I don't think I've seen a concept like this before yet, so here goes my idea: Lake Valor with gym leaders. Eight or so people have type/theme-based teams who you can battle in exchange for medals or PP. If it's just a battle, though, it could be pretty boring, right? So what if we implemented that storyline feature that we use for Oktoberfest? When you walk into a gym in the games, there's usually a puzzle to solve. The storyline feature could lead you through the puzzle, and you either pass the puzzle to make it to the gym leader, or you don't and you try again. There are lower-level trainers you have to beat in between the puzzle until you finally reach the leader, and then you battle for a gym badge. Gym leaders could be re-challenged possibly, for different rewards. This idea may be a lot, so let me know if it's too much
I know it seems really ambitious. I just needed to get that idea out of my head, even if it isn’t plausible!
That sounds like a really cool idea ~ I've had the idea for a ghost type gym leader for years and thinking of the different types for gym leaders and what Pokémon they would have is really fun. This sounds like it would be a really hard thing to implement, but it never hurts to try. The gym leaders could come up with the puzzles or ask other members to help create them. They could be based on the type of Pokémon the leader has or be based on the person's personality and how they solve problems. They also might have just a pure 1 type gym or Pokémon based on their personalities, specific themes, moves, or ones they have a special connection with. I think it would be a really neat thing to try out and the possibilities are endless.
Maybe I'm missing something, but how would this battle take place? A revived/polished Valor Battle? Showdown? 3DS Link Battle? Or maybe have another task that rather resembles the non-battle aspect of Alola's Trials? The puzzle part seems great, except with the trouble that it would be super easy to share answers. One way around this could be if the puzzles were answered in groups: everyone submits their results to that gym all at once, and the correct solution is revealed and then remixed so the next month can't cheat (at easily). After all, if a member is going to only be able to gather 8-18 badges ever, having a waiting period in there isn't game-breaking. I'll be watching this thread: I find this super intriguing.
Not to bring down the idea, but LV had an entire section of the site dedicated to a gym system as well as a Showdown server to allow players to clallenge gym leaders. For a while it did really well, and a ton of people, like myself, were involved. Toward the end though, it severely suffered from lack of activity from the members of the league as well as lack of challenges from non league members. This would have to be a big consideration before implementation a second time.
What if Gym Leaders popped up like Pokémon do? You would then have to do a task/quest to earn the badge. You also couldn't do them out of order--so if Misty spawned before you got Brock to spawn, you had to get Brock to spawn, complete his quest, and then get Misty to spawn again. (using the Kanto Leaders as an example)
This, basically. I would definitely love to be a part of the league and the league system, but I was around when they still had this going. We'd need to make sure we could get it to stick around if we tried this again.
It definitely sounds cool and would really be fun though I agree this would be rather hard to pull off.
It’s a nice idea, but it might be hard to pull off. Maybe we could have more than one gym leader for each type if inactivity is a problem, though we may have to find a better battling system. I’d prefer having an original system rather than using one from a third-party website, but it also has to be efficient, unlike Valor Battle(where people just post what Pokémon and moves they use without taking stats into consideration, in case some newer users didn’t know).
These are all good points. I don’t think LV has “battling software” and I wouldn’t want it to be implemented, just because that sounds super pricey. The whole inactivity thing is also a big risk. I wonder if perhaps we could rotate gym leaders and have the challenges more like trials, like what @Negative Zero said. In terms of determining gym leaders/trial captains, I think we have two options: So maybe each month, a certain amount of trial leaders are elected (like MOTM). They have a script for their challenge already, which involves completing tasks or puzzles in order to challenge them. OR We use canon gym/trial captains and base the challenges off of their in-game challenges. For Mallow, steps of the trial could be catching various root seeds in order to make a stew. She won’t let you move on to the next step of the trial until you have that exact amount of root seeds to give to her. For Lana, you have to catch three water type Pokémon with her special fishing rod before Totem Wishiwashi appears. There could be requirements for before you challenge: for example, Clair from Johto will not let you challenge her unless you bring her a Dratini. From there, the battles... hmm... yeah, that’s definitely the most flawed part of this plan. Maybe the script writing allows you to pick from certain options when you battle depending on the type/level of Pokémon you choose.
Sorry for the late reply here, as I've been inactive for a bit! I think the election idea is interesting, though it may be a better use of time and resources to have a league head of sorts, where the league head (or heads) choose the first few members, then the rest are chosen based on skill/activity/success/etc. When the league head decides to step down or leaves, they can be replaced by another person that takes over. Also, big fan of the idea that the leaders/trial leaders/etc could be in charge of different challenges or puzzles--that would prevent it from being overly reliant on battles, which turned some people away originally.
Coming back to this thread after a while and that sounds so cool! I wish I had been on here when Valor Battles were a think but using Challenges sounds really cool, Puzzles do make it less reliant on battling while still getting to feel very accomplished in the whole situation. I don't know if anything I just said made sense.
I'm going to put my two cents in here and say that I'm a mod at a discord server that used to have something like this as a part of it and basically this was what we did: 1. we had eight of the staff volunteer and pick one or two types to be a theme of their gyms 2. we had rules of what Pokémon that people can use to make it easier or harder 3. we had to make a small story to sort put some world building into the experience 4. but we also let the challenger challenge us in any order that they wanted as long as they work out a time for the challenge with the gym leader. Overall, I like this idea, if we can somehow keep it engaging, I think that something like this might work.
How about this? We go with the script based ideas with requirements first. At the end of the year, we have humans. The way this works, the first to complete it is the champion. The next four to complete it are the elite four. The next eight are the new gym leaders. -- gym leaders -- The Gym leaders make up quizzes based on their chosen gym type. They should make (at most) five quizzes for themselves. The challengers have to send a screenshot to the gym leader proving their victory over the last, as well as receiving a badge on their profile for completing a gym challenge. Then in the dms, the gym leader gives the, them the quiz. There can be a thread called Gym Battles, with sub threads for a challenge. If they succeed in the quiz, they move on to a one on one battle, and the gym leader gets to use any Pokémon they've trained at their designated level in a battle, while the challenger uses their partner Pokémon. Like the old LV system, 20 points o health with two type movesets or whatever. Since Gym Leaders can't always be active, like in the games, anime, and manga, it's ok if you can't get a challenge. But if they aren't back in a month, they lose their position. -- elite four -- Don't worry, this won't be nearly as long. In order to challenge the Elite Four, a challenger must have all 8 badges. The 5th finisher from the First Year will be the first member of the elite four to be challenged, and so on. The elite four must have a one on one with the challenger, and the elite four's Pokémon can be anything non Uber. It has to be anywhere from the 50's to the 70's. In order to challenge the next member of the Elite Four, they should have an Elite Badge, a special badge recieved after beating an Elite Four member. If you lose to any elite four member or the champion, you lose your elite badge(s). But you can freely challenge them again. Once you have all four elite badges, you can challenge the champion. Side Note: Elite Four challenge thread, with challenger sub threads. --THE CHAMPION OF VALOR-- The Champion of Valor will duel the challenger in a one on one. If the challenger wins, they are the new champion of Valor until they are defeated. If they lose, they restart their elite four challenge. The champion can use ANY Pokémon, including Legendaries or Mythicals, but they have to be Lv. 60-80s. The challenger can use their partner Pokémon. Side note: champion thread with challenger sub threads. --side notes-- The defeated champion keeps their gym badges for the next year, and can rechallenge the elite four and the champion with challenger rules. Champions can be on for any time, and they can't complain if they lose their first battle as champion. Once the year is over, all challengers who aren't gym leaders, elite four, or the champion, (besides ex champs of that year) Lose their gym badges and have to do it again next year Gym leaders chose a new typing, make new quizzes and use different Pokémon. Same with elite four besides quiz part. Champion does what they want. The parts about losing gym badges and new Pokémon for gym leaders is to keep it fresh, so those who are defeated can try again with something new. Any gym leader who loses their position can be replaced by any ex champion as long as it's the year after their fall. If they don't claim a gym leader position, the ex champs return to normal challenger status the next year. The gyms leaders should use respective levels based on their order.
