Pokemon Diamond & Pearl

[Spaz]

So who plans on getting Pokemon Diamond or Pearl? I know I am. It comes out in the US April 22nd, according to gamefaqs. I kinda lost interest in pokemon while playing sapphire and I realized I was messing up my pokemon by not paying too much attention to nature, EV's, etc. But there's a bunch of exciting new stuff in diamond & pearl. I'll try to make a list of the major changes; if I forgot about anything or got anything wrong, let me know.

• Online trading and battling
• Reworked attack system: Instead of each attack being classified as physical or special based on its type, each attack will classified individually. This allows, for example, thunder punch to be a physical attack instead of a special.
• New vs. battle system. You can have it make your pokemon's stats as if they were level 50 or level 100 in addition to keeping their level as is like in previous versions. This should take away the tedium of training to level 100 while still allowing people who do to show off their work in the third option.
• Things you can use to lower a pokemon's EV's for a certain stat, meaning you no longer have to pay meticulous attention to what you allow your pokemon to fight if you want to concentrate on certain stats. See gamefaqs if you don't know what EV's are. Correction: they did exist in Emerald, but were not in Ruby/Sapphire.
• Pokemon hatch at level 1 instead of level 5.
• Can transfer 3rd generation pokemon
• 3rd generation TM's have been retained and more TM's were added.
• Day and night system has been readded, with more levels in between.
• Of course, more pokemon (107 more), abilities, and items and a new region.
  

Also, I'll try to keep a list of which starters people plan on getting and which version they plan on getting; hopefully we can have a good mix so we can trade to get the stuff that we can't get on our own. People with colored names actually have the game right now.

Spaz
Starter: Grass
Version: Pearl

scizandor04
Starter: ???
Version: Both or neither (peer pressure ftl ._.)

matt_hui_ck
Starter: Fire
Version: Pearl

Metalwarrior (can provide torchic eggs)
Starter: Maybe grass?
Version: Either one

Armi
Starter: Fire
Version: Pearl

Heiper
Starter: Grass
Version: Diamond

garfield22222
Starter: Grass
Version: Pearl

GIR (can provide squirtle & mudkip eggs)
Starter: Water
Version: Pearl (probably)

graphitesmoothie
Starter: Water
Version: Diamond

theonlysaneone
Starter: Water
Version: Diamond

okamotosan18 (can provide lots of cool stuff)
Starter: Water (but has the others)
Version: Diamond

Kirby-oh
Starter: Water
Version: Diamond

senor_skunk
Starter: Water
Version: Diamond

jetman
Starter: Fire
Version: Diamond

Freddyo_o
Starter: ???
Version: Pearl

azulblast
Starter: Water
Version: Diamond

[scizandor04]

I'll be getting both or neither, depending whether or not I can get over the fact that if anyone from school found out I played, it would ruin my reputation. Chances are I will play the Netbattle version, though.

And some more interesting things:
WiFi trading with your 3rd generation pokemon after you transfer them with Pal Park. That means there will be great IVed pokemon for almost anyone to have, if they have something to trade.
The most dominant pokemon ever, Gaburaisu, is expected to be almost necessary on every team that isn't for ingame. 108 base HP, 130 base Attack, and 102 base speed, plus swords dance.
There are some more good items. Life Orb, for example, give you 1.3x Attack and Special Attack without limiting you to one move, but takes away 10% of your HP each use. There are also choice band-like items that raise Special Attack or Speed.

Although I am looking forward to seeing more information on-line when they come out, I wish Pokemon wasn't considered so childish.

[UmbreonMatt]

I'll be getting one version while my sister picks up the other, heh. Older sister too, at that. Call us childish and I'll sic my collection of Pokemon plushies after you, =3. I plan on going for the Fire starter, much as the name Chimchar makes me cringe.

To prepare for WiFi battling/trading, I've been doing an insane amount of breeding on my Ruby/LG/Emerald games. I lucked out when I hatched a Duskull with near-perfect IVs (28+) in all stats but Sp Att, which it won't need. Won't be needing speed either, but hey! Docile nature was a bit of a downer though... Breeding was done with Dusclops' evolution in mind, though now that it's done I've been worrying about the viability of tanking in DP, what with monstrous attackers like the aforementioned Gaburaisu around. Hopefully with that 100 base attack it can sweep to some extent. Physical Crunch is going to hurt badly. With that in mind I've recently been breeding Larvitars, though the best I've managed is 20+ IVs in all stats. It's shaping up to be a highly offensive metagame, wish I had had the foresight to see that before I went breeding Duskulls. Got a couple of good Cleffas and Rhyhorns hanging around as well.

EV-lowering berries already exist in Emerald actually, so no change there. I'm liking the mountain of TMs available in DP. Plenty of usable new items as well, though like I said, they seem to be offensively-oriented. I intend to utilize both WiFi battling and the new simulator that Smogon have in the works for DP, Competitor. Watching the metagame take shape should be as interesting as it was at the start of RS on the bots.

[Metalwarrior]

Heh, the sad thing about Pokémon is the anime.

If I manage to get one of them, it would be any version, any starter, maybe a grass type.

Try to get a female starter, since we don't know if there is a Ditto out there (ah, the breeding)

[Yark]

I'm getting the game for sure and Battle Revolution. I want this game badly.
I plan on getting the fire type for my starter (whoo! Chimchar!) and getting Pearl. I'm perparing for the game by buying Pokemon and trading pokemon from that game to my Emerald game. I'm loving Lugia, but I hate using Legendaries in battles, so he'll be for show.
I'm trying to get a S/G starter in right now.

I'm trying to hatch a great Yanma. I adore Yanmas and now that it can evolve, I want a near perfect one. Can't wait till I put my Shiny Nidoking, Guido, in my D/P game.

At least 6 of my friends are getting D/P, so my college will be having TONS of Pokemon battles. We've been using Digimon World DS as the sub till D/P come out. We don't care if Pokemon is kiddish...it's fun fighting.

[Heiper]

Uhm, I have only played blue (in the old times of game boy), but now I own a DS so I might give it a try.

I hope It stays easy to play, tought, since I can't understand half of the posts in this thread. I'm getting old, I was a pokemon master back in the day. At least it looks like I can get great advice here.

I'm surely picking a "grass" pokemon ("Grass?"), that's for sure. And Diamond. "Pearl" sounds Icky.

[oogabooga]

I'd get one if I had a DS and if I knew I wouldn't get made fun of by, um, lots of people. Hvae fun though. Wish it was on the Wii

[Brett]

Would this be a good game to come back to if I haven't played Pokemon since the yellow version?

I don't know what anything you posted in the first post means, night, day, more new pokemon, ev system?!

I missed a lot in the past 6 years of pokemon.

[Yark]

brett Wrote:Would this be a good game to come back to if I haven't played Pokemon since the yellow version?

I don't know what anything you posted in the first post means, night, day, more new pokemon, ev system?!

I missed a lot in the past 6 years of pokemon.

Many are saying D/P is the Pokemon game to get back into if you've been away, but some said that on Emerald. =P Pretty much it's everything S/G/FR/LG/R/S/E all have and then some. Plus, with DS, battling is a whole lot easier,a nd you can even battle on the net.

EV and IV are more complex, unless you are into heavy competitive pokemon battling, don't worry on it. I like EV and IV training, but with my pokemon team, I'd die no matter have perfect my EV and IV are. EV training in speed FTW.

[Spaz]

brett Wrote:Would this be a good game to come back to if I haven't played Pokemon since the yellow version?

I don't know what anything you posted in the first post means, night, day, more new pokemon, ev system?!

I missed a lot in the past 6 years of pokemon.

Night and day: This appeared in gold/silver/crystal but wasn't put in ruby/sapphire/emerald. Basically, certain pokemon's appearance rates and other events can depend on whether it's morning, afternoon, or night.

EV's are Effort Values, a hidden stat used in calculating the main stats. A pokemon gains EV's when battling a pokemon. There are 6 kinds of EV's, one for each stat. (note that the "special" stat got split into special attack and special defense in gold/silver/crystal). If a pokemon fights, it gains a certain amount of EV's for certain stats, based on the pokemon it fights. There is a cap on how many EV's for a certain stat a pokemon can have, and also one on how many EV's total it can have. This means that having a pokemon that doesn't use physical attacks fight pokemon that give attack EV's before your pokemon reaches the total EV cap will decrease the amount of useful EV's it'll have when it does reach the cap. The more EV's for a stat a pokemon has, the higher that stat is. See a game mechanics faq for more information.

You don't really have to pay attention to all the detailed stuff, but it'll help you have stronger pokemon if you plan on battling online. And with the new battling system, it'll be a lot easier to go through the game without paying attention to it, then focus on getting new pokemon to raise specifically for online battling.

[Brett]

Okay thanks, I think I get it now.

I'll probably end up getting it, I need to refresh my memory, though, I only know the first 151 pokemon.

Off to random pokemon sites on google!