Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
I've done all I can really think to do with ZombieMon, so I'll wrap this up and pursue other endeavors.
Final Submission
The concept is a shambling Swamp Zombie comprised of a matted layer of peat and vegetation. The weight of this plant cloak hinders speed greatly, but also provides it against the elements. Because of its slow speed, it is an ambush predator; seeking hiding spots in foliage and bodies of water to get the jump on prey with fierce tenacity.
While its cloak is hardy when it comes to the elements, it's quite weak physically, and because of this, it is always Harvesting materials to use in its repair. Things like sticks, mud, grasses, and peat are all welcome additions to his protective armor.
Though it is a predator, they are scavengers too, often picking berries or stealing food from other pokemon.
And that my friends is Swamp Zombie Monster. Hopefully he can shamble his way into your hearts like he's done with millions of other undead friends. c:
KoA: Looks great! I could totally imagine that thing with Infiltrator and Leaf Guard, and Ineffective Ailities have options with them, too. The Swamp Zombie gives a great Grass/Dark feel, while still looking badass. I commend you.
Dracoyoshi8: I said before I liked the concept, and I still like it now. The golden apple is a nice touch, and, as with KoA's, I imagine it with either of the abilities currently in the polls. Well done! Oh, and the chubby ones could totally be Pre Evos, especially if you make the apple an apple seed or something. So cute! Well, the chubby ones at least... Muahahahaha! (Autocorrect wants to make that Mutha hahaa... Wut?)
Based on the witch doctors of the 17th century, as well as scarecrows and bog monsters, CAP5 is in constant search of a place to live. It feeds on the vitality of plants, draining the solar energy directly from the roots by planting itself close to them, and so its quickly drains life out of blooming forests, which transform in dark swamps only a few months after CAP5's arrival, only because plants with minimal requirements in solar energy thrive along CAP5. Since its environment changes continually and cannot support its needs for a long period of time, CAP5 is condemned to a nomad life, and has to collect the various berries it finds during its travels to survive.
CAP5 is technically immortal, because the plants forming its body constantly regenerate, but their lifespan is drastically shortened by the bugs (especially fireflies) that live inside its hollow body.
While it possesses great traits (it can for example grow a copy of any berry it has eaten recently at the tip of its hat), the fragility of its body and the hard time it has moving (it has to walk on its arms, or spin on its foot like a top for short distances) it is mostly seen immobile in the middle of a swamp, playing with the local birds and slowly killing a variety of nearby plants, waiting for the moment it will have to leave and find a new home.
Final Submission (Sorry to those who wanted a redesign, but I did recolor it from the reception I got over at #smeargle!)
When you think of a Dark-type Pokemon with Harvest, there should be a concept that immediately springs to mind. I started with the idea of the soul-harvesting Grim Reaper and emphasized the Grass typing. I later used the idea of the coming of autumn and its withering leaves as a color template, thus creating the design you see here. Harvest was my primary inspiration, and the original ideas on stat layout influenced the rest of the design. I did not think of 'equalizer' during any part of my design, but its blades can be, if one wants to nebulously stretch the idea, akin to scales used for balancing (Yilx). Probably not, though.
The head resembles or is a leafy hood with the tip of it pointed like angry eyebrows. :P A exposed, skull-like head, I thought, was a bit blatant. Instead, the only skeletal hints you see are the pairs of shelf fungus 'ribs' down the reaper's trunk (I must thank paintseagull for the original inspiration that replaced the ghostly tail). It scuttles at a moderate pace with its tree root legs, making it an easy target for faster attackers, albeit they still have to be aware of its blades, roots, and whatever damage it may pay back.
Granted, the design has evolved so it no longer has scythes (I omitted that because of Scyther's existence), but the current blades, based off of ginkgo leaves and Delibird-torturing pendulum axes, work just as well for Harvest. I'm not sure how many people noticed, but its hands aren't the blades themselves. Instead, the blades are weapons that slip over the treant's actual vine limbs. The blades can be swung around for wide slashes, or the vine limbs can be unsheathed, lash out, and perform more dexterous whip-based attacks. For heavier, blunt strikes, it digs its roots into the ground and uses them as clubs or fists, as seen in the Pursuit/Sucker Punch attack against the Lati in the supplementary sketches.
Despite its potential for damage, it is still relatively easily toppled by attacks--not only by clusters of fists or hurricane-level winds, but also, as seen by a hungry Caterpie in supplementary sketches, the swarming bites of insects. The stats lean toward physically frail and specially tanky, and I don't think bulking its design would have fit it. :P
Eol: Splendid job with both typings as well as showing how it fits the other material chosen! I certainly will be voting for it. No qualms of any sort!
Cheeno: Your new design does seem more 'mature', and aaah, a competitor that also has blade hands. The red line on the body reminds me of a large cut, though the body will look plain without something there. Do you have any ways you want to take the concept? o3o
ShadowLime: Texture is always nice. The design looks its part, though I do think the bright blue is an odd color to use. I'm sure you have your reasons. :P
Antarctros: Do you also use MS Paint as well? If so, you've got more patience for lineart than I do! It's a really nice take on something Frankensteinian, especially with how well the Grass and Dark parts come together. The flower hand, I assume, is for Flower Gift--your description makes sense of it to dissuade my thought of it being too cute, and so I will accept it as well. On a tangential note, I like the asymmetry in your design!
OldManDugan: Pretty, and nice job incorporating those berries for Harvest! I wish I could see more Dark-type in your design, unfortunately, since I see more Grass/Ground with the oranges and browns than Dark. :/
YourFavoriteEgyptian: Personally, I think XDaylon has cinched the tree golem votes, so competing with that, and other entries, will make it harder for your design to stand out. I'd go back to the scarecrow, or even try something different.
ShyGuy1221: Pity about the stats. :( I really like the idea, but it looks fast, even if it is physically frail. I'll still vote for it, but, hmm, I don't expect others to do the same.
BlueConcept: Haha, you come in with another nice way of incorporating dissimilar ideas into a coherent design! You've swayed me once again. A tip I have is to do something about the shape of the green parts. They currently look draped over the gorilla's body instead of it being leaves that project from it. Unless, that's what you're intending on.
Blue Frog: It's another of these feminine designs, and I'm personally averse to them. The carnivorous plant part bring more similarities to Necturna as a venus flytrap. :( If you want to continue the design, clarify it a bit. I'm confused as to the thing above the figure's head.
nov: Ooh, the multiple eyes and limbs are quite alien! I do like it! The rabbit was fine as well, but this does fit the stat spread more. I fear that you're losing the Dark-type influence on the design, though. It's cool, but it's not as malevolent as the rabbit was. The clasped hands show a bit of that, but it's not enough in my eyes.
Magistrum: You've heard my thoughts. I expect you'll do well, certainly, but do know that there is at least one person who is not fond of the design.
Wyverii: No constructive criticism from me. It's fascinating, creepy, unique, and very worthy as a design.
Golurkyourself: Birds innately remind me of the Flying type, but you can skirt around that. I like your take on onion roofs/actual onions, and the congruency between the drawing's origins and actual design. I can see it fitting the stat spread, but I fear it's a bit silly--too much so to gain votes? I don't know. :P
Cartoons!: Ah, just a note, but your supplementary comic makes me think that Draco Meteor missed rather than the duo tanking it. Oh, well. Nice to see them jest, though! I don't see anything that'd prevent your art from being submitted this time, so I wish you the best!
Hollymon: It's a grassy forest animal, and it has to stand out from the rest of them. A bit more detail into the technical aspects can do, but the idea you have fits Grass/Dark, Rats are naturally thought of as bandits, and they are wild in forests (but also other areas), so the conjunction of them works! I had thought it was a raccoon, though, as that plays up that imagery more.
CyzirVisheen: It works with Grass and Harvest, but Dark is a bit trickier. It has no angry eyes, scars, vicious, fanged teeth like Colossoil. It looks moderately grouchy and has spikes. I suppose that works. It's an oddball, though not as explicit as I personally would like.
noobiess: Wolf in grass-sheep's clothing, oh, my, what does that entail for elcheeso's submission? It's a fairly good design, but it falls under the umbrella of 'grassy forest animal'. You'll have to compete with others who have created similar concepts, and I'm not sure how much it'd stand out.
elcheeso: I'll be voting for yours! Even more so if the legs were adjusted slightly, as mentioned on IRC!
Yilx: Aaah, comic. :D I enjoy your effort into putting that, if less so the design itself. Wonderful supporting art!
paintseagull: I've commented on IRC, but don't deprecate yourself too much! You're a fine artist, and there's always--ALWAYS going to be room for improvement.
Birkal: Aw, why not have Cornmon harvest a Cornn berry? Why not with its scythe? :P Ah, well. The proportions your giving it makes it quite heroic, which may not be good for the physically frail spread you, ahem, gave it. :P Then again, it IS corn. How well does corn stand up to a punch? If you're taking suggestions, have Cornmon take out Latias somehow. :P It's a popular target in supplementary art.
VYT219: Stats and species name cannot be decided, either. A signature will disqualify your final submission, mind you. As for the design itself: It fits the typing, and it's pretty graceful and dainty and such. I can see that it fits Harvest, and the overall design works together well. It looks faster than its stats imply, but maybe its leaves and petal-scarves slow it down.
KoA: It's well-executed--a shambling swamp monster fits Grass/Dark much better than your previous idea, though at the expense of Harvest flavor. It's a good tradeoff, though, for everything else that fits.
Noobiess: Nice job! That's all I'll have to say.
Mos-Quitoxe: If you have any comments about the shapes and curve of the blades, feel free to tell me.
There are some really cool designs in here! Good luck to everyone, I'm really liking the direction you are taking Quanyails! The ribs are a nice touch! Birkal* Cornmon is quirky fun lol! Man some of these make me feel inferior when it comes to designing pokes hehe. I'll definitely keep a heads up for the next CAP! Also, not sure if this goes here but, I'd definitely like to volunteer to try animate the sprite for whichever design wins :D I currently work on MAD for CN
VYT219: I appreciate how you want to animate the sprite, but sprite design comes later in the CAP process. Wait a little, and then submit your sprite once that comes up. It won't take long, don't worry.
Eol: Nice! A demon scarecrow is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of a Grass/Darl Harvest user, and it definitely has a great design to it!
Quanyails: As I said before, a rose murdurer is awesome. I like the color scheme you settled on, the direction you took, and overall the sprite. The eyes are especially well done: dark and expressive, like "you're next, puny mortal." I like.
"the idea is type equalizer, bring up the lesser used types, take down the over used types. since baphomet is the symbol of duality, and also associated with satanism, its the perfect idea for dark. I chose to try to work ferns into the design because they are kind of inbetween, they reproduce with spores, but they are also sort of...woody plants, basically a crossroads of plant material"
Gonna be drawing a lot of cornmon this weekend. I'll try to get to everyone's request (hit me up with more if you got 'em), so here's the first batch. When I do more tomorrow, I'll explain some of the changes, including the new cornstalk scythe! I hope you all enjoy =)
Think I'll only need to update a few things before the final submission (the top of the serpents head feels likes its missing something.)
I went back and and made this version more in line with my second update while maintaining the references to Yggdrasil and Nidhogg.
I don't know why your design hasn't gained more momentum Shanimanim. It just fits the CAP so well, It's got so much about it. It fits Harvest really well and the dark typing is really great. The lore behind it in terms of Yggdrasil and Nidhogg really adds to the overall picture. It's just great. There's loads of super designs this round but this one is simply the best in my opinion.
A Banchou Pineapple. After a bit of thinking I've decided to base it more off a banchou rather than a Yazkuza boss. A "daunting dark hero" type of character who upholds a strong sense of honor and justice who protects the weak seemed to fit more. I figured it'd be a good throwback to the concept of an "equalizer" too.
Okay so here is my final hope. Skunkmon have large claws to fight with but are very slow due to their large weight of their wooden body. Their tail produces berries when one is eaten and the scythe is another weapon it can use to utilise its high attack power. Instead of gas, it can spray spores and seeds to stun prey so it can easily catch it without relying on speed.
Any comments or criticism welcome and hopefully supporting art will be provided soon
Consider this the final iteration of my gorilla-mon, barring some changes before I submit it officially tomorrow (with supporting art and whatnot). Thanks for the constructive criticism on earlier pages of this thread.
As for critiquing others, considering the final submissions are coming in, I'd just like to say that I think the art for Eol's design is fabulous. If anybody wants to hear me gush on about the graphic quality of the 'mon, let me know and I'll do it. I am literally fawning over how unbelievably well-drawn and colored it is.
Description:
These guys are forest "kings" based on binturongs. They take over forests by bullying other pokemon, usually with the help of other forest-dwelling dark type or selfish pokemon such as Murkrow, and proclaim themselves as kings or queens. They have huge egos and feel entitled to anything they covet. Their role is more similar to a mob boss, and they draw their power from the fear they instill in meeker pokemon and the promise of power they give to more ambitious pokemon. They are very prideful, and represent their status with regal cloaks which are made from large thick leaves and cotton. The cruelest of them obtain these materials from pokemon such as Exeggutor and Jumpluff. They constantly oil their cloaks and decorate them with the rarest berries. They have vicious fights with others of their kind when there are territorial disputes. It's very rare to see more than one in a given forest. In their youth they were agile climbers, but their laziness and tendency to delegate tasks to others has given them a slower, bulkier form as their final evolution.
Okay so here is my final hope. Skunkmon have large claws to fight with but are very slow due to their large weight of their wooden body. Their tail produces berries when one is eaten and the scythe is another weapon it can use to utilise its high attack power. Instead of gas, it can spray spores and seeds to stun prey so it can easily catch it without relying on speed. http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/28/imagenuzi.jpg
Any comments or criticism welcome and hopefully supporting art will be provided soon
I decided to go in a bit of a different direction with my Forest King Binturong design. This is pretty close to finalized but I'm still very open to critique on proportions / colour / details.
Adapted from my previous post: These guys are evil forest kings based on binturongs. They take over forests by bullying other pokemon, usually with the help of other forest-dwelling dark type or selfish pokemon such as Murkrow, and proclaim themselves as kings or queens. They have huge egos and feel entitled to anything they covet. They are very prideful over their cloaks, which are made from large thick leaves, and constantly oil them and decorate them with the rarest berries as a way to represent their regal status. They have vicious fights with others of their kind when there are territorial disputes, and it's very rare to see more than one in a given forest. In younger days they were agile climbers, but their laziness and tendency to delegate tasks to others has given them a slower, bulkier form.
i love this, and the description made me love it more. i love how much of a jerk they are; it really gives this pokemon a personality, i think. the design is also solid (no pun intended), as it represents the base stats well, though it might be a bit bulky to have crappy physical defence. i'm guessing they have their cronies harvest for them if they're so lazy? i can definitely see this using attack order or something as flavour.
love the face, too. it screams 'get the fuck outta my way, politoed. your king's rock ain't worth shit compared to me'
it's gonna be so hard to vote on all of these amazing designs.
Here's the latest version of my Whip Punisher design, which is probably how it will be for the final submission.
Several people commented about some of the proportions on my design. I have intentionally exaggerated many aspects of the design to keep the pokemon from looking like a human wearing a hood and draped in vines. So I intentionally flattened the head, shortened the legs, rounded the body, elongated the arms, and made big cartoonish hands. All of these hopefully makes the design sufficiently "not human". But the consequence is that some people may see these proportions as looking "not right". I get that. Or maybe I just did a bad job with drawing it, I don't know.
For those of you that are interested in the underlying morphology of my design, I have made a little sketch animation that shows a "build up" of the pokemon, starting from its basic body shape, and all the other design elements are successively added. Hope you like it!
I don't draw. But I review.
@Cheeno: The design is great. The alt color should be greenish, to emphasize the grass type.
@ShyGuy1221: Wow, that is one cool design. The speed factor isn't a problem, I first expected Samuwott to be sickeningly fast due to its design. How wrong I was... If you want to lose speed, add a carapace. Zerg based seems cool.
@VYT219: The design is pretty nice and feminine, but it doesn't go with base fifty-five speed. I mean, ninjas are fast, are they?
@Dracoyoshi8: I was worried that your design would be too Serperior-ish, but now, it really works. Keep the legs off, legged snakes give me nightmares.
@Eol: The 17th century doctor concept is cool, but I can't see a connection with Harvest.
@Quanyails: The grim reaper has scythes, but the blade hands aren't too bad. Maybe we should create a physical move to sap health.
@Wyverii: W-O-A-H. That is seriously wicked. You got the unnerving thing right.
@DougJustDoug: Adding spikes may help. Otherwise, not the best, but not bad either.
Anybody doing an artwork based on ability No. 2? It could be Infiltrator after all.
Ciao.
I don't think I'll edit anymore, so here is he final.
My original idea for this typing was based on the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise combined with mushrooms. The mushrooms on it's back are based on a dark gray coloring of this species of fungus. The frail body structure conveys a low defense while it's front talons and spikes tail convey a higher attack.
