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Pokémon X and Y and the Trainer Card Maker

Teapot

Virtual Duck Enthusiast
Staff member
Administrator
Bearing bad news here, I'm afraid. We don't currently have a timeframe for when the Trainer Card Maker can be updated with all the new trainers, Pokémon, badges, and so forth from Pokémon X and Y.

Basically, due to the new 3D models in X and Y, and because they're on the 3DS, an entirely new platform, our usual sources won't be able to pull the data as easily as they did, for example, when Black 2 and White 2 came out. This in short means we don't have anything to add to the TCM for the X and Y release.

I am, however, committed to finding a way to incorporate everything relevant from X and Y as soon as possible - so watch this space, and I am very sorry we can't have the XY assets available for launch.
 
I've seen other sites (note: Smogon) use fanmade sprites by spriters for when Generation 6 comes around. Do you plan to use (with permission of course) fanmade trainer and Pokemon sprites?
 

Teapot

Virtual Duck Enthusiast
Staff member
Administrator
I've seen other sites (note: Smogon) use fanmade sprites by spriters for when Generation 6 comes around. Do you plan to use (with permission of course) fanmade trainer and Pokemon sprites?
The problem with that is simply completeness. We'd be utterly reliant on the generosity of spriters for the TCM, and so we'd end up with a patchy, incomplete set of vastly differing quality. I'd much rather wait for officially-sourced material and do it properly.
 
Hopefully we'll have some sort of alternative, such as capture card Trainer PR cut-outs. Whatever it is, I hope that it includes customised trainers, because it seems like a bit of a waste not to have those when we have official ones now.
 

Teapot

Virtual Duck Enthusiast
Staff member
Administrator
Whatever it is, I hope that it includes customised trainers, because it seems like a bit of a waste not to have those when we have official ones now.
Talk to me if you could get all the assets required to make customisable trainers. It's a lovely idea, but we've talking about this in a fair bit of detail - I can code it, but it's useless without assets. Same problem as always. :p

Also, a few people have volunteered to help make custom sprites for the new Pokémon. I'd like to go on record and thank you all for your offers, but I'm afraid we'll have to decline. The problem, as mentioned above, is completeness. We would require, at least, a sprite for every new Kalos Pokémon, alternate forme, and all Mega Evolutions. We'd also need sprites for as many XY trainers as we could get. We'd also need them all to come from either the same person or people with extremely similar visual styles, otherwise it just doesn't look right in the TCM. And we would need a complete set, because missing Pokémon is a bad thing overall.

The sheer amount of work this would require is just too much for me to ask an artist or artists to do from the goodness of their hearts, not least because it would eventually be replaced by official assets. It's one thing to accept custom trainer sprites or backgrounds, and it is very much another to ask for a sheer level of work that should really be compensated for financially, which we just can't do for so, so many different reasons.
 
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Doctor Oak

Staff member
Overlord
Hopefully we'll have some sort of alternative, such as capture card Trainer PR cut-outs. Whatever it is, I hope that it includes customised trainers, because it seems like a bit of a waste not to have those when we have official ones now.

The problem is that we couldn't just start cutting bits out and sticking them on top of the current sprites. We'd have to have a (quite a large) base 'doll' image and a buttonne of stuff to chop and change over it. It's by no means a technical impossibility, but we'd just never be able to get the material for it, as Petey says. That's why neither I nor Petey have done it before now - and why it's almost certainly never going to happen.

In the end, X/Y brings so many changes to the series that it's probably only right that, when the time comes around that we actually do have material for it, that we simply approach it with an entirely new kind of TCM. I think we'd all rather see that solution than trying to somehow come up with all the required material to fit X/Y content into the current TCM in the interim. It's somewhat disappointing that there's just nothing we can really do, yes - but I'd say that what we'll end up with down the road will be worth the wait.
 

Shiny Motley

2016 Singles Football
In the end, X/Y brings so many changes to the series that it's probably only right that, when the time comes around that we actually do have material for it, that we simply approach it with an entirely new kind of TCM. I think we'd all rather see that solution than trying to somehow come up with all the required material to fit X/Y content into the current TCM in the interim. It's somewhat disappointing that there's just nothing we can really do, yes - but I'd say that what we'll end up with down the road will be worth the wait.

If that's the case, does that mean the current TCM won't be available if/when the new kind of TCM is made, or will we have the option to use either?
 

Doctor Oak

Staff member
Overlord
If that's the case, does that mean the current TCM won't be available if/when the new kind of TCM is made, or will we have the option to use either?
That'd depend entirely on what we decide to do when we come to it. I'd suppose, though, that if we did have an entirely new TCM for Gen VI stuff, we'd keep both.

There's definitely room for development of the TCM in general, so don't take anything said here as an announcement of anything other than general intent. Personally, I'd like to see where we stand on assets pulled from the games before deciding what to do with them.
 
Would you ever just replace the Pokemon sprites with resized official Sugimori art? It would at least be a way to have the new Pokemon on there, even if aesthetically it wouldn't look as nice. It would be retroactive since there's official art for every Pokemon so far, but also would probably work for any future Pokemon generations.
 

Teapot

Virtual Duck Enthusiast
Staff member
Administrator
I understand. Take your time! :)

By the way, when will we be able to pick genders again for the Pokemon on the card?
As I tell you every time you ask: Soon. It'll be done when it's done.

Would you ever just replace the Pokemon sprites with resized official Sugimori art? It would at least be a way to have the new Pokemon on there, even if aesthetically it wouldn't look as nice. It would be retroactive since there's official art for every Pokemon so far, but also would probably work for any future Pokemon generations.
The problem with that is twofold: Firstly, Sugimori art is not designed to be resized down to 50x30 panels; the lines kinda disappear into nothing and it doesn't look good. Secondly, Sugi art style varies so drastically that putting, say, XY art next to RSE art makes the art styles look very different, especially when they're that small.

Basically we plan to take a good look at the entire design of the cards and see what we can do, but this'll happen after the games are released and we know what we have to work with.
 
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Teapot

Virtual Duck Enthusiast
Staff member
Administrator
Okay quick question will you be keeping the old trainer card maker when the new one is done?
I see no reason why not, although we don't have any plans whatsoever so far. As @Doctor Oak said:

That'd depend entirely on what we decide to do when we come to it. I'd suppose, though, that if we did have an entirely new TCM for Gen VI stuff, we'd keep both.
 

Teapot

Virtual Duck Enthusiast
Staff member
Administrator
Or you could use the pss avatars. that way people could still make customizable avatars to submit.
Well, as mentioned a few times in these comments, we're not short of ideas - just assets. The PSS icons are certainly a thing we might use, but the simple fact is that our hands are tied until someone extracts the assets from the games.

Once that happens, we'll be able to make a decision as to what to do based on the assets given to us. We can't promise we'll do anything at this point, and we can't really firmly deny anything either.
 
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