CAP 25 has been a marathon! Three starters, enormous questions to answer along the way, from the power of Merciless on an offensive Pokemon to the questions of how much is too much for using Galvanize, to "what the heck are we going to do with Water/Bug?" Whatever the end result of the CAP 25 Pokemon in the CAP metagame, we learned a lot through discussion, both about abilities and how they are used and about the CAP process and community itself!
Reflecting on the process, I think we faced three major challenges, with varying degrees of success.
The first was that of the scope of this project: our Framework charged us to make three Pokemon, and that meant doing every stage three times simultaneously. I thought we managed that reasonably well, considering the difficulty involved, with one issue: 25f, Smokomodo, at times utterly dominated discussion, choking out 25g and w palpably. This was especially obvious on Discord, where asking a direct 25g question would lead to ten to twenty lines of discussion, after which the floodgates of 25f controversy would reopen. I think all three CAP 25 starters turned out well from a competitive standpoint (though Smokomodo is, I believe, the weakest of the three), but from a process standpoint I wish we had spread the discussion out better across the three.
The second challenge was process order and the threat of poll jumping, a major issue for a concept that focused so heavily on the Ability Stage to define the finished product. (Poll Jumping Redacted) became almost a meme, but I thought we wrestled well through our constraints while staying focused on producing a quality product--we had some really good Typing discussion, for instance, and I am proud of the community for working with what we could do and asking a lot of the hard questions in terms of competitive balance--how much is too much and how much is enough. I think the Typing Stage really intensely impacted how the Ability Stage played out, so we definitely had a coherent process, even with the difficulties.
Our third major challenge was differentiation. Considering what Pokemon has done before with starters, picking abilities that did not lead to paths already traveled was a major issue. It was the largest driving force behind what we did with Caribolt in particular, but Snaelstrom also ended up as an extremely competitively distinctive Pokemon. CAP has always enjoyed the novel for its own sake, but the difficultly of finding unprecedented things to explore while also following specific precents (i.e. starters) was a fine line to walk. This is the challenge I feel we handled the best. It is too early to say whether all three CAP 25 starters will hit the sweet spot of viability, but I am certain that we can agree that all three are unique.
As a closing note, I am blown away once more by the astounding talent of our artists and spriters: you are the heart and soul of the CAP Project, and this was your finest hour. To produce so much utterly sublime art while accounting for process oddities and having to do three designs at once is nothing short of...well, astounding.
Congratulations, CAP! I am proud to present to you Smokomodo, Snaelstrom and Caribolt!
Caribolt (CAP 25g)
Typing: Grass/Electric
Abilities: Overgrow/Galvanize
Stats: 84 HP / 106 Atk / 82 Def / 77 SpA / 80 SpD / 106 Spe
Height: 2.5 m
Weight: 140 kg
Movepool: https://www.smogon.com/forums/posts/7940333
Main Design: http://i.imgur.com/h4ONiEZ.png
Sprites: https://i.imgur.com/ZEVUxoP.png
Smokomodo (CAP 25f)
Typing: Fire/Ground
Abilities: Blaze/Technician
Stats: 88 HP / 116 Atk / 67 Def / 88 SpA / 78 SpD / 97 Spe
Height: 2.2 m
Weight: 205 kg
Movepool: https://www.smogon.com/forums/posts/7938469
Main Design: https://puu.sh/Bpzbz.jpg
Sprites: https://i.imgur.com/u1gqCib.png
Snaelstrom (CAP 25w)
Typing: Water/Bug
Abilities: Torrent/Poison Heal
Stats: 91 HP / 94 Atk / 110 Def / 80 SpA / 97 SpD / 63 Spe
Height: 2 m
Weight: 120 kg
Movepool: https://www.smogon.com/forums/posts/7938726
Main Design: http://i.imgur.com/cYb87TB.jpg
Sprites: https://i.imgur.com/LsYKKSw.png
Reflecting on the process, I think we faced three major challenges, with varying degrees of success.
The first was that of the scope of this project: our Framework charged us to make three Pokemon, and that meant doing every stage three times simultaneously. I thought we managed that reasonably well, considering the difficulty involved, with one issue: 25f, Smokomodo, at times utterly dominated discussion, choking out 25g and w palpably. This was especially obvious on Discord, where asking a direct 25g question would lead to ten to twenty lines of discussion, after which the floodgates of 25f controversy would reopen. I think all three CAP 25 starters turned out well from a competitive standpoint (though Smokomodo is, I believe, the weakest of the three), but from a process standpoint I wish we had spread the discussion out better across the three.
The second challenge was process order and the threat of poll jumping, a major issue for a concept that focused so heavily on the Ability Stage to define the finished product. (Poll Jumping Redacted) became almost a meme, but I thought we wrestled well through our constraints while staying focused on producing a quality product--we had some really good Typing discussion, for instance, and I am proud of the community for working with what we could do and asking a lot of the hard questions in terms of competitive balance--how much is too much and how much is enough. I think the Typing Stage really intensely impacted how the Ability Stage played out, so we definitely had a coherent process, even with the difficulties.
Our third major challenge was differentiation. Considering what Pokemon has done before with starters, picking abilities that did not lead to paths already traveled was a major issue. It was the largest driving force behind what we did with Caribolt in particular, but Snaelstrom also ended up as an extremely competitively distinctive Pokemon. CAP has always enjoyed the novel for its own sake, but the difficultly of finding unprecedented things to explore while also following specific precents (i.e. starters) was a fine line to walk. This is the challenge I feel we handled the best. It is too early to say whether all three CAP 25 starters will hit the sweet spot of viability, but I am certain that we can agree that all three are unique.
As a closing note, I am blown away once more by the astounding talent of our artists and spriters: you are the heart and soul of the CAP Project, and this was your finest hour. To produce so much utterly sublime art while accounting for process oddities and having to do three designs at once is nothing short of...well, astounding.
Congratulations, CAP! I am proud to present to you Smokomodo, Snaelstrom and Caribolt!
Typing: Grass/Electric
Abilities: Overgrow/Galvanize
Stats: 84 HP / 106 Atk / 82 Def / 77 SpA / 80 SpD / 106 Spe
Height: 2.5 m
Weight: 140 kg
Movepool: https://www.smogon.com/forums/posts/7940333
Main Design: http://i.imgur.com/h4ONiEZ.png
Sprites: https://i.imgur.com/ZEVUxoP.png
Typing: Fire/Ground
Abilities: Blaze/Technician
Stats: 88 HP / 116 Atk / 67 Def / 88 SpA / 78 SpD / 97 Spe
Height: 2.2 m
Weight: 205 kg
Movepool: https://www.smogon.com/forums/posts/7938469
Main Design: https://puu.sh/Bpzbz.jpg
Sprites: https://i.imgur.com/u1gqCib.png
Typing: Water/Bug
Abilities: Torrent/Poison Heal
Stats: 91 HP / 94 Atk / 110 Def / 80 SpA / 97 SpD / 63 Spe
Height: 2 m
Weight: 120 kg
Movepool: https://www.smogon.com/forums/posts/7938726
Main Design: http://i.imgur.com/cYb87TB.jpg
Sprites: https://i.imgur.com/LsYKKSw.png
