Hi Guys,
As you might know already, my programmer for my pokemon MMO disapeared a while ago. This means that MAO has sadly come to an end. I'm still improving my tiles, and making sprites, in the hope that it might not go to waste but for now I'm starting to do other things. I still email my programmer every now and then so maybe one day he'll reply? I still believe we made the most progress on a pokemon massive multiplayer online game, and probably for a while. It wasn't just a screenshot game, everything was working in-game.
Instead of just letting it end, I thought I would reveal the story, and some of my conceps and features in it.
Also, the game wasn't gonna have the word "pokemon" or "pokeballs" but I've just edited this to say pokemon now instead.
A LOT OF TEXT BELOW
Story:
When you were young, your parents sent you to a prestigious academy for pokemon trainers. After a couple of years, you are nearly ready to graduate. Before graduation, you must battle all 4 of your teachers (who are like gym leaders). Each of your teachers has a personality, which you've grown close to over the years, they serve as the parent role and send you messages of support throughout the game.
At your graduation, the principal of the academy gives a speech about how your job is now to go out into the world and do good deeds, spread the name of the academy and be a shining beacon of hope for the people. After this, you go to your science teacher who lets you choose one starter pokemon. When you start out you only have an academy uniform.
As you progress through the story, it turns out that the academy might not be as good as it seems. On many occasions you come into contact with a group of people intent on stealing from and terrorizing the people. The academy principal turns out to be a syndicate crime-lord, obsessed with money and power. He secretely uses part of the academy to train up thieves and criminals. The academy is just a cover up, and when people begin to be suspicious they stage attacks where they stop the "baddies" and brand themselves heroes.
Towards the end of the story you slowly work your way back to the root, the academy. There are a lot of secret rooms and a whole hidden base, which you infiltrate in order to reach the principal. Before you face the principal, you must battle his 4 admins, the 4 teachers from the start, with their true teams and true intentions on display. Not all of the teachers are evil, and handle the change of events differently.
The first (geography) wasn't completely lying, they cared for you and hoped you might join them, that you might see the light and stand side by side. After the ending he reforms and moves into a small cottage, seeking to use his battle skills for good.
The second (battling) isn't sure what to make of it, they had only lived this life and can't imagine anything different, but are starting to have doubts if it is the only route, though they still battle you. He believes you have to be strong to defend the things you love, otherwise you are weak. Being an old man, he's afraid of change, and after the ending you can find him high up a mountain meditating about what is right and wrong.
The third (science), is obsessed with true perfection, and battles you with a horrible creation that is a fusion of multiple starters (this is only time you see this pokemon). He was using the principal just to fund his experiments and doesn't care about their cause. After the ending he is arrested and locked up.
The fourth was the one who was nicest to you but turns out they hated you the most and was jealous of your potential. She's truly insane and is intent on bringing you down. She admires the principal and seeks to please him. You never hear of her again after the ending.
The principal tries to justify his actions, saying that the world needs a balance of bad and good, and he was creating a controlled balance. He argues that if they ceased their actions, it would destroy the balance and leave room for all kinds of crime gangs to appear which would be impossible to control. You defeat him anyway, arguing that if we accept bad things are going to happen and in turn cause them ourselves, we have lost our humanity. We should always strive for better, and face the bad together united. (You don't speak, but another character will sum this up).
Features:
Obviously, being an mmo you can talk, battle and trade with fellow players. Once added to your list of friends, you'd be able to interact with them no matter how far away from each other you are. The only difference is, you can trade multiple things at the same time, and put items in the slots too. Also, you can exchange money, which gives you the ability to sell to other players, or buy from them, or give items/pokemon for free if the other player offers up nothing in return.
Usually you are discouraged to have more than one pokemon of the same type in your team. This makes it hard to use a team of your favourites, ie; if you love grass types. There should be bonuses for having the same time, something like attack is multiplied by 0.25 for each grass type, etc. This would make it more fair as it would have positives and negatives of having same/different typed teams.
Expensive pokemon being sold at farms / shops. The kind that are very rare in the wild. Also able to sell your own pokemon to them. This means some people could essentially become breeders and just breed pokemon to sell them.
Award/Trophy system. Awarded for things like catching 100 pokemon, etc.
Food / Cooking. Each pokemon could have different tastes and likes, similar to pokeblocks. E.g. an apple might heal 100hp on one and 10hp on another. Each pokemon would have a favourite food, which would be shown on the pokedex data (ie. mouse likes cheese).
If berry system is included then the shops should sell seeds too.
Berries that last more than one bite, different amount of bites depending on berry size.
Battle system - if paralyzed, confused etc there could be a coloured overlay on the pokemon mini icon. If fainted then greyed out/stationary.
One gym for each type. The gyms would be a lot larger, with receptions, bathrooms, displays, research areas, a little shop. They wouldn't usually be in towns/cities, instead it would be a challenge to reach them, ie. bug museum deep within a forest. Within the gym there would be wild pokemon of that type that you cannot catch or run away from (because they belong to the gym leader)
Each gym would have a rating, that goes from no stars to 5 stars (maximum). To raise the rating, you would need to donate pokemon of the type to the researchers in the research room. Each pokemon you bring would then start to appear as a wild encounter in the gym. IE. a bug gym might only have wild weedle and caterpie to begin with, but if you gave them a volcarona it would breed and begin to show up as a wild encounter. These would still be unavailable to be caught, but you could use them for training, etc.
The little shop would sell items that might be related to the type ie. a hold item that ups bug type moves. These hold items could range from small, medium to large depending on the effect they have. They'd be very expensive, but with each rating they would begin to have more selection and cost less money. Once you've donated every pokemon of that type and maxed out the rating, they'd sell a uniquely rare item that improves that type.
Also, as the gym rating goes up the gym leader's team would improve and more people might visit the gym. The gym leader might even change, ie. their daughter could take control of their gym. Could have notable guest appearances from other famous trainers specializing in that type. IE, at 5 stars Burgh might start showing up in the gym and speaking about how wonderful it is.
As you raise the gym ratings, the league ratings would also improve, changing their E4 and their teams. You'd be entered in the ultimate hall of fame after beating the 5 star league. To get a 5 star league, all other 17 gyms would need to be upgraded to 5 stars also, which would take a lot of time and effort as you'd need to catch all pokemon, and beat all 5 star gyms. The 5 Star E4 could be made up of all past champions from other regions.
Training rooms in gyms. Punchbags that can be used as minigames. Each gym would have a different kind of minigame, something like hit the targets, etc.
Wild eggs. You'd be able to find eggs in the wild, in nests. This would be a surprise as you'd never know what pokemon it might be. could be really rare or incredibly common. Each egg would be coloured differently and have a unique description. Once discovered it would be added to the pokedex data.
Pokemon would drop items after being defeated. A bird might drop a feather, ie. There would be small quests where you might need to get someone 100 feathers so they can make a pillow for their mother or something, etc. You'd be able to sell these items for money. They could also drop berries.
Clothes would have attributes, eg. run faster if lighter clothes, run slower if heavier clothes, attract 10% more pokemon if bright colours, avoid 10% of pokemon if wearing camo.
Luck based moves. Ie, an attack that could cure you if successful or hurt you double damage if fails. Lucky pokemon would be good at these and have higher success rates (ie. chansey)
tl;dr
I'm really sorry my mmo never got much further, I wish it had. I was really looking forward to playing with all you guys on it. Maybe one day Game Freak will release a proper MMO. I hope you enjoyed at least seeing what it could have been like and being part of the dream with me.
Also, any of these ideas are now free if other fangames want them.
Feel free to use any of the icons above as avatars.
