Good morning, everyone! Wow, has it been awhile - just over a month's time since our last update. Regardless - today is another day for creation.
The interruptions in the development of Pokemon: Master Champion have been causing a massive decrease in productivity in these last few weeks, but there are many things to blame, and I could lay those things all on the table here - however, instead of wasting our time doing that, I want to share what we plan to do with the Trainer Classes, how we've been improving upon the concept, and take a moment to share the details. So, let's get into it.
Trainer Classes were originally supposed to be very, very simple - no more than 20, at most. But, as we started to look deeper into personalization and different roles for different classes, we realized the potentiality to really customize the experience of someone in the world of Pokemon truly having the freedom to either settle down or never settle down. This is why we've added an 'Auxiliary Class' function. It's essentially a skill trade that any person can choose to learn and use alongside their other classes, like biking, jogging, or classes that we considered to be more like occupations or jobs that just about anybody could become. Some of these Auxiliary classes will generate Pokedollars on a daily basis in exchange for shortened travel distances to basically signify that the player's time is being divided between their job and their actual free time. This would give inherent edges over non-working players, such as having enough Pokedollars to buy revives and potions and pokeballs at a much higher and sustainable rate than trainers who need to win their pokedollars from battling - but some of these occupational classes aren't available to all trainers - or not at first. Some require the trainer to be at a certain level, to indicate age requirements. There are some that require a Title in order to acquire as well, indicating job requirements.
Having multiple of these Auxiliary classes could be a benefit if done for a specific purpose, such as raising money for some certain goal - but it could also have an obvious impact on your ability to keep up with your peers, as one occupation may only require so much time, but multiple will require exponentially more. The players' movement will lessen and lessen until there is no more movement to decrease. At which point, the player would be unable to move and unable to accept any more classes or quests. The player would also lose the ability to advance themselves further into additional classes, even if they're not Auxiliary - the Trainer just simply does not have enough time to train at that point. But if done for a short while, this could allow players to save up money to buy certain things and get ahead that way - at the cost of playability. This function is best used having only one of these occupations, keeping it for awhile as you progress through the game, and eventually dropping it when you are making enough pokedollars that you needn't worry about making any more.
Additionally, we started the development of 'Trainer Lines', which are basically tech trees for trainers. In the beginning, the player chooses what kind of kid trainer they become. This helps determine the options available to the player later on in the playthrough. As they do things such as quests, battles, catching and exploring, they will earn 'Trainer Credit'. This is a currency used by the player to advance themselves into another trainer class that is available to them from the trainer line they chose from. Certain stronger classes will require much more TC than others, and some may require very little as it is more of a complimentary class in the trainer line. The paths for these trainers aren't exactly linear - trainers can choose different combinations of classes in their trainer lines depending on the trainer line they've chosen. Some lines allow you to train in all aspects of its field, whereas some require you to choose one class or another. This adds to the truly customizable function of the trainer classes. To go along with the Trainer Lines, we've also inserted a Tier system - to determine which classes come before or after other classes. There are currently a total of five tiers: Tier 0-4. Tier 0 classes are the 'Kid Trainer' classes, the ones you choose in the very start of the game. Then there are the Tier 1's, which are basically still kids but in the process of growing. Tier 2 are teenagers, Tier 3 are adults, and Tier 4 are either retired or just older trainers.
Well, if you've read this far, you have my gratitude. I have such amazing support from you guys, it keeps me working on this dream to make it reality. Let me have your feedback, if you want to give it, good or bad. You can either comment here or message me directly, either way is acceptable. Thank you for tuning in this week! Just to clarify about the beginning, the 'interruptions' we've been experiencing have been more distractions than anything, ranging from a ramp-up of productivity at my job, disabling my ability to work on this project while I'm at my job, and all the political nonsense that has captivated me since mid-December. Despite the distractions, I have not forgotten the months of work already done, and I have not forgotten the vision for this game I had back in July of 2020. This game will be completed, even if it takes me years of time to do so. If you'll be patient with me, I will deliver to you a finished product that will only continue to grow larger with more time.
I've been considering the possibility of taking a lot of this work and making another, smaller project - one with a lot more DnD aspects than this TTRPG that we've been producing. But I don't exactly want to take away even more from the productivity of the P:MC project. Let me know if you are interested in seeing the development of a smaller, more simpler Role-playing centered pokemon game.
Thank you for your time and your interest in our project. I'll see you next week!
-Trainer Walker