Hi friends!
It's been many months (years?) since this game has stopped development, and I STILL receive support questions. So, I wanted to clear this up:
This game is no longer running.
I, endie, have not been involved with the team for some time, and shortly after I left, the team changed the direction of the game from the old version of the game I helped develop. You may understand that there are two versions of the game that were previously available: Planet Pokemon Legacy, and Planet Pokemon Old (which is the version I contributed to). Both version, as I know it, no longer have a working server.
The way Cains wrote the client/server, admin keys were hardcoded into the infrastructure, so I cannot even distribute a version of the client/server for people to host on their own as hosts would not be able to moderate their own servers. I, endie, never received a complete codebase for the game so I cannot even make the necessary changes to make the client/server accept new admins.
The website, planetpokemon.net, for whatever reason, still hosts downloads for the PPL and PPO clients even though there is no running server.
The cessation of development was due to a number of factors, but largely in part to conflicting schedules, and conflicting scope projections from various developers. Even though I may not have left the community with a smile on their faces, I believe I speak for the rest of the devs when I say this project, and its followers were near and dear to our hearts. I loved the time I spent developing the game, participating and spectating tournaments, playing hide and seek, crafting seasonal content, climbing (and failing!) the jump tower, and watching a group of Pokemon fans come together to share something truly amazing. I'm personally honored to have shared the experience with all of you, and thank you all for making the ride such an exciting one. Watching our server tick up to several hundred players on some days was a thrill I hope to be privileged with again some day. I could go on forever thanking you all for the love you've shown this project and how many fun moments I've had, but I think that's enough about me!
Many of these sorts of posts from fan projects end on a positive note. But this will not be one such post. I, endie, do not speak for the remainder of the team, but I will not be reviving this project any time, ever. The rest of the team has stated they are working on their own IP and will not be reviving Planet Pokemon for the foreseeable future.
So this means, sad as it is, that servers will not be coming back online. You are not experiencing a connection error, there is no connection to a server because there is no running server. Again, I do not speak for the rest of the team, but I believe this is accurate given the time that's passed, and what I last knew about the former development members.
I'm making this post, not because I want to revive some glory, or some hope in the former fanbase. But I'm posting this because there are still many people wondering about the status of the game's servers and a proper statement was never made by those still maintaining the servers.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, my many heartfelt apologies that we weren't able to create the game that both you and I have dreamed of since our childhoods. Thanks for taking the long ride with us and still showing interest all this time later.
-endie
**** :/