Teaching players basic concepts in the game through NPC dialog

[Roundabout]

My suggestion is to add NPCs that tell the player some concepts required for competitive playing and other late-game content (such as breeding), but that most people that just got into the game don't know. They should be at acessible places (such as pokemon centers), and their dialog should be like:

 

"Did you know that some pokémon natures can raise a stat, but also lower another?"

"My Hitmonlee has an ADAMANT nature, who needs special attacks anyway"

 

similar ones could also be done about IVs, EVs, optimal movesets, breeding, etc, etc. 

[Aard]

Terrible.  I don't think I've ever read one piece of dialogue and if the game didn't have a hold down button to scroll through it I would've ragequit a long time ago.  People aren't going to talk to randos in pokecenters.  Even if they do, all of this stuff is a chart of information that is more complicated when put into dialogue.  I can go to a webpage to see all the natures at once and its better than taking my pokemon across the world to an inconveniently placed, cryptic npc.  Then that npc tells me my naive chansey should outspeed stuff but never defend special attacks instead of telling me flat out I gave it a garbage nature.  A naive pvp player might end up bringing a choice scarf chansey to their next battle.

 

If you want people to access stuff without google, especially for the members who have a communist firewall preventing them from doing so,  put a help tab on the pvp window that has stuff like a type effectiveness chart, nature chart, speed tiers, article about each poke in the tier, things like that.  That way people don't have to run around the world to listen to nauseating dialogue.  Even with that, I still don't think anyone will actually learn to pvp well from this game alone.  The best pvpers probably had experience on battle simulators where they were mid-ladder before coming here. In fact, they probably there right now since no one can connect to the server. 

 

It just takes too long to build one comp team for all the trial and error that goes into learning pvp.  A place that lets you build one team per minute is going to be easier for people to learn on than a place where you can build one team per week (really generous on it only taking a week).  Some battle factory mode where you fight other players might help this.      

Edited September 14, 2018 by Aard

[Roundabout]

1 minute ago, Aard said:

Terrible.  I don't think I've ever read one piece of dialogue and if the game didn't have a hold down button to scroll through it I would've ragequit a long time ago.  People aren't going to talk to randos in pokecenters.  Even if they do, all of this stuff is a chart of information that is more complicated when put into dialogue.  I can go to a webpage to see all the natures at once and its better than taking my pokemon across the world to an inconveniently placed, cryptic npc. 

Well I always read them and talk to everyone on my first playthrough (not only in PokeMMO), it adds a lot to the experience and adds some immersion to the game (IMO). While its true that you can just google all of it, if they (the devs) actually want to teach new players about comp, they really should give hints on this stuff during the playthrough. 

1 minute ago, Aard said:

Then that npc tells me my naive chansey should outspeed stuff but never defend special attacks instead of telling me flat out I gave it a garbage nature and someone with no pvp knowledge brings a choice scarf chansey to their next battle.

It shouldn't tell you that,  it should tell you that your chansey has a slight boost to speed and debuff to sp. def, but whether this is good or not its up to the player to tell

1 minute ago, Aard said:

If you want people to access stuff without google, especially for the members who have a communist firewall preventing them from doing so,  put a help tab on the pvp window that has stuff like a type effectiveness chart, nature chart, speed tiers, article about each poke in the tier, things like that.  That way people don't have to run around the world to listen to nauseating dialogue.

That would  help, but its better to teach them little by little than to just throw a lot of information at them, there's no way they'll learn all of it at once.

1 minute ago, Aard said:

  Even with that, I still don't think anyone will actually learn to pvp well from this game alone.  The best pvpers probably had experience on battle simulators where they were mid-ladder before coming here and probably there right now since no one can connect to the server.  It takes to long to build one comp team and a lot of trial and error to figure out how to pvp initially.  A place that lets you build 1 team per minute is going to be easier for people to learn on than a place where you can build 1 team per week.  Some battle factory mode where you fight other players might help this.      

Of course, they need experience to actually get good, my suggestion is about teaching the basics.

[ThePrettyPetard]

just throwing this over here since i don't feel like writing it all again but we had somewhat of the same idea