OrangeManiac

PokeMMO has a rare opportunity to offer unique never before seen, more balanced and more fresh VGC experiences via Regional Pokedex formats, which I call the "Seasons".

Here is how it would work:
Each Season would consist of 2 Seasonal Formats;
1. Standard Format: Legendaries and pseudo-legendaries are restricted for the "Standard Format", basically all Pokemon with 580 or higher base stats.
Duration: 2-4 months, depending on the amount of Pokemon in that particular Seasons dex.
2. Legendary Format: Legendaries, Pseudo-legendaries and even Mythical Pokemon (with max 600 BST) would be allowed.
Duration: 1-3 months, reason being that these formats tend to get centralized and stale faster, so better keep them shorter.

Why restrict Pseudo-legendaries too? — Because their BST/Power Level is much higher (600, so same as legendaries), therefore limiting the usage of lower BST Pokemon and increasing the overall power level of the format.
As for Mythical Pokemon, it would probably be fine to include the Mythical Pokemon with 600BST in the Legendary Formats, having them available for the first time ever in a VGC format should be interesting.
I am excluding Restricted Pokemon (Groudon, Palkia etc.) since I assume they are not available to be caught, if that changes, you could add another 1 month long Restricted Format for each Season I guess.
Also the cross-gen evolutions shouldn't be allowed, example. Porygon2/Z or Rhydon in Kanto format, or Togekiss in Johto format. To stay true to the original formats. Also to give their prevos a chance to shine.
At least some items that were introduced later (mainly I'm thinking the Type-Gems), should only be allowed later, example. Water Gem only available in Gen 5 and at least not before, not sure about the other items.
Rules: Standard VGC rules, species clause, duplicate item clause. Best-Of-1 Ladder and for Tournaments, at least Finals BO-3 is fine too.

The Seasons;
Kanto Season:
143-149 Pokemon, see the available Pokemon here: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_by_Kanto_Pok%C3%A9dex_number
We have never really get to experience VGC format focused mainly on Kanto, since the VGC format started in 2008, which utilized the Sinnoh Pokedex.
This Season would have pretty low amount of Pokemon available, so it could become somewhat "centralized", however with the overall low power level, it should be a fun and unique experience. And that being said, it could also be a bit shorter than most of the other Seasons.
Duration: 2 months for the Standard Kanto Format and 1 month for the Legendary Kanto Format, as it only adds 4 Pokemon to the format.
Because the amount of Pokemon is so little, there isn't too much room for exploration, so I wouldn't have this Season be as long as some of the other Seasons.
Restrictions: Standard Kanto Format would allow everything except Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres and Dragonite, which would then be allowed in the Legendary Kanto Format.
Additional comments/thoughts: Sun would be the only automatic weather available, is that a problem? Cloud Nine Golduck/Lickitung and Neutralizing Gas Weezing said no, that won't be a problem. Fake Out into Trick Room also seems like a good counter.

Johto Season:
234-248 Pokemon https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_by_New_Pok%C3%A9dex_number
Same deal, we have also never seen a Johto focused VGC format, although Johto Pokedex/New Pokedex does combine both Kanto and Johto so its not exactly that, really seems more like Kanto vs Johto, but I think that's pretty cool.
60% more Pokemon than Kanto, so maybe the Season should reflect that.
Duration: 3-4 months for the Standard Johto Format and 1.5-2 months for the Johto Legendary Format, which would add 8 Pokemon to the format.
Restrictions: Pseudos/Legends restricted in the Standard Format.
Additional comments/thoughts: This time it would be Sun vs Rain, thanks to Politoed, Sand would also join the fight in the Legendary Format. Porygon2 and few others would improve Trick Rooms viability.

Hoenn Season:
186-197 Pokemon https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_by_Hoenn_Pok%C3%A9dex_number_in_Generation_III
Hoenn Pokedex consist of around 70% Pokemon that are native to Hoenn, there are few Kanto and Johto Pokemon too but the majority of the Pokemon are from Hoenn, which is also a format we have not experienced before.
Duration: 3 months for the Standard Hoenn Format and 1.5 months for the Hoenn Legendary Format, which would add Salamence, Metagross, the Regis and the Latis (7 Pokemon)
Restrictions: Pseudos/Legends restricted in the Standard Format.
Additional comments/thoughts: Its another Season of Sun vs Rain, but with a different roster and different counters.

Sinnoh Season:
200-206 Pokemon https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_by_Sinnoh_Pok%C3%A9dex_number#Platinum_expansion (Enhanced Sinnoh Pokedex, which adds 58 Pokemon to the standard Sinnoh dex)
Sinnoh is a format we have already had in VGC, its very interesting format though.
Duration: 3 months for the Standard Sinnoh Format and only 1 month for the Sinnoh Legendary format, because it only adds 4 Pokemon, the lake Trio and Garchomp.
Restrictions: Pseudos/Legends restricted in the Standard Format.
Additional comments/thoughts: This time there is no automatic Sun, instead there is Rain, Sand and Snow and not many weather partners and also some rain hard counters such as Gastrodon,which mixes things up quite a bit.

Unova Season:
New Unova Pokedex with 280-291 Pokemon https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_by_Unova_Pok%C3%A9dex_number_in_Pok%C3%A9mon_Black_2_and_White_2
Unova is also a format we have already had, but not without the Genies which aren't exactly the croud favorite, format without them should be great.
Duration: 3-4 months for the Standard Unova Format and 1.5-2 months for the Unova Legendary Format, which adds another 9 Pokemon.
Restrictions: Pseudos/Legends restricted in the Standard Format.
Additional comments/thoughts: All the weathers are available, Trick Room looks, Amoonguss is back.. Gems are re-introduced.

Kalos Season:
Around 450 Pokemon https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_by_Kalos_Pok%C3%A9dex_number
Kalos introduces Mega Evolutions and Fairy Typing.
Duration: 3 months Kalos Standard Format with no megas and 3 months Kalos Mega Legendary Format with Megas and Legendaries (only Kanto Trio + pseudos though)
Restrictions: Pseudos/Legends and Mega-Evolution restricted in the Standard Format.

Alola, Galar, Paldea and the later Generations:
Seasons 1-6 are already good for over 2 years, then we repeat this for Generation 7, 8, 9 and 10, and maybe we can combine different dexes and gimmicks (e.g Megas + Z-Moves or Dynamax + Terastalization) after and boom, we have interesting plan for Pokemmo VGC that is good for 5+ years. No need to worry about the longevity of the format, as its constantly kept fresh.


Positives:
Unique limited time formats would be very interesting even for even the official Pokemon VGC players to try out, but lets say the format is more like the current 6v6, centralized and stale and "solved", with all Pokemon being available at once and with high power level, that wouldn't really be interesting for long or incentivising for a lot of people imho, I would honestly look more into the official VGC at that point.
These formats would allow Pokemon that are not usually used, to be more useable, if not even meta, during different Seasons, example. Amoonguss, which is a VGC stable Spore/Rage Powder supporter, would not be available in the Gen 1-4 formats, therefore allowing other "weaker" Pokemon to fill a similar role, such as Parasect for Spore + Rage Powder. Or Hitmonchan/Lee and other Fake Out users, instead of Hitmontop etc.
People would get to experience the more classic style formats again, without the "gimmicks" (dynamax, terastalization etc.), which would be great incentive for many players to join PokeMMO!
Negatives:
Takes some effort from the Devs, mainly to change/update the format every 1-3 months.
Anything else?


Altenative Options:
Introduce each Generation 1 by 1 (instead of the whole actual Dex of that Generation) separately.
Introduce each Generation additively, so first Kanto, then add Johto, then add Hoenn (only the actual regional Pokemons).
Allow everything at once Except legendaries and Pseudos, but ban the top-10 most used Pokemon of each Season to keep things fresh, and keep them banned until new generation drops.
Then unban the banned Pokemon for the Legendary Format later and repeat the bans for the Legendary Format as well.
This way the Meta doesn't stay the same and we avoid things from getting too boring.
Whatever you do, do not add all Pokemon at once together with Legendaries (and even pseudos), as the non-legendary formats are usually the most liked, so skipping them completely would not be great.


Please let me know if you think there are some issues with this suggestion, or if you think there are better ways to create a more fun VGC experience for PokeMMO!

Also tagging some people that I saw in another VGC related thread, who may be interested: @OrangeManiac @MagnusKirune

Thank you Rache for announcing this and super happy you are willing to give VGC a shot in our game. I also think it's extremely good for the Doubles community to know what's coming up and that we have clear direction where we are going. Many people could have been easily lost with the Doubles discussion earlier because it wasn't entirely clear what are we trying to achieve here - Smogon-esque Doubles tiering or are we moving towards VGC? I think it's awesome that the direction is now clear. Needless to say, any further actions to Doubles tiering are not needed because VGC by its nature bans only extreme cases (namely only Dark Void in a couple of generations). I am very much looking forward seeing VGC in our game and I hope it gives Doubles players some new light and enjoyment in this game and we no longer need to stress what needs to be done to improve the Doubles metagame. I really hope people can explore this new format for years to come and hopefully may introduce some players even to the (current) official competitive format.
 

"Sweepers with low defenses don't need high defensive IVs" is one of the most common misconceptions in PokeMMO and it's just straight up wrong. Every Pokemon in the game besides Shedinja benefits from good defensive bulk. Even for glass cannons, there are always some attack you can switch in for and the defensive IV defines whether you live or die from that switch in. The glass cannon surviving an attack can be the difference between a sweep or just straight up dying.
 
It is understandable not everyone has the necessary resources to make everything perfect and that's fine. And it's okay to make small sacrifices somewhere if it saves a lot in your budget. But every Pokemon will always benefit from maximized IVs at everything it uses and going for maximum IVs should always be the goal (before your in-game wallet tells you otherwise).
 
 
 

A small QoL-feature that I think would be nice is having a toggle on the Pokemon's move window to prevent learning any new level up moves. Honestly, even more time consuming than leveling up a baby Pokemon all the time is to press cancel on like a million level up moves which just feels so annoying and pointless. Also useful when you already have your moveset ready and you wanna save a bit of time. It's not that clicking cancel a million times is even MMO-related grind, it's really just a major inconvenience and rather major annoyance when doing any breeds with species that have a baby Pokemon form.
 
I don't know if this has ever been suggested, did a few search words and found nothing related.
 

Okay so all the following is just my opinion and nothing like this has been decided in any way but just arguing how I think this topic should be addressed. Also, keep in mind things like "restricted legendaries" and/or mythicals are subject to larger PokeMMO gameplay design decisions that are on the hands on the developers.
 
My vision, however is that we could and should apply changing formats like we have been having in Scarlet and Violet, Sword and Shield and Ultra Sun and Moon. Because we cannot "constantly add things", things would have to work rather in cycles.
 
I think a yearly cycle could keep things fresh. For example, Winter season could be legendary-free format, spring season including legendaries, summer season mythicals/restricted legendaries and rotate these things season by season. Additional restrictions can be applied but "legendaries" is the most basic example. Rotating formats would create the excitement of day 1 teambuilding while 3 months to me is enough to be able to enjoy a more developed metagame.
 
Again, this all is just me spitballing ideas and I'd happy to hear more ideas if we want to include current VGC kind of "developing formats"- idea.

Okay so all the following is just my opinion and nothing like this has been decided in any way but just arguing how I think this topic should be addressed. Also, keep in mind things like "restricted legendaries" and/or mythicals are subject to larger PokeMMO gameplay design decisions that are on the hands on the developers.
 
My vision, however is that we could and should apply changing formats like we have been having in Scarlet and Violet, Sword and Shield and Ultra Sun and Moon. Because we cannot "constantly add things", things would have to work rather in cycles.
 
I think a yearly cycle could keep things fresh. For example, Winter season could be legendary-free format, spring season including legendaries, summer season mythicals/restricted legendaries and rotate these things season by season. Additional restrictions can be applied but "legendaries" is the most basic example. Rotating formats would create the excitement of day 1 teambuilding while 3 months to me is enough to be able to enjoy a more developed metagame.
 
Again, this all is just me spitballing ideas and I'd happy to hear more ideas if we want to include current VGC kind of "developing formats"- idea.

As far as I'm concerned, if Singles metagame is getting improved during this waiting period to any extent, it's completely fine to change it back. The Covert Cloak problem is solved as far as Doubles go and I don't think it is a problem to wait a few weeks to get the VGC update with everything included.

I agree with everything you said. Having the "regulations" adapted every three months would keep things "spinning" in a way that doesn't always have the same and boring meta. This would make different Pokémon have their use increased depending on the current regulation. I've seen Pokémon being used a lot in S&V, I've even seen Meganium being used even without being terastalized. Having a different regulation every three months would be great.
 

Okay so all the following is just my opinion and nothing like this has been decided in any way but just arguing how I think this topic should be addressed. Also, keep in mind things like "restricted legendaries" and/or mythicals are subject to larger PokeMMO gameplay design decisions that are on the hands on the developers.
 
My vision, however is that we could and should apply changing formats like we have been having in Scarlet and Violet, Sword and Shield and Ultra Sun and Moon. Because we cannot "constantly add things", things would have to work rather in cycles.
 
I think a yearly cycle could keep things fresh. For example, Winter season could be legendary-free format, spring season including legendaries, summer season mythicals/restricted legendaries and rotate these things season by season. Additional restrictions can be applied but "legendaries" is the most basic example. Rotating formats would create the excitement of day 1 teambuilding while 3 months to me is enough to be able to enjoy a more developed metagame.
 
Again, this all is just me spitballing ideas and I'd happy to hear more ideas if we want to include current VGC kind of "developing formats"- idea.

As far as I'm concerned, if Singles metagame is getting improved during this waiting period to any extent, it's completely fine to change it back. The Covert Cloak problem is solved as far as Doubles go and I don't think it is a problem to wait a few weeks to get the VGC update with everything included.

As far as I'm concerned, if Singles metagame is getting improved during this waiting period to any extent, it's completely fine to change it back. The Covert Cloak problem is solved as far as Doubles go and I don't think it is a problem to wait a few weeks to get the VGC update with everything included.

Yeah personally, I don't think the risks are worth it. These kinds of decisions are incredibly difficult to backtrack. Even hypothetically if we were "just to test it", it would be tiering wise so difficult to determine when was the experimentation such a disaster that Knock Off would have to reverted back to its old self. It's just better not to go there because the moment Knock Off was buffed, it sends such massive shockwaves to all MMO tiers and returning to anything at that point becomes practically impossible.
 
We agreed before that old 20 Power Knock Off is justifiable with no Megas and no Fairies. I don't think we should change now.
 
Also yeah jesus christ Conk would become busted

A small QoL-feature that I think would be nice is having a toggle on the Pokemon's move window to prevent learning any new level up moves. Honestly, even more time consuming than leveling up a baby Pokemon all the time is to press cancel on like a million level up moves which just feels so annoying and pointless. Also useful when you already have your moveset ready and you wanna save a bit of time. It's not that clicking cancel a million times is even MMO-related grind, it's really just a major inconvenience and rather major annoyance when doing any breeds with species that have a baby Pokemon form.
 
I don't know if this has ever been suggested, did a few search words and found nothing related.
 

A small QoL-feature that I think would be nice is having a toggle on the Pokemon's move window to prevent learning any new level up moves. Honestly, even more time consuming than leveling up a baby Pokemon all the time is to press cancel on like a million level up moves which just feels so annoying and pointless. Also useful when you already have your moveset ready and you wanna save a bit of time. It's not that clicking cancel a million times is even MMO-related grind, it's really just a major inconvenience and rather major annoyance when doing any breeds with species that have a baby Pokemon form.
 
I don't know if this has ever been suggested, did a few search words and found nothing related.
 

Games are so quick in VGC that I think BO3 should be the standard in all gameplay, including ladder and tournaments. As long as the timer isn't excessive, the best of 3 set probably barely lasts any longer than the current 6v6 rounds have been.

Thank you Rache for announcing this and super happy you are willing to give VGC a shot in our game. I also think it's extremely good for the Doubles community to know what's coming up and that we have clear direction where we are going. Many people could have been easily lost with the Doubles discussion earlier because it wasn't entirely clear what are we trying to achieve here - Smogon-esque Doubles tiering or are we moving towards VGC? I think it's awesome that the direction is now clear. Needless to say, any further actions to Doubles tiering are not needed because VGC by its nature bans only extreme cases (namely only Dark Void in a couple of generations). I am very much looking forward seeing VGC in our game and I hope it gives Doubles players some new light and enjoyment in this game and we no longer need to stress what needs to be done to improve the Doubles metagame. I really hope people can explore this new format for years to come and hopefully may introduce some players even to the (current) official competitive format.
 

Games are so quick in VGC that I think BO3 should be the standard in all gameplay, including ladder and tournaments. As long as the timer isn't excessive, the best of 3 set probably barely lasts any longer than the current 6v6 rounds have been.

Games are so quick in VGC that I think BO3 should be the standard in all gameplay, including ladder and tournaments. As long as the timer isn't excessive, the best of 3 set probably barely lasts any longer than the current 6v6 rounds have been.

Games are so quick in VGC that I think BO3 should be the standard in all gameplay, including ladder and tournaments. As long as the timer isn't excessive, the best of 3 set probably barely lasts any longer than the current 6v6 rounds have been.

Games are so quick in VGC that I think BO3 should be the standard in all gameplay, including ladder and tournaments. As long as the timer isn't excessive, the best of 3 set probably barely lasts any longer than the current 6v6 rounds have been.

Mythicals are banned in VGC as they are locked to limited time events / mystery gift and the point is that everybody has access to the same pokemon hence the mythical ban in the handhelds. As we don't have that issue to the same extent and that they aren't banned for being overpowered I don't see why jirachi wouldn't be allowed.

Thank you Rache for announcing this and super happy you are willing to give VGC a shot in our game. I also think it's extremely good for the Doubles community to know what's coming up and that we have clear direction where we are going. Many people could have been easily lost with the Doubles discussion earlier because it wasn't entirely clear what are we trying to achieve here - Smogon-esque Doubles tiering or are we moving towards VGC? I think it's awesome that the direction is now clear. Needless to say, any further actions to Doubles tiering are not needed because VGC by its nature bans only extreme cases (namely only Dark Void in a couple of generations). I am very much looking forward seeing VGC in our game and I hope it gives Doubles players some new light and enjoyment in this game and we no longer need to stress what needs to be done to improve the Doubles metagame. I really hope people can explore this new format for years to come and hopefully may introduce some players even to the (current) official competitive format.
 

Thank you Rache for announcing this and super happy you are willing to give VGC a shot in our game. I also think it's extremely good for the Doubles community to know what's coming up and that we have clear direction where we are going. Many people could have been easily lost with the Doubles discussion earlier because it wasn't entirely clear what are we trying to achieve here - Smogon-esque Doubles tiering or are we moving towards VGC? I think it's awesome that the direction is now clear. Needless to say, any further actions to Doubles tiering are not needed because VGC by its nature bans only extreme cases (namely only Dark Void in a couple of generations). I am very much looking forward seeing VGC in our game and I hope it gives Doubles players some new light and enjoyment in this game and we no longer need to stress what needs to be done to improve the Doubles metagame. I really hope people can explore this new format for years to come and hopefully may introduce some players even to the (current) official competitive format.
 

Thank you Rache for announcing this and super happy you are willing to give VGC a shot in our game. I also think it's extremely good for the Doubles community to know what's coming up and that we have clear direction where we are going. Many people could have been easily lost with the Doubles discussion earlier because it wasn't entirely clear what are we trying to achieve here - Smogon-esque Doubles tiering or are we moving towards VGC? I think it's awesome that the direction is now clear. Needless to say, any further actions to Doubles tiering are not needed because VGC by its nature bans only extreme cases (namely only Dark Void in a couple of generations). I am very much looking forward seeing VGC in our game and I hope it gives Doubles players some new light and enjoyment in this game and we no longer need to stress what needs to be done to improve the Doubles metagame. I really hope people can explore this new format for years to come and hopefully may introduce some players even to the (current) official competitive format.
 

Thank you Rache for announcing this and super happy you are willing to give VGC a shot in our game. I also think it's extremely good for the Doubles community to know what's coming up and that we have clear direction where we are going. Many people could have been easily lost with the Doubles discussion earlier because it wasn't entirely clear what are we trying to achieve here - Smogon-esque Doubles tiering or are we moving towards VGC? I think it's awesome that the direction is now clear. Needless to say, any further actions to Doubles tiering are not needed because VGC by its nature bans only extreme cases (namely only Dark Void in a couple of generations). I am very much looking forward seeing VGC in our game and I hope it gives Doubles players some new light and enjoyment in this game and we no longer need to stress what needs to be done to improve the Doubles metagame. I really hope people can explore this new format for years to come and hopefully may introduce some players even to the (current) official competitive format.