VN Ren'Py Pokemon Academy Life Forever [v12.27.2024] [Pokémon Visual]

[deadmasterx]

I feel that. A 2000+ win streak run only got my newly caught lvl5 to lvl33. Though it was only leveling on xp share until lvl14, then fought the rest of the way. But then, that same night, Blue pulls out multiple lvl35s. I get that the battles are designed to be beatable at low levels and that you're only supposed to be lvl20s by week8, but the xp gain nerf to above-recommended-lvl is pretty annoying. I normally prefer pokemon battles where I'm underleveled, but because I chose to specialize Dragons, which evolve very late, I'm still using all baby mons. I just want to evolve someone, anyone. I only recently got my first evo, which is the Bagon starter at lvl30, finally learning Dragon Claw and actually having a STAB move and being able to use my starter feels nice.

Yeah that got me mad too. I worked that hard to get my Pokémon high-level early game because I knew that Blue would have a goddamn Gyarados that could kill all my pokémon in one hit if I had same-similar levels as him. Then that day where he invites you to the pool comes, I'm confident that I will win because all my Pokémon are now almost lv. 30, while the recommended should be anywhere between 18-22. Yeah, all his Pokémon are above lv. 30. Pretty frustrating.

 

[ffive]

Then that day where he invites you to the pool comes, I'm confident that I will win because all my Pokémon are now almost lv. 30, while the recommended should be anywhere between 18-22. Yeah, all his Pokémon are above lv. 30. Pretty frustrating.

Spoiler: Blue's pokemons in that event (and probably overall) are matched to your level. In my play through when i attended the battle at the pool my team had level 20-23, and Blue's had levels 22-26.

The game simply ensures that you get a proper challenge regardless of your levels, instead of just being able to faceroll through it.

 

[Saint Vicarious]

I don't know if the author even reads this thread, but on the off chance they do: This is absolutely phenomenal. The stories, the characters, the art, the gameplay. When was the last time a visual novel got praised for gameplay?

Just fantastic work all around.

 

[Caroline-is-best-girl]

So, this is something someone asked me to change in my cheat injector just a little while ago. Here's the EXP formula for wild areas.

            if (wildcount != 0):
                $ expvalue = 5
                if (location == "alley"):
                    $ expvalue = 9
                elif (location == "seaport"):
                    $ expvalue = 12
                elif (location == "mountain"):
                    $ expvalue = 17
                $ exptotal = math.floor(pow(expvalue, 3) / 25 * min(3, (1 + wildcount / 10)))
                narrator "You have won [wildcount] consecutive battles, so your party will gain [exptotal] experience each. (There are no bonuses after 20 consecutive battles.)"
                if (GetHighestLevel() > AimLevel() + 3):
                    narrator "{color=#f00}Note:{/color} Pokémon that have significantly more experience than is expected right now may receive less."

Meaning, there's no increase in exp gained depending on wild pokemon level in the wild areas. It's solely dependent on the area. Also, since min(3, (1 + wildcount / 10)) can never be more than 3, there's no point in fighting more than 20 fights. So the best thing you can do for gaining EXP (for the wild area) is fight 20 wild pokemon, leave and then go back to the wild area.

If you're wondering what the change that they asked for, it was to remove the exp cap in the wild area.



*DISCLAIMER* I don't actually play the game. There might be better ways to gain EXP besides wild areas. This is just what I know from hacking the game.

I'm aware of the diminishing xp returns, and farming wild areas is actually the most time-consuming (irl time) way to gain xp. The reason everyone does it is because the whole run only costs 1 'turn', making it the least time-consuming (in-game time) method. Sadly, leaving after 20 battles then reentering will cost another 'turn', which is why nobody does it.

 

[ffive]

The reason everyone does it is because the whole run only costs 1 'turn', making it the least time-consuming (in-game time) method.

People who do insane grinding runs just didn't try the xp gains from hanging out with high tier friends. Those take one turn, too.

 

[Caroline-is-best-girl]

People who do insane grinding runs just didn't try the xp gains from hanging out with high tier friends. Those take one turn, too.

Those give very finite xp per turn. Wild area runs are unlimited xp for as long as you keep going.
It's ironic how you assumed ignorance from other people when you have absolutely no clue on what you're talking about.
Replying before thinking is like cleaning your ass before taking a shit.

 

[Caroline-is-best-girl]

Spoiler: Blue's pokemons in that event (and probably overall) are matched to your level. In my play through when i attended the battle at the pool my team had level 20-23, and Blue's had levels 22-26.

The game simply ensures that you get a proper challenge regardless of your levels, instead of just being able to faceroll through it.

You just blew my mind. This actually makes so much sense. I've never visited the wild areas outside of when the story forces you to. But whenever it does, I always make sure to take advantage and farm since I'm already forced to spend the turn. I was always annoyed at how Blue always managed to stay one step ahead, jumping in levels whenever I did, and 'coincidentally' always being just a few levels ahead. I thought it was just 'fixed points' in the story, it kinda made sense that Blue gained more levels whenever I did because he's in the same homeroom and was also in the fields whenever the story forced me to, so I never questioned the timing, just the level amount. I never even suspected that it just automatched my party levels.

 

[ffive]

Those give very finite xp per turn. Wild area runs are unlimited xp for as long as you keep going.
It's ironic how you assumed ignorance from other people when you have absolutely no clue on what you're talking about.
Replying before thinking is like cleaning your ass before taking a shit.

Simmer down. I've made a mistake of presuming no one would possibly want to no-life to the point of grinding significantly more xp than you can get from those hangouts, in a game where getting just a few levels ahead of a curve is more than enough of an advantage. If one was truly this desperate to trivialize all the content, then i imagine maxing out the xp in 5-10 seconds with a simple call from the dev console would be far more preferable, in terms of using one's time.

You just blew my mind. This actually makes so much sense. (...) I never even suspected that it just automatched my party levels.

Yeah, i guess it kind of makes sense in Blue's case of all people to always be just slightly ahead of MC in the game, because you're effectively trying to out-grind the biggest try-hard in the world (who has a pocket healer as assistance to boot) ;/

 

[Caroline-is-best-girl]

Simmer down. I've made a mistake of presuming no one would possibly want to no-life to the point of grinding significantly more xp than you can get from those hangouts, in a game where getting just a few levels ahead of a curve is more than enough of an advantage. If one was truly this desperate to trivialize all the content, then i imagine maxing out the xp in 5-10 seconds with a simple call from the dev console would be far more preferable, in terms of using one's time.

I cant speak for other people, but in my case, I chose to specialize Dragon-type, and they evolve sooo late. I just wanted to evolve someone, anyone from the party. The lowest evo was Bagon at lvl30, which I didn't hit until the trip to the fields with Cherry. I was stuck with baby dragons that would always get outsped and 1-shot by stronger trainers. Other than cyclizar, who is broken af, no other dragon I found was actually usable against stronger trainers. Dragon-parties basically consist of either Dragons that dont evolve and are way too strong even when underleveled, or babies that are way too weak even when overleveled. I was sick of spamming cyclizar, I've spammed cyclizar so much that it feels like my starter.

 

[sleepingkirby]

I cant speak for other people, but in my case, I chose to specialize Dragon-type, and they evolve sooo late. I just wanted to evolve someone, anyone from the party. The lowest evo was Bagon at lvl30, which I didn't hit until the trip to the fields with Cherry. I was stuck with baby dragons that would always get outsped and 1-shot by stronger trainers. Other than cyclizar, who is broken af, no other dragon I found was actually usable against stronger trainers. Dragon-parties basically consist of either Dragons that dont evolve and are way too strong even when underleveled, or babies that are way too weak even when overleveled. I was sick of spamming cyclizar, I've spammed cyclizar so much that it feels like my starter.

Again, I don't play this game. But I did play the mainline pokemon games. From Yellow (as in Japanese yellow) until ultra sun and moon. I also like dragon types so I feel your pain.
My solution has always been (since I write the cheat injector for this game and I hacked for cheats in the mainline games) to "evolve" the pokemon before their actual level. It might be a moot point now since you've already leveled Bagon, but it's possible in code (or console, in this case) to set a pokemon to be another pokemon. Just make sure to level it once via rare candy or something for the game to recalculate the stats properly. So, for example, get a dratini, level it up to whatever level you like -1. Set the dratini to be a dragonair. Use a rare candy to reset the stats. The downside, of course, is that if there ar any moves that the younger pokemon learns earlier, you'd miss some moves as they're often only learned during the level up process/procedure of a pokemon.

But also, I'm going to double what ffive said. Among all the threads I lurk on F95, this is one of the most chill, friendly and with the least amount of vitriol. So much so that, again, I don't play this game, but I'm willing to make a cheat injector for it. So please, before you go calling people things, take a step back and take a deep breath. We're all here trying to help. It may not sound like it because it's hard to convey tone, much less intention, through written text.

If you're interested in my solution, all you need to do is change the Id of the pokemon to change that pokemon. So, you find what position the pokemon in question is in your party. Let's say the pokemon in question is second in your party. This pokemon would be:

playerparty[1]

Note it's 1, not zero because arrays start at 0, not 1 (So first pokemon in your party is playerparty[0]. Second pokemon is playerparty[1]. Etc.)
You just set:

playerparty[1].Id

to the id of the pokemon you want to turn it into.

Conversly, since we have access to the code, you should also be able to run:

playerparty[1].Evolve(<id of pokemon to evolve into here>)

It should recalculate the stats for you. It should work but be forewarned, I haven't tested this myself.


Side note: looking at the function Evolve() itself, it seems you can also recalculate a pokemon's stats by running:

playerparty[1].RecalculateStats()

instead of using a rare candy if you manually change a pokemon's Id.

 

[Caroline-is-best-girl]

But also, I'm going to double what ffive said. Among all the threads I lurk on F95, this is one of the most chill, friendly and with the least amount of vitriol. So much so that, again, I don't play this game, but I'm willing to make a cheat injector for it. So please, before you go calling people things, take a step back and take a deep breath. We're all here trying to help. It may not sound like it because it's hard to convey tone, much less intention, through written text.

Relax, we weren't beefing, it was just cheeky banter.
Dude took a line out of context and made an offhanded comment advocating for the worst possible method within the given context. I just called it out. There was a little sass, but I definitely didn't call anyone names. The same dude also made a great observation, I gave him props and expressed appreciation. We're chill.

 

[sleepingkirby]

Relax, we weren't beefing, it was just cheeky banter.

Alright. Just be careful.

 

[ffive]

I cant speak for other people, but in my case, I chose to specialize Dragon-type, and they evolve sooo late. I just wanted to evolve someone, anyone from the party. The lowest evo was Bagon at lvl30, which I didn't hit until the trip to the fields with Cherry. I was stuck with baby dragons that would always get outsped and 1-shot by stronger trainers. Other than cyclizar, who is broken af, no other dragon I found was actually usable against stronger trainers. Dragon-parties basically consist of either Dragons that dont evolve and are way too strong even when underleveled, or babies that are way too weak even when overleveled. I was sick of spamming cyclizar, I've spammed cyclizar so much that it feels like my starter.

Hmm, i admit my interest in Pokemon games is rather cursory (this one being an exception thanks to quality and the different spin on it) so pardon a naive/dumb question, but is this some aspect of "pure" dragon types? I ask because i have Turtonator (and, occasionally, Deino) in my team, and they already seem like perfectly solid contenders at lvl.20-odd.

Perhaps this is different in PvP fights with actual people, but in a game where your NPC opponents don't exactly have much of strategy and their move selection is largely RNG-driven... well. Things just seem easy enough, that even the (half) dragons don't appear to struggle much..?

(i guess Turtonator could be one of those "OP, doesn't evolve" types, but Deino does have evolutions, from what i recall)

 

[sleepingkirby]

Hmm, i admit my interest in Pokemon games is rather cursory (this one being an exception thanks to quality and the different spin on it) so pardon a naive/dumb question, but is this some aspect of "pure" dragon types? I ask because i have Turtonator (and, occasionally, Deino) in my team, and they already seem like perfectly solid contenders at lvl.20-odd.

Perhaps this is different in PvP fights with actual people, but in a game where your NPC opponents don't exactly have much of strategy and their move selection is largely RNG-driven... well. Things just seem easy enough, that even the (half) dragons don't appear to struggle much..?

I can't speak to this game, but the dragon types initially were the "lots of work now, big pay off later" pokemons. In gen 1 and 2, they had some of the best stats in the game, second only to, like Mewtwo and legendaries. But the price was, the starting evolution, dratini and bagon, had pretty weak stats and they had higher level requirements to evolve them. For example, in gen 1, bulbasaur's final evolution is at level 30. Dratini's final evolution is at level 55. And, at that level, you're usually close to done with the game/able to take on the elite four. This was pretty much the trend until dragon types that don't evolved came into being in gen 5 which has stats like dragonite and salamance. So, at low levels, if you're only choosing dragons types, you're left with either pokemons like dratini and bagon which has pretty weak stats or pokemon like druggion which are power houses with stats close to legendaries and nothing in between.
Hence:

Dragon-parties basically consist of either Dragons that dont evolve and are way too strong even when underleveled, or babies that are way too weak even when overleveled.

 

[Caroline-is-best-girl]

Hmm, i admit my interest in Pokemon games is rather cursory (this one being an exception thanks to quality and the different spin on it) so pardon a naive/dumb question, but is this some aspect of "pure" dragon types? I ask because i have Turtonator (and, occasionally, Deino) in my team, and they already seem like perfectly solid contenders at lvl.20-odd.
Perhaps this is different in PvP fights with actual people, but in a game where your NPC opponents don't exactly have much of strategy and their move selection is largely RNG-driven... well. Things just seem easy enough, that even the (half) dragons don't appear to struggle much..?
(i guess Turtonator could be one of those "OP, doesn't evolve" types, but Deino does have evolutions, from what i recall)

Honestly, same. I never had any interest in pokemon until this game. This got me to try a few other community-made games like: Eon Guardians; World Summit; Showdown; Bike Rampage; TGOM; etc; and eventually, Pokerogue and some of the more recent mainline games.

Like sleepingkirby said, dragon types are intentionally designed to have massive stats but evolve much later than everything else, opposite of bug-types that have below average fully evolved stats but generally evolve very early.
And yes, Turtonator is one of those non-evolving mons that get big juicy base stats without the need to hit a specific level. Though I didn't get him until the trip to the fields with Cherry, since I never really visit the wild areas, and it wasn't available on the first visit. As for Deino, he cant really put up much of a fight in singles unless you're battling other babies or some of the weakest trainers. Against stronger trainers or actually evolved mons, I guess you can use him as a sac or Dragon Rage while hoping you dont get targeted and 1-shot because you will be outsped with his puny 38 base speed, which would be ~18-28 at lvl20 depending on nature and IV. I couldn't even justify spending a turn to teach Deino Legacy for support, because he's so slow that most dragons would outspeed and out-Legacy his Legacy. Though I do have it on Dreepy for Legacy support since he's fast, even as a baby.

As for most of the battles being "easy enough" even with a lvl20 team, the problem isn't that the battles are too tough if you have Deino or other mons that cant evolve by lvl20s, the problem is that they're so weak that they straight up don't even matter. The battles will be beatable with or without them, they're completely irrelevant and have no impact or contribution whatsoever. 99% of your 5 dragons' threat will be on 1-2 mons, and the rest add up to the remaining 1%. You just end up wiping everything with Cyclizar or Turtonator, while the little punks collect dust, waiting for lvl50. This will only get worse as the recommended lvl hits 30-40s and even more mons evolve while Deino and Dreepy stay the same. Dragon types' growth rate relative to level is just fundamentally different from other types, others will get stronger around the same rate relative to level, but dragons types will always either be too strong or too weak to match them.

So, at low levels, if you're only choosing dragons types, you're left with either pokemons like dratini and bagon which has pretty weak stats or pokemon like druggion which are power houses with stats close to legendaries and nothing in between.

 

[Caroline-is-best-girl]

Dragon types' growth rate relative to level is just fundamentally different from other types, others will get stronger around the same rate relative to level, but dragons types will always either be too strong or too weak to match them.

I'm starting to sound like Clair with all these dragon rants. D:

 

[ffive]

As for Deino, he cant really put up much of a fight in singles unless you're battling other babies or some of the weakest trainers. Against stronger trainers or actually evolved mons, I guess you can use him as a sac or Dragon Rage while hoping you dont get targeted and 1-shot because you will be outsped with his puny 38 base speed

I found it pretty solid in my experience so far, because with the Hustle ability it has, it hits like a truck with physical moves. So while yeah, it's normal it'll get outpaced, getting outdamaged and dying before the opponent can be another story altogether. Granted, this is not very useful in farming where you don't want your team to take damage at all, but in trainer fights this is less of a concern.

 

[Arty_Wolf]

You just end up wiping everything with Cyclizar or Turtonator, while the little punks collect dust, waiting for lvl50. This will only get worse as the recommended lvl hits 30-40s and even more mons evolve while Deino and Dreepy stay the same. Dragon types' growth rate relative to level is just fundamentally different from other types, others will get stronger around the same rate relative to level, but dragons types will always either be too strong or too weak to match them.

It would still take a while to level grind, but fortunately thanks to the escape rope, you can use it to grind without losing your freetime if you ever need to stop to fully heal your party.

 

[food121212]

I found it pretty solid in my experience so far, because with the Hustle ability it has, it hits like a truck with physical moves. So while yeah, it's normal it'll get outpaced, getting outdamaged and dying before the opponent can be another story altogether. Granted, this is not very useful in farming where you don't want your team to take damage at all, but in trainer fights this is less of a concern.

I gotta agree I've been using him for a while and am loving it, especially it's use of dragon rage which is a monster in early levels since it always does 40 damage. Later on you get taught a move from the dragon prof called legacy which flinches AND paralyzes your opponent, honestly great support.

 

[Caroline-is-best-girl]

It would still take a while to level grind, but fortunately thanks to the escape rope, you can use it to grind without losing your freetime if you ever need to stop to fully heal your party.

You can use Escape Rope to leave the area without spending the turn??
Did I get that right or am I misunderstanding?

I typically don't have issues with healing, since I just spam Struggle and Regenerator on Cyclizar, and xp-share whoever I'm trying to level. I also don't mind the time spent, since I've done it so rarely. I just pull up a 1-2 hr podcast and stop farming when it ends. Last run got me around 2000 by the time I was done.