Concept Submissions

(To be posted in the OP) (OP text with BBcode markup)

This is where we discuss the general goal of the next Create-A-Pokemon project -- CAP X. The Concept will be a guiding force throughout the ensuing project, to ensure the the final result is a cohesive competitive pokemon. Any discussions, suggestions, or submissions in later topics, that do not support the spirit of the Concept, will be moderated by the Topic Leader.

Concepts must be presented as high-level descriptions of a general idea. They cannot be detailed pokemon designs. Since we have polls to determine each aspect of the pokemon, we cannot allow any specific features of the pokemon to be determined by the details of the Concept.

We intentionally have many rules regarding Concept submissions. If you are not prepared to read and understand all the rules, then don't bother making a submission. These rules are made to help narrow the field of concepts down to those that have been carefully designed. This is not meant to be easy for everyone -- a good, legal Concept requires a lot of thought and careful wording.

The following rules must be followed when submitting a Concept:

One submission per person. You may edit your Concept, but you may not change the fundamental premise after it has been posted. If editing your concept, please edit the original post instead of posting a new revision. Do not bump your Concept after you have posted it. If people do not comment on it, so be it.

Do not duplicate or closely-resemble Concepts already posted by others. It is your responsibility to read through all previous submissions in this thread to ensure you are complying with this rule. Ignorance or laziness is not an excuse.

Specific Pokemon types or type combos cannot be included or excluded in a Concept. Nor can other characteristics of the Concept specifically result in in the inclusion or exclusion of Types. For example, the following phrases would be illegal:

  • "This is a Dragon pokemon with..."
  • "The pokemon should be immune to Ghost attacks..."
  • "The pokemon should have at least 7 resistances..."
  • "The pokemon should get STAB on Thunderbolt.."

Specific Abilities are not allowed. This applies to existing abilities and new abilities. Do not attempt to circumvent this rule by mentioning specific battle effects that can only be achieved by the implementation of an ability. For example, the following phrases would be illegal:

  • "This pokemon should have a defensive ability like Intimidate or Marvel Scale..."
  • "This pokemon has an ability that steals the opponent's held item..."
  • "When this pokemon is switched in, all weather conditions are nullified..."

Movepools or lists of moves are not allowed. A specific move can be mentioned if it is the basis for the entire concept. For example, the Concept "Rapid Spinner" would obviously mention the move Rapid Spin.

Specific stat bias, base stats, or base stat ratings are not allowed. It is acceptable to use descriptive phrases like "fast", "bulky", "strong attacker", etc -- since there are a variety of ways a pokemon can fit those descriptions without specifically requiring certain stats. But, do not use overly-specific descriptions that would narrowly constrain the pokemon's base stat spread.

Indications of Physical/Special bias are discouraged, but acceptable if it is essential to the Concept. Do not refer to any part of the Pokemon's artistic design. For example, the following phrases would be illegal:

  • "This is a bright blue pokemon..."
  • "The pokemon looks like a..."
  • "The pokemon uses its long tail to..."

A Concept Submission must be submitted in the proper format. The format is described below. If the proper format is not used, the moderators will not evaluate the submission, regardless of content.

Concept Submission Format

Use this format for all concept submissions:

[b]Name:[/b] (short name)
[b]General Description:[/b] (See rules below. No more than a sentence or two here.)
[b]Justification:[/b] (See rules below.)
[b]Questions To Be Answered:[/b] (See rules below.)
[b]Explanation:[/b] (Whatever you want to say here.)
  • Name - Don't get too clever with the name. If the essence of the concept is not intuitively obvious in the name, then you are hurting your chances of people understanding it. If the essence of your concept cannot be expressed in a few words, then you need to seriously re-evaluate your concept. Description - This is the official description of the concept, and must follow ALL the content rules listed above. Do not make this a long description. Long descriptions are invariably too specific or too convoluted. Keep it short. Any more than a sentence or two is TOO MUCH. Do NOT include your Explanation of the concept in the Description. See "Explanation" below.
  • Justification - A few sentences describing how the concept satisfies one or more of the following:
    • Has a positive effect on the metagame (e.g Fidgit’s Pure Utility)
    • Allows us to learn more about the metagame (e.g Kitsunoh’s Ultimate Scout)
    • Introduces a new niche in the metagame (such as Arghonaut’s Decentralizer)
    Do not make up your own categories for justification. If you cannot justify your concept against at least one of the three requirements above, then your concept is illegal for the CAP project.
  • Questions To Be Answered - The purpose of the CAP project is to learn new things about the metagame, and each concept submission is a proposed "experiment". List out a few interesting competitive questions that should be answered after properly implementing your concept. At the conclusion of the CAP project, these questions will be revisited to see how well we implemented the concept. If your questions are not significant, relevant to your Justification, and well-written -- then your concept will be rejected.
  • Explanation - This can contain just about anything. This is where you can explain your concept without restraint. You may make suggestions, even specific suggestions, regarding the possible implementation of the Concept. This explanation should help facilitate discussion of the Concept -- but the Explanation is NOT part of the Concept and will be omitted from the polls and any future use of the Concept. Since your explanation is non-binding, regarding future polls and threads, it will not be evaluated for purposes of determining if your concept is legal or illegal.

It is the submitter's responsibility to figure out how to make a legal submission within the rules listed above. Do not complain about the difficulty of making a submission in this thread. There are many, many legal concepts that can be presented within the rules. Here are few examples of good and bad Concepts from previous projects:

Good Concepts from Past Projects

  • "Pure Utility Pokemon"
  • "Anti-Ghost Rapid Spinner"
  • "True Garchomp Counter"
  • "Great Lead Pokemon"
  • "Ultimate Weather Abuser"
  • "Status Counter"

Bad Concepts from Past Projects

  • "Ice-Resisting Dragon"
  • "Super Luck User"
  • "STAB Explosion Glass Cannon"
  • "Auto-Stealth Rock Remover"
  • "A Pokemon with Special Intimidate"
  • "Pyrokinetic Pokemon (Fire/Psychic)"
  • "Special Guts"
  • "Typing Means Nothing"

Here's a sample of a legal Concept post. This is not an actual submission. It's just being used to illustrate the format and legal content:

Concept: "Kingdra of the Sun"

Description: A good pokemon with a varied movepool under normal conditions. But, it becomes a dangerous sweeping force in sunny weather.

Justification: Sunny Day is almost never used in the current metagame. This concept could make Sun teams playable in OU, much like Kingdra almost single-handedly makes Rain teams viable in OU. We will learn more about sunny weather battling strategies in OU, and the pokemon that can use sun to their advantage.

Questions To Be Answered:

  • Are sun teams more viable with "Kingdra of the Sun" in OU?
  • Which battle strategies are most effective and least effective using sun in OU?
  • Which OU pokemon can best use sun to their advantage?
  • Which lesser-used pokemon become relevant with "Kingdra of the Sun" in OU?
  • Is "Kingdra of the Sun" viable in OU under normal weather conditions?

Explanation: A good Sunny Day abuser would be fresh and fun. Typing could be just about anything, although Fire and/or Grass are the most obvious. Water typing might be interesting to help it stop Heatran from becoming even more of a beast once the Sun goes up, and ruining the fun for this pokemon. Chlorophyll would be an easy way to make a good sweeper, but Solar Power doesn't get the love it should, and might be an interesting option. There are lots of nice abilities that could help this thing do its job. I think fiery art designs are always cool and I can imagine this pokemon having lots of colorful fire effects, if we make it part Fire.

Note that all the "illegal stuff" is in the Explanation. The Description is short, and very carefully worded to follow all the rules. It does not specifically dictate anything in later polls.

Please try to remember that we are simply pointing the project in a general direction, we are not trying to decide anything right now. We have several weeks of polls ahead of us where EVERYTHING about this pokemon will be dissected, discussed, voted, and decided. The Concept is a very basic guide for the creation process. It is hard to provide solid concept descriptions without basically designing the entire pokemon right off the bat. Submissions should be written and chosen very carefully, to avoid these problems.