outs of the game and thus I am posting this thread. I have very many questions that I have found difficulty finding answers through the forum search as many unrelated things come up and I only get bits and pieces of the answers I am looking for. Therefore, I hoped to post this thread in order to find out more about Pokemon World Online in order to decide how I play through the game.

My main concern is the battle system. The battle system is obviously the heart of Pokemon video games. To see your favorite team go up against another strong team is what we all strive for. To have your Starmie rapid spin spikes that were horribly crippling your team and save the day or to see your Jolteon Baton-Pass his speed to Marrowak and KO that pesky Blissey that is walling your Alakazam is the thrill that we seek in Pokemon battles. However, coming to Pokemon World Online and finding that Reflect and Lightscreen do small amounts of damage is obscenely disappointing (as are many other things). While I understanding having an offensive team can be fun, but it gets very stale when everyone is spamming no-cost HyperBeams. Hell, I can't even remember the last time I saw HyperBeam in any Metagame pokemon battle.

Now again, I do not know the metagame in Pokemon World Online but from what I have collected, it is very stale. However, I have seen many players claim that it is not that bad. I do understand that there must be some sort of different strategy that works in this game. However, I have no clue what it is. Is it truly all offensive broken moves? Or is there actually some setting up and planning? The answer to this question is quite important to me.

Now, I know many people often complain about the battle system. I have seen many times people claim that the battle system has been worked on little by little. However, I do not see it. I had an account over a year or two ago (Must have been two cause I am pretty sure it was deleted due to inactivity), and the same problems are still in effect. I had hoped to come back and see some of the moves fixed. While some may have been fixed, not nearly as many as I would have hoped to be fixed have been fixed. While various other components have been updated and tweaked, the battle system is not as advanced as one would hope. I want to know why. Why hasn't the battle system been furthered? As many have claimed before, it is the heart of Pokemon! I mean, let's face it, the lacking battle system is what holds this game back the most.

I have seen elsewhere that the developers are trying to figure out a way to make it so that the Developer can find help without giving away too much code. If it were this hard, one would think to simply get new developers. This is also a problem as the developers are hard to come by due to the developers having to work for free. Why? Why do they have to work for free? Admins claim that they get hundreds of donations. What are they doing with the money? The server has been upgraded, yes. It costs to have the servers, yes. But there should be more money coming in than to just pay for the server. There are now tons of free MMOs that get money through 'donations'. They also make money through ads and such. A good game can make a lot of money because ads pay them to put ads on their website and forums and such. And also, why not get a big name company to fund? Hell, I'm not even sure how this game stays afloat without paying for copyrights and such.

I mean, this game has been in 'beta' for a very long time now. Why? The only difference this game has from a free to play MMO is that it's still buggy. Save the money from donations so that staff can be hired. Hire staff that are competent so that the battle system can be completed (You dont have to pay the entire staff just yet). This will cause a lot more players to join/return. More money will come in from donations. The game will grow, bigger name ad companies will be attracted and thus pay PWO more money to show ads. That means more money for developers. Better developers, etc etc.



Anyway, like I said before, I do not know that much about what goes on in this game. A lot of what I just said could be completely wrong. In fact, I am looking for someone to tell me I am wrong so that I may understand a bit better. Lastly, I apologize if I was simply unskilled in my search for these answers and a quote or a link would pacify me. I also apologize if anyone is offended. I do think the developers work hard and I think the game is great. I am just wondering why it's being held back.

 

[Zoidfa]

Well unlike the person above me, I did read and thought it was VERY well written and very to the point. I think everything you have written is fair and should be answered.

 

[ash.catchem]

Just go to Questions n answers in announcement, you may get your some of your answers..
and for your battle system, a new battle system is being worked on...
And 3rd thing you ask, all offensive moves are not broken, moves that have complicated programming like you might have noticed yourself, are broken. Just see the similarity in broken moves, they are either doing two things such as stat changes etc. in the same move, or healing or changing weathers(which is not here), or waiting for a turn to attack like solarbeam, Hyper beam, these kind of moves are broken..

And Strategies like you can make yet, if you find out which moves are working, try adapting to current PWO, you will find it yet enjoyable..!!! like sleep your target or confuse them, lower their speed, or use agility, or use harden to make yourself like iron..!! and many more if you try searching and thinking more..

you may have got my point, what I wanted to say..!!

 

[Guest]

and for your battle system, a new battle system is being worked on...

This did not help me at all. As I have said before, I keep hearing this. But after such a long time there has been little to no progress at all. I understand it must be difficult to fix but how difficult can it possibly be if the battle system works fine in a Pokemon (Red/Blue) game that was made in 1996? Furthermore, I know websites that emulate the battle system so that people can battle online. So how is it so difficult? Why can they make certain moves work while other moves that are very similar not work? Why does DefenseCurl work and LightScreen does not? ? If it is difficult, then follow my line of reasoning where I talk about hiring new employees, etc.

And 3rd thing you ask, all offensive moves are not broken, moves that have complicated programming like you might have noticed yourself, are broken. Just see the similarity in broken moves, they are either doing two things such as stat changes etc. in the same move, or healing or changing weathers(which is not here), or waiting for a turn to attack like solarbeam, Hyper beam, these kind of moves are broken..

Yes, I understand this. I believe my question was if everyone simply spams offensive attacks (because the others are all broken).

And Strategies like you can make yet, if you find out which moves are working, try adapting to current PWO, you will find it yet enjoyable..!!! like sleep your target or confuse them, lower their speed, or use agility, or use harden to make yourself like iron..!! and many more if you try searching and thinking more..

Yes, it seems as though I would have to spend much more time trying to find Pokemon that use skills that aren't broken than the person who spams Hyperbeams. It seems as though there is little incentive. Can anyone testify to such a thing actually paying off? (I'm really going to miss the Confusion, Paralysis, Attract combo...)

 

[ash.catchem]

and for your battle system, a new battle system is being worked on...

This did not help me at all. As I have said before, I keep hearing this. But after such a long time there has been little to no progress at all. I understand it must be difficult to fix but how difficult can it possibly be if the battle system works fine in a Pokemon (Red/Blue) game that was made in 1996? Furthermore, I know websites that emulate the battle system so that people can battle online. So how is it so difficult? Why can they make certain moves work while other moves that are very similar not work? Why does DefenseCurl work and LightScreen does not? ? If it is difficult, then follow my line of reasoning where I talk about hiring new employees, etc.

You would have heard some rumours, but I have heard it for first time by staffs and that system will improve PWO a lot..
and they are really currently working on that..
Pokemon(Red/Blue)'s programming i think is different from here PWO..
n 2nd thing Pokemon Red/Blue's makers have their duty and compulsory to perform this and was no free...
If you get something for free, you should adapt it n respect it..
Sorry but not being rude, Like I said, moves that require difficult programming are bugged only, use your brain man..or might be you don't know about programming, and think its a piece of cake..
Defense Curl just increases def of one pokemon, while Light Screen has to increase spdef of whole team thats why its difficult..

and that idea of hiring staffs and adds is totally ridiculous to me, though it can improve PWO, but that will make PWO a business place, where no player would play without spending money and thus the game won't be free anymore.. And all money from donations are spended on improving system.
This game was made so that players could enjoy, not earn money or spend money..

And the most important thing in life, is Patience, have patience and trust your staff, if you don't have both of these, you won't be able to do anything..!!
Sorry for being so philosophical.. but thats life..

And Strategies like you can make yet, if you find out which moves are working, try adapting to current PWO, you will find it yet enjoyable..!!! like sleep your target or confuse them, lower their speed, or use agility, or use harden to make yourself like iron..!! and many more if you try searching and thinking more..

Yes, it seems as though I would have to spend much more time trying to find Pokemon that use skills that aren't broken than the person who spams Hyperbeams. It seems as though there is little incentive. Can anyone testify to such a thing actually paying off? (I'm really going to miss the Confusion, Paralysis, Attract combo...)

But why you miss those dear, they are here, all paralysis, confusion sleep, just us confuse ray, confusion, body slam, thunder wave and when they are unable to atk just kill them..

And just one question, why do you think more than 2 lacs/200k's players have joined n adapted well to PWO, are they fool, no because they still like it, and know that Staff are working on it to improve. If you would just check the logs of Staffs, then you would know, what they are currently working and how much they have worked since it seems nothing to you, i suggest you should check.. ???

These are the links which might help you: ^-^
Q/A May
Q/A June
Staff's log

And now if you still have querries, I can't answer anymore, I told you the best I can, now only Staffs can help you..

 

[Guest]

I must agree with you. I've been playing pokemon for as long as I can remember, I spent days researching what a good line-up is, and how I could maximize the potential of each pokemon. I sighed at the terrible new ideas for bizarre looking pokemon, and rejoiced at the returned simplicity of the older pokemon. But I digress. I comprehend the fact that at a free MMO you get what you pay for. But when I'm getting killed by a level 4 hoothoot with my level 9 Cyndaquil, I start to wonder why foresight is clearly owning my face. I understand that it is difficult to manage, but instead, GET RID OF IT! Find a substitute until the battle system is orchestrated well enough to handle such complicated maneuvers. In addition, my level 5 ledyba loses to a level 3 wild ledyba? We both used tackle the whole time! Perhaps I'm bad with numbers, and maybe the developers favor an underdog, but doesn't it seem a bit unnerving that I have to consistently return to a pokemon center, while trying to grind? Which in and of itself is a task I prefer not to spend time doing. I respect the time and effort that the developers put into making this game, it is remarkable what they have accomplished, but I agree with my fellow forum writer, and respecter of the franchise, that the battle system should be the initial concern, not increasing the amount of pokemon or areas you can travel to. I truly do understand that it is difficult, but their efforts will never be appreciated and their dreams never to full fruition if the developers cannot appreciate the importance of basic gameplay. I still play pac man on occasion, not due to the flashy colors, but due to the simple basic structure that functions. If it doesn't function, leave it out.

 

[Guest]

You would have heard some rumours, but I have heard it for first time by staffs and that system will improve PWO a lot..
and they are really currently working on that..

As far as I heard, programming on the battle system has grinded to a halt until whoever can find a way to get help without releasing too much code to people. Well, at least that's what I've found in my searches. As far as them working on it, again, I do not doubt it. But I just can't seem to fathom why it is so slow.

Pokemon(Red/Blue)'s programming i think is different from here PWO..

Why? Why not emulate it or work with something that is very similar? Hell, Smogon could do it.

n 2nd thing Pokemon Red/Blue's makers have their duty and compulsory to perform this and was no free...
If you get something for free, you should adapt it n respect it..

Have you never played any Free-to-Play game before? There are TONS of them. I play League of Legends all the time. I've played Atlantica for a while, Lord of the Rings Online, DC Universe Online, and much more. Hell, even DuelingNetwork found a way to work! All of this is free. And they all run off of donations/ads. They hold regular events and competitions to draw in a larger crowd, thus pulling in more money through donations/ads.

Sorry but not being rude, Like I said, moves that require difficult programming are bugged only, use your brain man..or might be you don't know about programming, and think its a piece of cake..

Maybe I am assuming it is simpler than it is seeing as how the battle system was created by Nintendo in 1996. I know coding is very time consuming and small errors can create bugs and crashes quite easily. However, I'd like to think that the developers are competent enough to be able to complete such a task. I mean, the administrators do claim that it is difficult to find developers (they have to tested by other developers, etc). If it is competent Developers that is the problem (because the programming is so difficult) why not hire better developers (eg with the above stated idea of actually paying them)?

Defense Curl just increases def of one pokemon, while Light Screen has to increase spdef of whole team thats why its difficult..

Ahh, I confused LightScreen with Reflect for a moment and vice-versa. Alas, you have caught my mistake. However, your point remains that the ability effects the entire party. In return I would like to make the point that at the least, it could increase the defense of the user. Why the heck would they make it a damage ability? It just makes it useless and hogs up a skill that could have been learned.

and that idea of hiring staffs and adds is totally ridiculous to me, though it can improve PWO, but that will make PWO a business place, where no player would play without spending money and thus the game won't be free anymore.. And all money from donations are spended on improving system.
This game was made so that players could enjoy, not earn money or spend money..

This confuses me. Why would players be required to spend money? The idea is that the game still makes money while the game remains free. Hell, I've only ever spent money on the free to play game League of Legends in order to get cool looking skins (That could be a good thing to do in this game- Different character skins or pokemon skins or something). Furthermore, you state that all the donations would be spent on improving the system. Well, what the heck else would be done with the money? If the game remains free to play while the staff can at least make enough money to pay for some more staff to please the players, then what is the problem?

And the most important thing in life, is Patience, have patience and trust your staff, if you don't have both of these, you won't be able to do anything..!!
Sorry for being so philosophical.. but thats life..

Haha, I am third year Philosophy Major! But I agree, I can and will be patient. I just happen to always be the person to ask, 'Why'.

But why you miss those dear, they are here, all paralysis, confusion sleep, just us confuse ray, confusion, body slam, thunder wave and when they are unable to atk just kill them..

Haha, no, I mean the combo the three make. When they aren't stopped by paralysis, they are stopped by attract. When not stopped by both, they are stopped by confusion. Hahaha, its a mean combo! Why did I say I'd miss the combo? Cause they didn't implement attract.

And just one question, why do you think more than 2 lacs/200k's players have joined n adapted well to PWO, are they fool, no because they still like it, and know that Staff are working on it to improve. If you would just check the logs of Staffs, then you would know, what they are currently working and how much they have worked since it seems nothing to you, i suggest you should check.. ???

I do not doubt that they are working effortlessly. I am just wondering why the updates are so slow to come. Or to be more specific, why there are so few developers advancing the Battle System and why it is so difficult. In fact, you just restated my question. Why are there 200k players here? That is why I asked about the metagame here and such, haha. Obviously there is a reason. I wanted to know what it was.

These are the links which might help you: ^-^
Q/A May
Q/A June
Staff's log

And now if you still have querries, I can't answer anymore, I told you the best I can, now only Staffs can help you..

Thank you very much for your comments so far. Youve been quite helpful but I think I still have some unanswered questions.

I comprehend the fact that at a free MMO you get what you pay for.

I disagree here. As I have said before, there are various free to play games that work very well. Maybe it is because they have funding for development for release or something.

I understand that it is difficult to manage, but instead, GET RID OF IT! Find a substitute until the battle system is orchestrated well enough to handle such complicated maneuvers.

I agree with you on this point. It seems more disappointing to learn a move and find out that it's broken than not learning a move at all. Why rush to incorporate new generation pokemon and moves when the old ones have yet to be perfected? I would much rather see worse graphics, 150 pokemon, 1 region, and a well programmed battle system in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I love everything they have, I would just like to know the reasoning behind the priorities they have created.

In addition, my level 5 ledyba loses to a level 3 wild ledyba? We both used tackle the whole time! Perhaps I'm bad with numbers, and maybe the developers favor an underdog, but doesn't it seem a bit unnerving that I have to consistently return to a pokemon center, while trying to grind?

Hmm, I remember someone mentioning something about catch rates in another topic. They claimed that the catch rates are so much higher so that people don't blow through the entire game so quickly. The admins want people to spend more time playing the game as opposed to making it so easy. This may be their reasoning behind the wild Ledyba being surprisingly strong compared to your higher leveled and trained Ledyba who used the same exact attack, tackle.

. . . I agree with my fellow forum writer, and respecter of the franchise, that the battle system should be the initial concern, not increasing the amount of pokemon or areas you can travel to. I truly do understand that it is difficult, but their efforts will never be appreciated and their dreams never to full fruition if the developers cannot appreciate the importance of basic gameplay. I still play pac man on occasion, not due to the flashy colors, but due to the simple basic structure that functions. If it doesn't function, leave it out.

[/quote]

Haha, to be honest, the reason why I returned to Pokemon World Online is because I had been playing my old Pokemon Gold Version! If I care about visuals or effects I'd have been playing PS3, haha!

 

[Guest]

If they start paying developers to code for PWO they would get into even bigger trouble when Nintendo finds out. (Right now it's a group of in their eyes 'kids messing around' ..still against the law, but if you start paying developers it will then become a business that is stealing their ideas/copyrights. (If you get what I mean)

Your other questions however, I'd love to hear the answers too as well.

 

[Guest]

If they start paying developers to code for PWO they would get into even bigger trouble when Nintendo finds out. (Right now it's a group of in their eyes 'kids messing around' ..still against the law, but if you start paying developers it will then become a business that is stealing their ideas/copyrights. (If you get what I mean)

Ahhh, I think I understand now. But if Nintendo was aware of the game, why don't they buy it out or something? If/When perfected, this game would be GOD, lol.

 

[Guest]

I feel like there is this vast world unexplored by all of these developers. I too started my search for a pkmn mmo after starting up another pkmn Silver profile. It was initially just because I missed scizor, and had a rough time getting a hold of him in other games, but I've seen all these great ideas come from multiple pkmn spinoffs, and I wonder why these developers don't take the same concept and just switch a few things around to avoid copyright. Come up with their own creatures, use their own battle system. I realize it might take effort, but really, doesn't avoiding the law take just as much. Games like digimon, monster rancher, and yu gi oh came around the same idea but they were all so preoccupied with not being like pokemon, that they left out certain concepts. So change some names, get new characters, and make millions. I fail to see the problem. I understand that the name alone is what people search for, but games like Shin Megami Tensei's Nocturne added a peculiar renewed vigor for pokemon concepts with a revolutionary outlook. Change tackle to smash, pikachu to bug thing, and voila, you've got a great game with interesting mechanics that millions would love to play and support, and perhaps pokemon will finally realize that they had a golden opportunity to capitalize, but they didn't take it. Then someday down the road, these developers can finally play their dream game and dictate what happens because pokemon will be their competitor and not their intellectual benefactor. As far as the FTP games like league of legends, it's a little different because they are sponsored by companies like Riot, and Nexon, etc. so I can see why this would be lower budget because it has no mother company. I think we may sometimes seem to demand a lot these days from games, but really we don't want to reinvent the wheel, just take paint, which exists, and the wheel, which also exists, and put them together for an improved model. All in all, if you're not even making money off of a game, at least make it fun to play, not frustrating.

 

[Bluerise]

The battle system is currently on hold, simply put we currently don't have an active Developer who works on the server apart from Thugie - who is supposed to be focusing on speedy things up and fixing errors. Of the current DEVs, Xan is the only other server DEV who had been working on the battle system.

I had hoped to come back and see some of the moves fixed. While some may have been fixed, not nearly as many as I would have hoped to be fixed have been fixed.

Crenel was taking this on as a problem however due to having less free time, he's basically looking towards a solution that would basically not just rely on DEVs and Admins.

If it were this hard, one would think to simply get new developers.

As usual with PWO - there is usually a roadblock. Essentially you can reach it, but to get pass - you have an requirement. In PWO's case Developer wise, we require at least one DEV to test and review applications and then Xan to approve them.

This is also a problem as the developers are hard to come by due to the developers having to work for free. Why? Why do they have to work for free?

Indeed, they are. None of the current staff are paid and non can any future staff members be.

Admins claim that they get hundreds of donations.

Source?

What are they doing with the money?

Paying for at least two servers - I don't have access to any numbers so can't give any ideas on the costs we pay.

And also, why not get a big name company to fund? Hell, I'm not even sure how this game stays afloat without paying for copyrights and such.

Nintendo wants it's property protecting.

 

[Guest]

The battle system is currently on hold, simply put we currently don't have an active Developer who works on the server apart from Thugie - who is supposed to be focusing on speedy things up and fixing errors. Of the current DEVs, Xan is the only other server DEV who had been working on the battle system.

I had hoped to come back and see some of the moves fixed. While some may have been fixed, not nearly as many as I would have hoped to be fixed have been fixed.

Crenel was taking this on as a problem however due to having less free time, he's basically looking towards a solution that would basically not just rely on DEVs and Admins.

And by this you mean having others help without releasing code? I believe that's what I've seen somewhere on the forum. This sounds like a great idea I was just wondering why it was taking so long. Also, is Xan working on the battle system or Crenel? Or both? Why only them? Shouldn't this be top priority?

If it were this hard, one would think to simply get new developers.

As usual with PWO - there is usually a roadblock. Essentially you can reach it, but to get pass - you have an requirement. In PWO's case Developer wise, we require at least one DEV to test and review applications and then Xan to approve them.

Right, I understand they need to be tested and such. But like I said, wouldn't you get more developers applying if you offered money? What Azuri said made sense to me that if you began paying developers, Nintendo would get pissed because now you are stealing business. However, once the battle system is finished, Nintendo will be pissed either way. Even if it were free, with a competent battle system, this game will grow quite a bit. I mean, they're probably waiting for it to be finished so they can swoop in and steal everything you have worked at. How can you ever get out of the beta stage without pissing Nintendo off anyway? It seems impossible to me. You may as well sell it before they take it with a lawsuit.

This is also a problem as the developers are hard to come by due to the developers having to work for free. Why? Why do they have to work for free?

Indeed, they are. None of the current staff are paid and non can any future staff members be.

You didn't answer the question of why they can't be paid. You just said they can't.

Admins claim that they get hundreds of donations.

Source?

This will be pretty long but...

Okay, first of all, confiscating Pokemon is something that in most cases, we as Staff DO NOT do. We only remove Pokemon from an account if it was illegitimately obtained, for example through glitches, faked donations or deception of other players; and if they were owned by another person before you, we will usually attempt to return it to them rather than take it for ourselves. We do not like to victimise players. It is more likely your account was hacked and another PLAYER took your Pokemon from you; in which case, had you taken the oft-stated precaution of recording the Pokemon's ID numbers, we would now be able to track them down and look into what actions we can take.

Also, we never DELETE Pokemon. Any Pokemon that have been removed from the game have been due to server glitches, or due to downtime that prevented the information being saved in the first place - of with neither situation is within our control. This is not to say we wouldn't have the right to delete Pokemon should we find good cause to; we just feel that it's better for Pokemon to find new homes rather than to eradicate them from existence.

Now if you also lost most of your data due to your account being deleted by the inactivity limit, then my humble apologies for the inconvenience. However, there is a very good technical reason why these deletes occur. All user accounts take up their own storage spaces in multiple locations on our database. if you consider every player account to take up a minimum of 1MB of space, if around 4,100 accounts that don't get used in two years, that's a whole 4GB of space completely wasted. This is larger than the ENTIRE file size of Guild Wars prior to expansions. Don't you think there's a much better use for all that space? We understand that instances may occur where a person is unable to play for long periods of time; but frankly, all a player needs to do is log even a single second of play to keep their account active, so I don't see it as unreasonable for a player who will have to leave the game for a long time, but who wants to remain a player for the future can't just make one quick login every so often; or even borrow a friend's computer to play for a moment. The fact of the matter is there have only been three wipes in the history of PWO; and only this month have any plans been discussed to make this a regular occurrence; so if you genuinely can't keep your account active, the risk was your own.

I find it quite ironic how you complain about your money being stolen, yet at the same time you yourself refer to our system of "donating" to the game. Tell me, do you even understand what "donation" means?

donation (plural donations) n.
A voluntary gift or contribution for a specific cause.

There is no REQUIREMENT here for you to give money to our game; this is completely the choice of all our players. PWO is playable and can be progressed through without a single penny ever being granted to the game - and I know this from experience - and even if donations may give players certain benefits, they are not so unrealistic as to be unobtainable by regular players as long as the required effort is given.

Furthermore, PWO is non-profit; and is required to be so by law due to the requirements of fair-use of other's copyrights. The money we gain from PWO is used solely to fund development of PWO and improvement of its technology; and anything that can't be used now will be invested into the services at a later date - no money ever lines our own pockets. As for theft by CodeCore Entertainment itself - in order for money to be stolen, there needs to be a binding contract or other legally up-holdable agreement between both parties as to what each gives and receives, but which one party does not honour. This does not apply to PWO as we make clear nothing is ever contractually obligated to be given to you on our behalf. By donating to PWO, you are helping to support our game and its servers; this is the only promise we make.

You have been very hasty at blaming Staff for what you see to be lapses in our own judgement, when for the most part it appears much of the blame exists on yourself. I'm pretty sure a lot of my argument here will fall on deaf ears, but then I'm quite used to working with those who have hearing or reading difficulties. So I'll just leave with one statistic. PWO has been around for over six years. In that time we've had downtime; server hacks; a rogue Developer leaking database information; a broken mart system that resulted in tons of Pokemon being lost and more. Yet we still have 250,000 registered accounts and receive hundreds of donations every month. If we genuinely didn't give a care to our players, why do people continue to trust us so? The fact is this game can only exist with the support of it's players; and the fact we've been able to last six years when a number of MMOs - even hugely commercial ones - fail to reach one is surely a testament to our quality and care. And that is all I will say.

Well, it's highlighted in red. It was in the thread called PWO Staff (I'm too lazy to go back and get the link).

What are they doing with the money?

Paying for at least two servers - I don't have access to any numbers so can't give any ideas on the costs we pay.

And also, why not get a big name company to fund? Hell, I'm not even sure how this game stays afloat without paying for copyrights and such.

Nintendo wants it's property protecting.

I'm not even sure what you mean here...

Again, I apologize if this is all redundant.

 

[Jinji]

We can't pay Staff or offer money as an incentive for work; as this would count as profiting on another's intellectual property and thus would be copyright infringement and theft. PWO's current legal standpoint is based on the multi-nationally-accepted doctrine of "fair use" and we are making all efforts to reduce our use of Nintendo trademarks to the bare minimum level required for a Pokémon game.

As for my claim of "hundreds of donations every month" - that was a careless editorial comment by myself made without any factual basis. I am not actually privy to any information regarding the number of or amount raised via donations to PWO and may have an exaggerated personal estimate as to the numbers involved.

 

[Bluerise]

And by this you mean having others help without releasing code? I believe that's what I've seen somewhere on the forum. This sounds like a great idea I was just wondering why it was taking so long. Also, is Xan working on the battle system or Crenel? Or both? Why only them? Shouldn't this be top priority?

Crenel is currently suspending move fixing, for the reason I provided. Yes, it will mean that other members of staff should be able to help - this depends though on how it's implemented. As far as i'm aware nobody is currently working on the battle system. Why only them?

Myself and Jinji have other projects that we're working on ourselves. For myself, i'm split between working on both websites, NPCs (mostly XanaScript related) and token issues.

Right, I understand they need to be tested and such. But like I said, wouldn't you get more developers applying if you offered money?

Staff can't be paid. By the way Nintendo have already had us shut down once in the past.

You may as well sell it before they take it with a lawsuit.

Why buy when you can start from new and not have to fix a load of bugs yourself.

This is also a problem as the developers are hard to come by due to the developers having to work for free. Why? Why do they have to work for free?

Indeed, they are. None of the current staff are paid and non can any future staff members be.

You didn't answer the question of why they can't be paid. You just said they can't.

We can't be making profit, staff can't be paid as currently this is volunteer. The moment we open up to paid content and paid staff is the moment we're asking for a lot more trouble from Nintendo.

hundreds of donations every month

Jinji can cover this, since we don't get a record of the total number of donations made.

I'm not even sure what you mean here...

No big name company would be willing to fund. Nintendo likely wouldn't allow it as well.

 

[Guest]

We can't pay Staff or offer money as an incentive for work; as this would count as profiting on another's intellectual property and thus would be copyright infringement and theft. PWO's current legal standpoint is based on the multi-nationally-accepted doctrine of "fair use" and we are making all efforts to reduce our use of Nintendo trademarks to the bare minimum level required for a Pokémon game.

Yes, I understand this now. My next question is, at what point will Nintendo eventually get pissed at you guys? I mean, right now it's just 'a bunch of kids messing around', but when most/all the bugs are smoothed over, I have a feeling that MANY people will flock to this game. At that point, Nintendo will be pissed because they are losing money due to people playing this game as opposed to real, bought video games and platforms.

As for my claim of "hundreds of donations every month" - that was a careless editorial comment by myself made without any factual basis. I am not actually privy to any information regarding the number of or amount raised via donations to PWO and may have an exaggerated personal estimate as to the numbers involved.

I see, it happens. Anyway, who does deal with the donations? And I would still like to know where the Battle System is on your priority list that the updates for it are moving at a snail's pace.

 

[Bluerise]

Anyway, who does deal with the donations?

Xan, seeing the pattern here?

 

[Guest]

Anyway, who does deal with the donations?

Xan, seeing the pattern here?

No... ???

 

[Jinji]

Basically, Xanatus has his hands in most of PWO's major operations; so not having him around has slowed our progress. We're doing everything we can to progress in his absence, though.

It must also be remembered we have different staff working on different things; and the skill and time required varies. As an example, just because new maps might come out quicker than new moves, or previous moves being fixed, doesn't mean one is a higher priority than another.

 

[Guest]

Basically, Xanatus has his hands in most of PWO's major operations; so not having him around has slowed our progress. We're doing everything we can to progress in his absence, though.

It must also be remembered we have different staff working on different things; and the skill and time required varies. As an example, just because new maps might come out quicker than new moves, or previous moves being fixed, doesn't mean one is a higher priority than another.

I see, so none of the other staff can work on the battle system even if they wanted to?

 

[Merse]

That would be very strange. The game is freeware and as long as the development goes on, nobody should be able to say "it is mine, you can't change it". And because the game is still beta, it is obvious that the development did not end yet.