regarding Starters and Baby-Making

[these_balls]

Three things:

1) SO WE HERD U WANTED SOME OLD STARTERS.

There are now 140.

In addition, because Larvitar are pseudo-Legendary pokémon, they've been given a cap of 10. We've never actually had ten as starters so this should be alright.


2) We've also added the bugs from the swarm-plot to the Availability List, as well as the two found at the Ruins of Alph. You no longer need to contact us about what to find there! We've linked what's there and probably someday maybe we'll find a better way to add it there but until then have that link.

3) PEOPLE WHO BREED, GET OVER HERE!

Two things:
1) Would you all prefer a breeders-specific community in order to keep free eggs and whatnot in order instead of using the OOC community? If so, any ideas for a name or would you like one of us to think of something?

and 2) We've heard from numerous people that there's an excess of eggs. Because of this, it will be capped. Although, we don't want to cap it too high or too low, so I had a question for you guys: How much do you think is too much? This can be in terms of too many eggs per pokémon, per week, from pokémon each week? etc. Anything you can think of, go ahead and list, and feel free to discuss amongst each other as well!

Comments

[little-umeboshi.livejournal.com]

B1 - Brilliance. I love it. :) How about naming it after the Route with the daycare on it?

[little-umeboshi.livejournal.com]

B2 - I haven't actually started in on having any of my characters breed their Pokemon yet-- Tohru is the closest and I was wondering how to handle this myself.

What if there was a set cap Per-Pokemon Per-Month? Since breeding usually seems to happen in bursts (Just from what I've seen of course) it might be better to cap it per two-months though? Either way, I think per Pokemon is best.

Another possibility is a combined cap that limits how man eggs one trainer can end up with collectively-- and then leave the combination up to them, or base it on Pokemon rarity? IDK. Just tossing out ideas.

[dragonspeak]

eggstacy. Putting another vote in for the Daycare centre route.

[these_balls]

Is that available.......

[puzzling]

BREEDER-YET-NOT-REALLY-SINCE-HE'S-STILL-TRAINER-ON-HIS-GEAR-BUT-ANYWAY!SOUJI IS HERE

and hmmm... I will like to indeed have a breeders-specific community! Seriously, the ooc comm gets cogged up way too much with it when there's a wave and for those who don't care about the eggs, they don't have to watch the it so it won't flood their flist. Suggestions? Uh, sweetbbeggs? eggciting? egglicious? Man, I'm so bad with names so idk...

And for caps, hm, I'm not too sure. I think for each breeder or trainer-turned-into-breeders, they can breed maybe three eggs per Pokemon a week? Just something that can keep them still working in business if that's where they get their income, but it's not too many eggs where it'll flood everyone.

Also, thanks for that starter list, mods! You're doing a great job~

[these_balls]

so three-for-three on the breeder's comm.

Hmm... gonna jot that down as well!

[pastsanity.livejournal.com]

1.) I think it's a FANTASTIC idea, and as for the comm name, route_34 (since the

2.) I honestly disagree with there being a cap or even addressing breeding as the actual problem with the breeding problem at all. A cap would be good, but it'd be hard to manage given how big the game is. Is it first come first serve? Or... yeah, how would that even work? If you don't get your eggs in right away, you have to wait? I'm not sure how a cap would work exactly, so I can't say fully I'd support it. But yeah, SOMETHING has to be done on... some level. At the very least, something can be a comm.

Beyond that, and I'll keep saying it, I think the issue is just that people want Pokemon that they can only get through breeding, so making them available through other means is the way to solve the breeding issue. Limiting breeding won't stop it, people will just wait for their mons or trade the old fashioned way, so really, adding alternatives to getting those Pokemon might be a real way to go. That's just my two cents anyway.

-- Lastly! Looks like most things (Skorupi, Ledyba, Spinarak, and Pineco) from the Bug swarm were spread around, but it doesn't look like Paras and Yanma moved that far, and they were involved too? :|a Just pointing that out.

And glad to see the starters back! Hope to see even more in the future.

[these_balls]

Since that's where the daycare is, I think that's what you mean? LJ ate some of your words there!

As for the breeding cap, we'd make it a limit for the players to manage on their own, and probably a way so each trainer gets an even sort. From what the other suggestions point out, it would be per pokémon, so each trainer or breeder would have an even amount with which ones they breed. An overall cap doesn't feel as productive towards the breeding community as a whole.

But yes, we're going to add more to the availability list or in more swarms. This month ended up as more of a tester month, but with the summer right now we can probably add in more. And we can throw more Paras and Yanma around too. Let me go do that!

[shocksandawes.livejournal.com]

Yesss. Best comm name.

[phoenix-temple.livejournal.com]

I'm a little unsure about that community because, like slowpoke_gif, it could be often overlooked. I really don't see why there's a problem putting them on 006 in the first place, especially if you're really going to cap the eggs available.

I don't think there should be a cap in the game, because that's sort of unfair when you have characters like Souji who have a breeding center that puts out how many eggs every so often? He has a lot of pokemon. That's going to make it hard on the people who just want to breed five or six eggs and will get cockblocked in that regard relatively fast.

At the same time, I think it's a good idea to give each player a limit on how many they can breed. My personal rule is no more than 6 eggs per pokemon per month. Since Ken was my only breeder until now, and he only has two Pokemon that would breed, there wasn't exactly a surplus of Pokemon each time.

But when it comes to the more rare pokemon like Dratini, Eevee and the starters, maybe there should be a little more strictness, like how it might take longer for a rare egg to hatch, having fewer at a time--I mean, there has to be a reason why they're so rare in the wild. One egg or two makes more sense than having them breed like wild.

Not all breeders breed all the time, which would make it hard to have a game cap. Some do, sure, like I said, Souji does, but there are characters who breed very, very rarely. And with a game cap, I don't see them having as much of a chance to do their more rare breeding.

[these_balls]

The reason we thought of using a new community was so it would be more organized and have all of the breeder-related things in one place. If not enough people want a second community though, we could always make a new tag. But if we did pick a new community, we'd announce it and link it with the acceptance and on the profile so people could find it. There's always a way for either to work! I'm keeping tabs on the votes.

A per-pokémon or per-trainer/breeder cap seems to be a more likely decision! (Everyone seems to like that idea, that's awesome.) I like the idea of restricting the rarer ones to less eggs a month, so that doesn't seem too hard to add at all.

So with Ken, if he had two pokémon breeding six, does he go around three each? Or does it switch depending on circumstances/pokémon? I'm trying to gauge a bit of an estimate.

[phoenix-temple.livejournal.com]

And just as a side note, I do agree that having Pokemon only available by breeding is a big part of the problem, but having Pokemon available in more areas could lead to a couple problems, too. If you label something as "rare," it doesn't mean players are going to necessarily treat them as such. If someone wants a Ghastly for their character's party, they'll catch a Ghastly, regardless of rarity.

And if you get rid of the rarity and throw all the pokemon into the wild, it'll bring up the problem of "where is the challenge?" A big point of the original games are walking through the same patch of grass in wait for that super rare pokemon and crying as it got away or you made it faint. STORY. OF. MY. LIFE. screw you chansey.

Maybe you could work something out to prevent that--having pokemon only showing up in one hard to get to area. I honestly think that what you did with the starters is smart--they're only available in the Ilex Forest, Mount Mortar and the Lake of Rage, if I remember right--it made them somewhat rare in the wild, but still attainable.

... I'm not sure any of that made any sense. I feel like I'm talking in circles.

[isthedeadcat]

MY BREEDER IS A PERFECTIONIST AND HASN'T BRED A POKEMON EVER SINCE ARRIVING HERE. That doesn't mean it is not on Lion's plans, so uh.

The breeding comm seems to already be on the way so I'm a-ok with it existing.

A cap would be fine too, but it would be nice to not to make it a too small cap. We have like, 300+ characters, so it may be too limiting sometimes.

I'm starting to think that the best cap would be a more specific one. And by that I mean, if a pokemon is rare we can say it is related to its way of reproduction. So certain rarer pokemon make less eggs, so the cap for that pokemon is much smaller than the cap for a super common pokemon like a ratatta or stuff.

But that's me being picky, and that would probably take a whole damn lot of work.

So a cap is fine, yeah. No cap is also fine for me, but that's me being special xD

[these_balls]

So another vote for the comm?

That's my goal! I don't want to make it so it's too small because otherwise a lot of people won't have as much fun, but too large would be ineffective. Picking barriers based on rarity will probably work a bit better. I think we'd probably just make it an even deal and let the players themselves watch out for it instead of making it some ridiculous checklist. We trust you guys to keep yourselves from going over.

XD but no cap is too manyyyy

[darkpulsewaves.livejournal.com]

My breeder hasn't done work yet either lol. But I agree with the breeder community thing.

As for cap, I agree with Lion-mun. If it's a rare, it should be limited and commons ones greater number.

Other than that, I'm not too picky. .-.

[these_balls]

So another vote for breeders-comm, and a rarity based cap? /notes this too

[foolishwren]

I VOTE IT BE CALLED route_84330












_{or just the route that the daycare is on.}

[these_balls]

....84330... /headtilt

[rooster-shout.livejournal.com]

Breeder here however he just got in so he hasn't had time to start yet. Also I'm fine with a day_care comm

I like the idea of having a pokémon specific egg cap, the amount of egg per pokémon could be rated like this.

Ultra-rare: Pokémon that are pseudo-Legendary, super popular or capped on the Starter list
Rare: Pokémon not normally found in Johto or Kanto
Uncommon: Pokémon you need special means of getting like use TMs and items. Plus pokemon found during weather based swarms.
Common: Pokémon easily found in Johto

Also base some eggs on the how rare they are on the availability chart.

[these_balls]

So a rarity based cap? Going three-for-three, it sounds like it's looking more likely.

[alpha_stigma.livejournal.com]

A breeder-specific community would be awesome, I think.

As for eggs... well, Ryner's only had one brood so far, and I've been kind of planning to try to keep his output kind of low anyway ... But as for a cap... If there's going to be one, a per Pokémon per x amount of time one would probably work best. I think it'd probably be a little unfair to have a per Breeder per x amount of time thing, since some Breeders are just able to handle more Pokémon than others (just based on personality). But per Pokémon per x amount of time would work.

[these_balls]

Per-pokémon sounds like a better bet. /adds this to the vote

RE: Breeding/Eggs

[miniworth]

1) I believe an egg/breeder community will, as stated above, end up being treated on the same level as slowpoke_gif and end up being neglected. Having things separate does end up being more efficient than everything thrown into one Miscellaneous category, but in this case Route_006, as a game-related OOC announcement community, seems good enough. To be completely honest, I'd rather be able to find all of the "Hey game this is what I'm up to and it's relevant to everyone" things on one community than have it broken down into so many different places, and it seems unnecessary and in some ways redundant.

As an alternative, I'd like to suggest having an breeding/egg tag available for usage on Route_006.

I think the main argument for advocating an egg community is that it's hard to swim through the intros/hiatus/drop posts to find each egg post, but if there was a specific tag available to categorize such posts on the OOC comm, I believe that problem could be solved easily.

Re: Breeding/Eggs

[these_balls]

That was the other option! If people weren't as fond of the community, we were going to have a tag for it. /jots this down as well

[cleartranquilit.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, I do like the idea of a community for breeding specifically. As things are right now, the OOC comm gets used for hiatus and intros and with the amount of people in the game and coming in every week, it's kinda getting full. In addition, it makes it optional for anyone that doesn't specifically want bred Pokémon in their team and instead wants to capture all their little critters. Sorta like how the Crack comm is optional to join too.

As for the caps, personally I think it should be different for both Trainers and Breeders, as they both are supposed to have different responsibilities from each other. Trainers are supposed to focus on gym battles and catching Pokémon, whereas Breeders are, well, breeding. Considering the distinct and big focus between the two groups, I think the caps on each should be set differently if you're not going to do something like how the Crack comm is set up (5 posts a week or something like that).

I think with that in mind, something simple like 3 eggs/Pokemon species that a Trainer can offer and 5-6 eggs/Pokemon species that a Breeder can offer would maybe be a good start. Because lately it just seems that everyone and Mom is breeding, including those that are Trainers, that could be a very good reason as to why we had the sudden influx of "EGGS. EGGS EVERYWHERE." While I'm not saying that that Trainers shouldn't be allowed to breed if they want to, the line between Trainer and Breeder has gotten so fuzzy. I think giving Trainers a slightly lower cap and Breeders a slightly higher cap might help out with any sort of major egg storms in the future.

And sure, it might get a little out of hand and hard to deal with, but, um, maybe you can offer or ask for some volunteers to moderate it from a distance? Just a handful of people that neither have to do apps or any other mod work except handle the egg comm, so that you mods and the regular helpers don't have to have anything more on your shoulders now too.

[restardom.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree with this, in terms of different caps and the fact that Breeders are Breeders for a reason, and Trainers aren't really catching so much as they are getting eggs from other Trainers and it kind of takes away from the fun of having to catch your own instead of your whole team coming from eggs. In my opinion, anyway. And with this, there's still a chance for Trainers to breed if they'd like to.

And I'm sure there'd be plenty of volunteers who'd be willing to help with managing the egg comm (if we get one) too.

[used-glare.livejournal.com]

Definitely a breeder's community. And IDEK what the name could be. I'll leave that up to you guys with the talent.

I think maybe a two-monthly egg burst would work well, actually. It would take the pressure off trying to BREED 'EM ALL and back onto CATCH 'EM ALL.

Also, no more than five eggs per Pokemon, perhaps? Yes, we know that they're ~mystical creatures~ but I think they'd be rather tired after all of that breeding.

[psychunaut.livejournal.com]

None of my characters are breeders (and even if they breed pokemon it would be like one or two to give to friends to assist them with good Pokemon, such as if Raz got people from his canon he would try and get them a Ralts egg because they're good psychics, and Machi will eventually have a weird Pokemon family which might sometimes breed an egg and he'll give it out to a fitting family), but a cap sounds more then reasonable for me, per-Pokemon and rarity-based.

Speaking from experience, it's hard to think of reasons for my characters to not just buy eggs instead of hunting out the rare Pokemon, so this would be a very welcome change. (Of course, I found a way around that for Raz (too many pokemans) and Machi (same he only catches now if his pokemon really want it), but not Scott.)

Now, this next bit is just my opinion and it's only semi-related, but I have to let it out here because it's about breeders and their egg-making, as well as other job-related stuff.
Yes, the line between breeder and trainer HAS blurred and it needs to be changed.
But from Word of Mods and the like (unless I've read wrong then you can hit me and ignore this), if trainers start getting less eggs and get nerfed as breeders... breeders may either still challenge the gym challenge (http://these-balls.livejournal.com/2449.html?thread=4088465#t4088465) and/or they don't need the badges to use HM moves (http://these-balls.livejournal.com/2449.html?thread=3251089#t3251089), thus making them better trainers (even if trainers still need to get the HMs, breeders may still challenge the gyms too and well yeah). This may be an unpopular idea and I might get flamed into banning, but I think that trainers should get a boost to training Pokemon, if breeders get a boost to breeding Pokemon. Perhaps they can gain one more level then breeders, thus letting them at the max train their Pokemon up six levels a week instead of five? Yeah just my opinion.

But I must just say, it's wonderful that you're discussing this with the community, and getting their opinions. I really like seeing that.

...Also I'd prefer a tag myself, one less comm to watch.

OKAY THAT'S MY OPINION BYE FOREVER /hides from flames

[tarotcards]

Alright, I'm back here after reading the replies here and all.

So, I can see why having another comm can be a mess. We have enough to watch and I can see it also getting neglected. We're not going to have that many entries going in it like everyday or regularly. While I am indeed all for the comm and am more than willing to volunteer in helping setting it up or managing it, if we are at least not going to make the comm, get a breeding tag for the ooc comm. Now, there are concerns I have about that.

For me, if we lump the ooc comm with hiatus, slowatus, intros, drops, hmds, and similar entries then shove the egg posts, it just looks really messy to me. We already have so many entries in the ooc comm and I know that some people don't care at all about this breeding mess. Some people might be more interested in catching Pokemon for their characters instead of breeding, so I believe with a comm, you don't have to watch it at all.

Honestly, no matter which way we go, someone is going to complain. I'm all for a comm, but I don't mind at all having a tag for the ooc comm. Really, it's just a matter of preference.

Now, about the egg cap, I will have to agree with the others who are saying you should place caps on individual Pokemon. I like the groups of the common, uncommon, rare, and so on. I think maybe we can have another a separate post for those groupings on these_balls for people to reference to know how many eggs they are allowed to breed from there in that point of time. The mods do not have to do this alone in sorting them. I'm sure if you ask, people will volunteer to help categorize them and another discussion can go on with what people think of "oh, I think this Pokemon is rare!" "Nah, I think it's more uncommon due to etc etc".

Um, as for trainers-to-breeders. I have to admit, the line that have separated the two classes got really blurred. I mean, look at my Souji. One minute, he's all "POKEMON LET'S BEAT ALL THE GYMS" and the next, he sets up a breeding centre. I think it might be a good idea to have something where trainers can apply for becoming a breeder or being both a breeder and trainer? Though I guess if they want to be both, they should get a special license for that, like make it take longer?

Just my two cents and sorry if it doesn't make any sense! Still sick here asdlkfsd

[notrlychaotic.livejournal.com]

I agree with this completely and one thing I'd like to contribute is the idea of more jobs for the characters to do. Given that the common thing we are all told, ICly and OOCly is that than pretty much only become Trainers or Breeders. Which is probably why it got blurred so easily! But why not introduce a few things that the later games have? Gen III introduced Coordinators and the spin-off game Pokemon Ranger introduced the Rangers, which turns out to be more than the trainer class.

It'll give the characters more options, really. Not to mention, how about the option to completely settled down in Johto? Open a shop? Pick a city to live and get a day job? I'm not saying these weren't options before but it seems to be like the characters don't know any better since Professor Oak basically tells then GO FORTH INTO THE WORLD AND BECOME MASTERS! Y'know? Not that the characters wouldn't be smart enough to get a 9-5 job and settle down somewhere, but I've hardly seen anyone actually do this either.

Johto is an entirely different world and the anime, the spin-off games, and the normal games show that it's a functional world with people who aren't trainers and breeders. If they all were, it'd be utter chaos!

So, just my two cents here as well <3

[puzzlesitter.livejournal.com]

_{Even though Puzzlette hasn't bred a single Pokemon in her entire time in Johto even though I meant for her to I'll chime in anyway}

I'm personally fine with a comm or a tag, but I think a seperate comm would be nice; Eggs seem to happen all at once (unless I'm not paying attention which is entirely possible) and there tend to be so many posts in the OOC comm already; drops, hiatuses, intros, slowatuses, plurks...And then with egg posts... well. Not complaining about them, but every once in a while when egg posts start happening there are times when my FList will be mostly OOC posts.

I also agree with caps on Pokemon. While it's nice to be able to get a pokemon you think would be awesome for a certain character, at the same time we don't want to be totally flooded with uncommon Pokemon.

Also tossing in Route_34 for a possible comm name.

Sorry if I'm just rambling here; I'm bad at making coherent words happen.

[luxuriality.livejournal.com]

/Rangiku-Mun

To be honest, maybe we should cap how many eggs someone can receive each month? Instead of attacking the supply, maybe it'd be more reasonable to attack the demand

Or we can have IC delays of hatching eggs. I mean, Rangiku here has had her eggs for over a month and they still haven't hatched. I mean, most eggs take like 5,000 steps to hatch (rough estimation), that's little under a mile which doesn't take very long to travel.

If we lengthen egg hatching based on catching rate or something, (i,e catch rate = number of days x 2) it'd surely limit the number of eggs a person can get at one time. Just a suggestion.

Breeders work hard to get their money so attacking them seems a bit odd, and it'd hinder the purpose of breeders.Maybe we should attack it from other areas.

oh and also hhhhhh i hate lj for never making my periods work when it's at the end of a text comment.

Finally! I need to ask ... how does um, breeding work here??? do you need to go to a day care or ... do they randomly, ahem, produce the eggs on their own and you magically find them because you're arceus' blessed angel?

[luxuriality.livejournal.com]

oh and also - if catch rate x 2 doesn't work then maybe we can try something else? Like egg cycles = number of days.

Of course, some pokemon like magikarp can either be kept at their current rate (6 days to hatch) or exponentially increase to make it 36 days.

oh god I am going to be lit on fire for these suggestions /)____(\ /crouches.

[usedwindything.livejournal.com]

1. I'm kind of torn on this. On the one hand, a community may be overlooked. But on the other hand, egg posts are often times already overlooked in 006 and while a tag would help with that, I know that I personally am very bad about remembering to put a tag on things. But maybe that's just me. So both ways have their merits, but I am more leaning towards a community than a tag. But either one is a good option.

2. I also agree with the clutch cap based on the rarity of the pokemon. And I think someone else mentioned it, but there definitely needs to be a cap on how many eggs a trainer can buy per month. No more than maybe two, perhaps? I can think of one example off of the top of my head where this would have been a good policy to have.

So...nothing really that hasn't been said already, but I figured I would at least throw my two cents up here.