Pokémon MMORPG evil teams: allow Pokémon theft?

[Kthleen]

I've often heard people say they want the opportunity to join an evil team, so I'm curious.

No, I'm not asking if a Pokémon MMO is a good idea, or if being able to join an evil team is a good idea, or if there should be any master balls in the game.


What I am asking is this:

If a Pokémon MMO existed, people could join evil teams, there were no master balls in the game, and the limit were stealing only one Pokémon from each person per battle (so in one double battle, you have the opportunity to steal up to three Pokémon, one from each of your opponents and one from your partner):

1. would you want members of evil teams to be able to steal Pokémon from nonevil team players as well as each other (and maybe NPCs, excluding gym leaders and the E5), and

2. if a Pokémon had been stolen (which would be indicated), the nonevil team players can steal it back from an evil team member (even if it wasn't their own Pokémon)?

If yes, would you want the opportunity to steal them during battle, or would you want a screen to come up after a battle (that you won) for you to choose to ones you want?

 

[Helmasaur King Jr.]

I would rather have screen asking me which one I wanted.

 

[Infinity Mk-II]

Stealing your pokemon... I guess it'd be ok if first it takes much more effort to steal than any wild pokemon (aka: red zone and some other thing or fails/is blocked) and it should deppend on the happyness value of the pokemon as well...

Of course you should be able to get stolen pokemon back. If you are the OT then it should recognize you and return to you with a single pokeball (and other things in battle like refusing to do things). If none of you are it should take the same effort as any wild pokemon.

Another thing would be that you had to beat the trainer first. In case of stealing with something like a higher level pokemon with green health or something. In the other case the pokemon would inmediatelly return to you if you didn't faint it (explosion and self destruction would fail I guess) or by the previous method.

But this would only work with stolen pokemon of course.


(Somehow I was thinking in this before viewing the thread...)

 

[Ino-Chan]

Peoplle would hate you for stealing thier LV.100 Pokemon. I like that.

 

[lalalei2001]

Sounds fun to me Maybe the teams could have a rivalry, like Team Rocket vs Galactic!

 

[llxwarbirdxll]

Pokemon theft in an mmo would result in many complaints. Really... Why should someone put months of work into leveling a pokemon, just to have it stolen in an instant?

 

[Habunake]

I really don't see the big hang up to play as the EVIL SIDE.

I mean, look at SEGA with that.

 

[Daren]

To answer the two main questions...

1: No, I wouldn't. I played Ultima Online before the world was split in two [one with fullscale Player VS player combat, the other without any]. Trust me when I say, if this is in, you will have people that will go out of their way to steal long time Pokemon, just for kicks. They'll be hordes of them. Factor in the people that'll just do it to get strong things instead of solly to annoy people, and you have this, most likely, happening every day, and almost every player will suffer it atleast once, UNLESS it's very, very hard to do.

2: If this was in, you would have to be able to get them back somehow, though what I would do is make it so someone who steals it back can turn it back to the police, allowing it to return to its previous trainer. If he keeps it, it'd still be marked as "stolen".

So in the end, I'm afraid I don't see that feature doing much but causing alot of grief, complaining and could drive quite afew players away from the game.

 

[bellpei]

I don't think player vs. player theft would add to a pokémon game. As Daren said it would just give griefers something to do. I can see pokémon theft but only from NPCs and mostly outside of battle. For instance, "There are a bunch of Charmanders in there, if we can beat the security they'll be all ours." There could be theft in battle but I think it would be similar to Pokemon Colosseum, the pokemon you can steal will be marked and only from NPCs.

 

[bell02+]

The thing about punishments in MMOs is that they are really bleepin' annoying. The main reason is because people figure out how to exploit this. It's probably why people don't drop items and money in some MMOs.

In this case, I see people exploiting this easily. I think it's better if you could only steal from NPCs. But if you want to add that dark element to the evil side then what about black market tourneys, where people can gamble and put everything on the line.

Or maybe use elements from Colosseum/XD and give the player the ability to snatch away pokemon that hate their trainers (where black marketed items make your pokemon more powerful or equpt something rule breaking armor, but make them dislike you more. That way the player knows they are vulnerable to be stolen).

Anything else is potentially exploitable (to where it isn't fair for the other trainer) from what I can think of. If you just wanted to add more eliments of the TV show, there could probably be missions, or random missions where a pokemon of yours is stolen handicapping the player (where they get them back at the end of the mission or after meeting a condition). I think that would put it in the same formula of the TV show while retaining a fair element for the players not to get frustrated. (Because if they loose they are still in the same mission and can return to it)

 

[Nekusagi]

IGE would have a freakin' field day....

That said, if stealing Pokemon WAS allowed in an MMO, it would only make sense to allow the victim to get it back via a quest or something. That, and they'd have to put in a separate PVP world (which has already been brought up, I know.)

But wow, playable TR in an MMO. I'd GLADLY pay subscription fees for that (actually, I was contemplating City of Villains at one point since that's pretty close. Except it costs WAY too much. Which is, it has a fee, period.)

 

[qwerty2263]

Sounds like XD and colluseum.

 

[Magma Krystal]

If Gamefreak were to make a game in which you could join an evil team it would be like this:

1. There would be four editions, one for each RPG evil team.

2. At the beginning, depending on your game, you would have a choice of four pokes, presented to you by the boss. For example, if you got the Aqua game, you'd have a choice between Squirtle, Totodile, Mudkip, and Piplup.

3. Then, you'd be given a rank, Grunt, to begin with.

4. The game would consist of a series of missions, including battling. IT WOULD NOT BE LIKE RANGER

5. Then, in eight of the 15 towns, there would be one of the "twerps", like Red, Blue, Gold, etc. As you battle them, you will gain merits and promotions from the boss. Evolving and training your pokemon IS important. Grass and water will be in the game for catching more for your team.

6.Once you gain all your merits and go to the highest rank, you will get to battle the four strongest members of the team, then the Boss. You become the Boss after you defeat him, and go on supermissions. THE END

7. Wi-fi would be used for Team Wars, where two people team up against another two, and battle for ranks in the Record Room

that's basically what it would be...

 

[Lon]

Pokemon theft in an MMORPG....

Well, normally I would have said so long as there is a rather complicated way of getting an item that allows one time steals or something, it would be okay. Of course, I hadn't thought about the idea of people cheating the system. With that considered, I'd say it would probably be best to have NPC trainers, and allow 'Evil Trainers' to only have access to stealing from NPCs.

As for Magma Krystal's idea, aren't Grunts normally seen with common Pokemon? If you were part of an evil organization, I'd expect starters (for Aqua for example) to be like Poochyena, Zubat, or at best Carvanha. After all, aren't most evil teams usually looking to hunt rare Pokemon?

 

[DalekMan]

I think it would have to be in a world affected by some incarnation of Cipher, for a start- Snag Machines and Shadow Pokemon would play a huge part in it. Dark side players would be limited to snagging from NPCs not affiliated with their specific evil group, and the quality level of their Snag Machine would determine how fast it recharges and, thus, how many Pokemon you can snag in one day.

Dark-side players should be able to get Shadow Pokemon from their superiors, but since they'd be unable to purify these Shadows and said Shadow Pokemon don't level up, these players probably wouldn't miss the Shadow Pokemon as much if they lost them.

Light-side players, by contrast, could only steal Shadow Pokemon, but could do so from any dark-side opponent, player or not, and have government-made Snag Machines with a higher recharge rate (to balance out the fact they have fewer Snagging opportunities than their dark-side counterparts). Also, they'd have the opportunity to purify the Shadow Pokemon they've caught.

Getting a Snag Machine at all would require being on one extreme or the other of a lawfulness/lawlessness scale, though, with the player becoming either a high-ranking criminal or a trusted law enforcement officer in order to obtain one.

And one last note... I'd add a participation point system, where points could be awarded for doing things in-character for your chosen path alignment, regardless of what other things you might get. These participation points could be spent towards enhancing your Pokemon's effort values or experience levels, or towards increasing the chances of a certain preferred type of random event. This would give dark-side players an incentive to use Shadow Pokemon in battle with light-side snaggers- for each use of Shadow Pokemon, they get a bonus to their participation points, and if the Shadow Pokemon is snagged in a fight where the dark-sider lost, they get another bonus based on how close the fight was.