|
I am 100% with you on berry farming being terrible. The only games I bothered with it were Sun and Moon, where it was as streamlined as it could be. Shame they took that out in SwSh.
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2020 20:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 22:18 |
|
|
Iceblocks posted:In Version 10 the Conkeldurr sidequest had a different ending: ...I'm pretty OK with that too.
|
|
#
?
Apr 7, 2020 22:08
|
|
|
I love berry farming, but only when there's an easy way to track berries. Platinum was the apex of berry farming design imho
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2020 00:07
|
|
|
once mulch came into the mix it was too much too bother with and it was already to omcuh to bother with. XY had like, berry cross breeding?! Gen 7 was the apex. Simple, to the point, easy to get great yield per tree and you could plant a bunch at once.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2020 00:40
|
|
|
Pugnacious Doggie posted:
...Hang on, did we just get paid to bust a union? What are we, a loving Pokérton? Can't believe Arceus is a class traitor now, smdh 
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2020 06:39
|
|
Yep, that's right, Gurdurr! Feel the rage brewing! It's just as I've been telling you...
Wh-What? Is that Timburr speaking?
|
Mersenne posted:...Hang on, did we just get paid to bust a union? What are we, a loving Pokérton?
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2020 12:51
|
|
|
Pugnacious Doggie posted:Weirdly enough, the Vileplume dislike the searing pain (more likely mild discomfort but I have a penchant for the dramatic) and fight back. Catching them is a pain because these Vileplume can come with Strength Sap, which is normally an egg move (meaning it can't get it through levelling up). So, uh, funny thing about these Strength Sap Vileplume. Jan simply set it by having the move simply be caused by an event that only wears off by defeating or catching the Vileplume. Or something like that. I don't have the exact code. The fact I left out running is intentional. That does not, in fact, unset the flag for adding Strength Sap to a Pokemon's moveset. It's only a temporary flag, so it only lasts until you close out of the game, though. But doing this set of events and catching something else can lead to some, ah...  ...Very interesting situations.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2020 13:43
|
|
|
Amazing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2020 15:52
|
|
|
poo poo I caught a graveler with strength sap and was wondering what the hell was up with that.quote:Christ
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2020 21:57
|
|
|
Disgusting eggy madness? Happy easter, everyone.
|
|
#
?
Apr 9, 2020 22:11
|
|
|
 Welcome back! Today's update is gonna be a little shorter, and a lot more frustrating than most other updates. Keep in mind that the entry fare to the Safari Zone is 7 times the price of the real Pokemon games.  For identical commodities to canon and a probably worse selection of Pokemon. Safari Balls have an identical capture chance as normal Pokeballs, which aren't really sufficient for catching rarer Pokemon. They do at least look cool.  Oh, what a way to start the update on a high!  And a brilliant segue into why the Safari Zone is a blight on the series.  First thing about the Safari Zone. You have finite steps, indicated in the top left. You can only use the 30 Safari Balls provided to you, whatever spares you have are revoked when you leave the zone. The Safari Ball limit I can mostly live with, 30 is pretty generous to catch a decent amount of Pokemon. 800 steps? To find all the Pokemon you want, an activity heavily dependent on your luck? Especially the ones with 1% encounter rates? You'd be extraordinarily lucky to find everything in one attempt, let alone catch them all.  When either your steps or Safari Balls deplete fully, you're booted out of the zone.  That's just the overworld stuff. The actual catching is mechanically very different and significantly worse than normal.  First of all, you don't use your Pokemon at all in the Safari Zone. You cannot improve your chances at catching the wild Pokemon by whittling down its HP and afflicting it with some kind of status. That's where the options that replace the normal battle menu come in. Ball does exactly what you'd expect, you throw a Safari Ball and pray it sticks.   As that shiny Kecleon demonstrated earlier, Pokemon can also run away from battle in the Safari Zone. You cannot stop this, at all. The best you can do is throw bait at your target Pokemon. Bait will halve the chance that the Pokemon will run away from the battle, at the expense of making it twice as likely to escape the Pokeball.  Pegging rocks at a Pokemon will do the inverse to bait. It's up to you which one you prefer.  Binacle was the major encounter in this area. There's another Pokemon who I really want to catch, but it's a 5% chance. On a Rock Smash encounter (25% to even find a Pokemon in the first place). Thanks.  Ah! There it is!  Look this is safarizone.txt. It's not a very good feeling.  With the amount of rocks he's broken, Trevor is gonna be real swole by the end of this. By the way, you can save in the Safari zone, which I highly recommend, lest you go broke repeatedly bashing your head against bad RNG.  Good.  Dotted throughout the zone are these bait traps. They don't do anything yet.  In one quadrant the zone, your access is blocked by a Vileplume. If you ran away from any of the other Vileplume without defeating or catching them, this one will never disappear, and will thus always be blocking you.  Regardless of outcome, which I found out the hard way   Travelling to the east you can go to the beach, and continuing west...  You can find this garden. This is the reason I spliced in the other help quests; this area will not be accessible unless you've completed all of the requests in Kakori Village.  By the way, you can ameliorate the finite step problem if you have a Pokemon who knows the move Sweet Scent, such as this bee.  It can be used in the overworld to force a wild encounter if you're in tall grass (with defined encounters of course). No steps required, just a bit less brainless than running back and forth as a trade off.  This locked-off area has a lot of bog-standard Electric types you could find earlier in the game, except for Magnemite, who is a very good battler.  To fix up the Vileplume problem, you actually need to go to another Vileplume you can actually fight to fix the variable.  Also lol at this Vileplume guarding an item which can be sold off for less than the price of Spice Powder.  And voila. The problem is fixed. Clunkily, but fixed.  The Vileplume is guarding this cave,, which is home to a few new Pokemon. This message here is indicating the terrain, even though there are no actual battles for a terrain to influence.  It's a terrain puzzle that we can't solve in this portion of the cave, but we'll see the solution a little while from now.  This cute fellow leading my party has the ability Cute Charm, which can influence the gender of the Pokemon you encounter. Since he's a boy, Cute Charm will raise encounter chances with female Pokemon.  Which is mostly relevant because Salandit's evolution is dependent on being a girl, and I really want a Salazzle on my team.  I did run out of Pokeballs unfortunately, and am back for round two. I get in free because I threatened this man, just by walking through the wall.  I'm in it for the long haul, because the reprehensible completionist in me demands I catch every Pokemon.  Wanna know something about the fleeing Pokemon in the Safari Zone?  The chance of them fleeing is tied to their rareness value, which I think is just their capture rate in this game anyway. The lower the capture rate, the higher the escape chance multiplier. My eyes glazed over most of the code, but the way it works is the game creates a number between 1 and 20, generates a number from 0-100, if the result is less than 5 times the escape chance, the Pokemon runs. That doesn't really matter to me because  Whatever the code is saying, it's making these fuckers run away, and that's all I care about. A 1% encounter can just say no and peace out. I throw bait to appease them and prevent them running, they do not care.    I am finding multiple shinies before Chansey.     Oh yeah if you use your last Pokeball on the Vileplume the message shows up here and it gives every wild Pokemon Strength Sap in their movepool. I choose no to exploit this because I have some standards.  I definitely adhered to said standards to legitimately catch this Chansey.   Yeah I can't believe I caught it as well. Shame it was off camera.  This is a really good reward if breeding Pokemon is something you value, it increases the rate at which the Pokemon in daycare make eggs.   And that's the Safari Zone! A tedious minigame which I am extremely unlucky at. It's bad in the normal games, it's bad here! I hope I don't have to come back for a long time. Today's shiny:  Piece of poo poo that's the face of someone who knows they're causing me pain.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2020 11:57
|
|
|
Pugnacious Doggie posted:And that's the Safari Zone! A tedious minigame which I am extremely unlucky at. It's bad in the normal games, it's bad here! I hope I don't have to come back for a long time. I've always loved the concept of the Safari Zone (special zones/areas to explore, no trainer battles, special Safari Balls that look cool). The execution of it is just terrible since you have no way of influencing the normal catching RNG. The stupid Bait/Rock/Ball crap does not count. Why couldn't they just do something similar to the Bug-Catching Contest in HeartGold/SoulSilver? You're only allowed to take one of your Pokemon with you. You can't use any items to heal it, which is frustrating, but at the very least you can take one with you that has stuff like Stun Spore or Shadow Tag/Mean Look. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 12:15 on Apr 19, 2020 |
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2020 12:13
|
|
|
Addendum: at least this isn’t as bad as the Johto safari zone
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2020 12:28
|
|
|
I think bait and rocks functionally don't make any difference, I'm pretty sure people have gutted the code and proved that they actually do nothing. You have the best odds just throwing balls immediately. Can you still spin in place to save steps in this version? And yeah, the Safari Zone is always terrible in every gen they included it. I think Sinnoh is my least favourite but it's very close.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2020 12:46
|
|
|
Black Robe posted:I think bait and rocks functionally don't make any difference, I'm pretty sure people have gutted the code and proved that they actually do nothing. You have the best odds just throwing balls immediately.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2020 12:55
|
|
|
I'm so glad the Safari Zone stopped existing in the actual games. It was never good and it should not have existed. But of course fangames have other ideas because tediousness/RNG bullshit = actual difficulty, obviously.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2020 15:26
|
|
|
The Safari Zone will forever hold a place of hate in my heart because of that time I found a shiny Farfetch'd and the predictable happened.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2020 15:39
|
|
|
Out of curiosity how big is the Safari Zone in this game
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2020 16:38
|
|
|
Zereth posted:I don't think it's that they do nothing, it's just that what they do doesn't help. This is pretty much it. Both of them end up being counterproductive and the maths work out that the best thing to do is always to throw balls. The main factor is that by wasting a turn using the bait or rock, you're giving the pokemon a RNG opportunity to flee before you even try to catch it. Bait is "half catch rate, half flee rate" and rocks are "double catch rate, double flee rate", but neither of those are actually useful: for instance, if you throw a rock, you've doubled your catch rate, but you give it a chance to flee at increased rate before you even get to try, which it will usually do, and you can more or less double the catch rate by just... trying to catch it twice, instead. As for bait, it makes them less likely to flee, but the things most likely to flee are already so hard to catch that making them harder doesn't help (and the flee chance is still non-negligible, it's not like bait guarantees they stick around). Why would a fangame keep the safari zone. Why. (That's rhetorical, they're doing it because it's a fangame and therefore anything from the main games goes in. Just like the bloody trade evolutions.)
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2020 17:13
|
|
|
Jesus OP I know the quarantine is rough but you don't need to go this far 
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2020 18:57
|
|
|
Explopyro posted:This is pretty much it. Both of them end up being counterproductive and the maths work out that the best thing to do is always to throw balls. The main factor is that by wasting a turn using the bait or rock, you're giving the pokemon a RNG opportunity to flee before you even try to catch it. Even Reborn & Uranium didn't bother with the safari zone as far as i can recall. not that hey didn't keep their own set of dumb decisions from the main games, mind.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2020 23:14
|
|
|
rannum posted:Out of curiosity how big is the Safari Zone in this game Not actually that big, it's like the size of the normal safari zones. No fast travel or rearranging it though, which means it takes about 200 steps to get to the furthest region if you don't get lost on the maze. Explopyro posted:trade evolutions. I haven't used any trade evos yet, but the game has no online capabilities like Reborn and Uranium, so trades use an item to evolve them just like stone evolutions. It's called a Link Heart if i recall correctly. Pugnacious Doggie fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Apr 20, 2020 |
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2020 00:52
|
|
|
Small note, I believe Safari Balls are as good as Great Balls rather than regular Poké Balls, but that's still nowhere near good enough for what you have to get in them sometimes. I agree with above, the idea of a safari zone is really cool, but the mechanics need a lot of work to make it, you know, fun and/or rewarding. And I imagine that would be a lot of work to adjust in Essentials.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2020 07:36
|
|
|
The Golux posted:I agree with above, the idea of a safari zone is really cool, but the mechanics need a lot of work to make it, you know, fun and/or rewarding. And I imagine that would be a lot of work to adjust in Essentials. What do you mean? It's extremely unfair, hard for the wrong reasons, and very irritating to play. There's nothing to fix, the Safari Zone's perfect for a fangame already.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2020 16:18
|
|
|
 After a pretty rough Safari expedition, we're getting back to the adventure at hand.  Now that the vines are gone (thanks to the help quest we did two updates ago), Arceus can enter the cave and pick up a pretty sweet reward.  Trevor has Rock Smashing perfected to a science at this point, 5% Rock Smash encounters shouldn't be legal (especially in the Safari zone).  One thing I will definitely give Jan kudos for is that he doesn't mind actually giving the player access to TMs that don't suck eggs.  Ok with that small detour sorted, you need to head to the ranger HQ to maybe save Nim from her petrified state. We don't care about Saki.   What I didn't expect is that some of the people in here are trainers who want to brawl.  We currently don't have access to the mountain, in part due to the Ranger blocking us from advancing towards it.   Please just let me go I'm already at the level cap. Battle like this are mostly a waste since the EXP isn't stored like it is for Shadow Pokemon.  (It's not a lot better with the proper equipment  ) We aren't, but there's nothing Arceus does better than pretending to be enthusiastic about something for self gain. Case in point: our entire involvement in this story.   Five Oran berries (the lowest tier healing berry) isn't much of a price to pay at this point. At least the watering can isn't in the postgame.  Of these three moves, Signal Beam is probably the best since a lot of special attackers can learn it and it has decent power. Having varying moves under each Pokemon's belt is never a bad thing! Bug Bite consumes the opponents berry as well as dealing damage, but as the name suggests, not much learn it apart from bugs, and Synthesis is a healing move for Grass Pokemon, where the amount healed is dependent on the active weather. Not really anything I want though.  As I'll ever be, I've probably kept you waiting long enough.  I was helping people for a while and hunting Chansey even longer, not sure what everyone else is still doing.  I know this is really silly considering the position we're in, but... Do you think you and I could take a small walk? It'll be real quick, I promise! I just want to clear my head for a bit. I didn't really want to go too far anyway, so I guess this is fine. Let's go, Arceus.  We end up where we witnessed someone get petrified and the villains escaped the Shadow realm(?) Even though considering everything we've been through, we don't know that much about each other. But truthfully, I don't really think that matters. As long as we're together, it's okay. And I know I should open up more to you and the others, but... I don't think it's appropriate to do that yet. If I don't keep a line between people, I feel like I won't be taken seriously. I have a tendency to overthink situations, so this may be one of those cases. But then there are moments where I feel like I don't think enough. I should've been more of a leader and realized that something was up with Nim. And that's the thing, I knew. I knew something was wrong but I pushed us forward. Venting to Arceus must be so therapeutic; it's like screaming into the void, and you can construe her glazed over expression as validation. Ever since that day, everything's been... Everything's been so difficult. What am I supposed to do? Why am I even in this situation to begin with... "Should've, would've, could've". Thankfully Aelita saves Arceus the trouble of comforting Melia. It's okay to cry, you know? We're all human. I know... It's just that-- Anyway, what was that you just said? Oh, that's a statement my Dad used to tell me a lot. Whenever I'd cry about something, he used to repeat that over and over. It was pretty obnoxious, and in hindsight, it was still obnoxious. But I get the intent behind his words.  I like to think Arceus is very sage, but just doesn't talk much so people can reach epiphanies on their own. That's basically what we've done the entirety of the game so far. The best thing you can do is look toward the future and become a better person. After all, life's all about growth and experiences. So don't let your grief pull you down. Aelita... Thank you... Don't thank me, thank the Eldest! She taught me these things. I'll keep her words in my heart. I won't give up-- I promise. It's a promise between friends then! "Friends"? We're friends? Um, yeah? I'd like to think that we all are. It's not just me who thinks that way. Val, Braixen, Adam, and even Saki see you as our friend. I see... I guess I was overthinking things yet again. Alright, fine. It's a promise between friends then.  Good on Arceus for agreeing to stand there awkwardly so Aelita could take notice and console Melia. We're helping, in our stunted way :3 We should probably head back now. I'm sure the others are waiting for us be ready. [sic] Yep yep! I hate meetings so let's get this over with. Curse them for both having androgynous names, but I figured out who was who.  The same could be said in reverse! Yeah, we were worried when you guys didn't come through the transporter. The teleport pads went offline the moment you two went through them. It's like you two used up the rest of the pad's energy or something. Yeah, sorry about that... Things like that happen sometimes.  Alright you two. Time to get on with your mission. We need those transporters up as soon as possible. Roger that! Please excuse us! We do what we do best, let people leave. Alright, let's get to it! What can I do for you lovely people today? There's a lot to unpack here... Basically- Saying it first makes it seem like higher priority.   Also Team Xen's on the island and they have our friend, Nim. They took her to Valor Mountain and we need help getting there. Plain and simple. ...Well, yeah that's basically it. That was rude, Adam! Never interrupt a lady! Short, quick, and to the point. I like that! But I see... I'll have Alex and Sam look for Saki once they're done with their current mission. As for Team Xen... That's a slightly bigger issue. Team Xen has left Terajuma Island alone up till now. It's a bit of a mystery to me why they would want to poke their heads out now. That being said, if entrance to Valor Mountain is all you need, then that's no problem. Right now I have a Ranger deployed on Route 5 to block access, but I'll give them a call. I was actually hoping you'd come with us? The more power we have, the higher chance of success we have.  That's code for "I really don't want to be with this cast". It's okay, I understand. I don't suppose you all heard of Angie? Oh yeah, Angie. Alex was going off about her in the jungle. She told us all about her and how she sent the Carnivine to the jungle to cause trouble. A-Allegedly, of course! I don't wanna get sued here. Angie's been giving me a lot of headaches lately. I've sent a handful of Rangers her way to discuss terms, but none of them have come back. So before I deal with this Team Xen business, I have to make sure the people of Kakori are safe. I also have to make sure my Rangers are okay and well, so. No, it's okay... I understand. We'll deal with it ourselves.  We are interrupted, sine we need to include as many cast members as possible to obfuscate things.  In this case it's Rejuvenation superstar Rorim B, who I'm certain was not held in many people's memories very long, on account of his encounter being overshadowed by an attempted murder.  How about you and I take a weekend away from this place and go to Teila Resort? I hear they have a Cook Off going on soon. We can eat grub and dance like there's no tomorrow! Um... Dad... There are people here. We soiled his pride by defeating him in battle; we vowed to never see each other's faces again. Have... Have you and Arceus met before? Oh yes! When you were off doing your international police duties, I was moseying along like a delicate flower! And they one upped me like some back up dancer! It wasn't cool! A brief quake disturbs the group, but Aelita and Rorim B seem unfazed.  Valour mountain is of course where Team Xen is hiding out, so it's definitely foul play on their part. Your very presence shakes us to the core! But alas, I must leave! I must find my precious Bug Pokemon! That was... interesting. He's trying to stay youthful by pretending to act like a 24/7 Disco enthusiast.I think there's a bit more to his eccentricity than that. Anyways, what he said before about Valor Mountain is true. A long time ago, people used to believe Valor Mountain was a God. It has this weird... attribute about it. Its environment can be changed if certain crystals are activated. Though, like mentioned, it must be activated. Which means someone is in the mountain as we speak. Which means you all are definitely telling the truth.You all need to hurry. Who knows what they're planning on doing once they're at the top. Y-Yeah. We're on it! Well, you're on it. I have much more important things to do like practicing my hiding skills. Stealthy, no?  Well it was worth a shot. Guess we need to trigger some more flags before I can go for the badge.  I'm sure whatever Team Xen is doing is very shady, but all the rooms in the Rnager center should be explored first.   Oh, awesome, this item will sharply raise (+2) your Attack and Special attack if your Pokemon gets clobbered with a super-effective hit. It's one use, so I will definitely never use it in fear that I "might need it later" (I do this for most valuable items and it never pays off because I finish the game without using them ever).  (Castform is never good)  The evolution item for Porygon, we have two of these now, but still no Porygon to show for it.  Speaking of Porygon, you need a Data Drive item to encounter it in this computer. I do not have one.  The rangers were right, the warp pads are still broke. The image behind Arceus shows a snippet of the location your travelling to, a detail I somehow never noticed until I was writing this update. I just memorised the positions.  No, it's rampant in Kristiline Town (the one Angie's a gym leader of). No prizes for guessing what type Angie uses.  Now that we have permission to pass, there's no ranger blocking the way forward.  You saw a bit of it in the help quests, but it's discoloured because of all the volcanic ash.  There are generic trainers which isn't really out of the ordinary, but funny story, I missed four attacks in a row on this Tropius, so it just stood there and continued to boost itself with Dragon Dance.  It was a loving disaster and I've never hit such a low point in my trainer career.  Robin Hoot was the only survivor  Oh yeah, speaking of the field, it's a weird mishmash of effects. Half of it is boosting moves like Surf because Beach, but the other effects are weird zen garden stuff like tripling the effect of Meditate and boosting moves that involve focus.  Like the Terajuma shore, there's an inaccessible lighthouse.  There isn't a lot to do here, so let's get on with the main event.  We're confronted by Zetta, that admin guy who disappeared for a while. It's polite of you to surrender yourself to us! Hey, don't get used to it. I just wanted to see how the crew was! Well we're doing just fine. No thanks to you! Really quivering in my boots here, Braixen. How are you even talking anyway? Zetta, you didn't come down here for petty talk and cheap insults. What are you doing here? Man, you kids today are so drat impatient! It pisses me off seeing how entitled you all are. But I guess that impatience makes a lot of sense in a way. This is probably relevant. Clearly Melia's consciousness has been transfused into an empty body to be used by Team Xen. No more time for talk! Come get me!  Despite everyone gearing up to fight Arceus does most of the heavy lifting.  And by most of the heavy lifting, I mean absolutely all of it.  The Terrain seed on the Volcanic Beach raises your crit rate (the chance to spontaneously deal 50% extra damage from an attack), as well as guaranteeing the first attack will be a critical hit. Absol has the ability Super Luck which boosts its crit rate even more, and it's main attack, Night Slash, also has a boosted crit rate.  Couple that with Absol boasting a really high Attack stat, and even resisted hits hurt like a bitch.  Brute force is worthless if you're outsped by an opponent (Absol did not win against Chaz). By virtue of being an eternal fuckup, I hit the wrong move, and Chaz pays the price for my negligence. Dragonair has the Eviolite item, which boosts its defenses both by 50% (btw this item only works on guys who aren't fully evolved), so it's a bit tougher than normal. Still not too bad.  Nothing Trevor can't fix.  Trevor hasn't been practicing his Rock Smash game for nothing, Zetta. Oh yeah, Weavile. Fast, hits hard, does not appreciate getting hit back.  Oh, we haven't seen one of these in ages!  I catch it, mostly because I like Lanturn. I'm not sure if I ever made this clear, but the main appeal of Shadow Pokemon is they usually have moves they couldn't learn though any other means. Spook2004 had Aromatherapy; this Chinchou has Cosmic Power and Parabolic Charge. You could probably make it work as a good tank, but gently caress stall. Careless aggression is the only way to play!  Nature Power turns into Meditate, and this Typhlosion is showing off the field effect.  It means Typhlosion can make use of its Physical movepool a little better, since its Special movepool is very dire. Also it took a High Jump Kick to the face like a champ.  Like Dragonair, this bad boy also has Eviolite due to not being fully evolved (but it should be, its friendship is 255 to make those Returns hurt), but unlike Dragonair, it has base stats that aren't garbage. It's quite hard to kill.  It has no way of recovering HP though, so it isn't too bad to wear down.  Immediately everyone takes credit for something solely accomplished by me  Then Zetta peaces out because the baddies in Rejuvenation can just shrug off every setback and leave. Can you catch me? We'll just have to see. Don't let him get away! By the way Valerie just straight up abandoned Aelita this time.  And it's not like I'm going to let her share my surfboard. Don't look at me like that, we're friends, not besties  That's another Zygarde Cell for the collection, as well.  negotiation thing. That's on the belief that this is a negotiation in the first place. Stop acting so tough. Your whole look doesn't reflect that kind of attitude. It's not like you lot could scale to the top of this mountain as you are anyway. We were arrogant again and thought we could climb this thing with no trouble. Well, turns out it was a lot more difficult with all the magma. So you'll have to find a way to cross magma as well. And how exactly are we going to do that? You have a way, don't you? You have Hapi. Just fly on over here.By extension of the game logic constantly forced on me, no, unless she has 12 badges. Oh whoops spoiler we don't get Fly for a long-rear end time. Thank god Jan had the decency to still implement some form of fast travel.  I certainly can't conveniently Fly, and using surf to cool the magma (minecraft says that if you put water on lava it turns into obsidian)? Out of the question. You know you have no chance against all of us so you're dragging your friends into this. Find a way to cross magma and get your crew up to the summit. Oh, and this is just a little FYI. I didn't exactly want to win that battle. The whole point of that battle was to act as a diversion. A diversion...? What are you talking about? You shhhore you wanna know? Shore..? yours alone.Hey Aelita may not have much of a story impact so far, but that's pretty unkind  Jan consistently calls Deoxys Dexoys, so I'm assuming it's intentional. Whether it's been completely wiped out or still under attack is unknown to me. You guys should probably go check that out.  Who knows how big of a contrivance this HM gate will be.  Before we go and resolve the most halfassed kidnapping ever, we cut back to these two, presumably at the mountain summit. Agh drat. What a beast. Geara captured it but it still acts on its own.  (I've got no good battle sprites for Jenner so this'll do) Just because you'recaptured doesn't mean you're compliant. I would know first-hand. What was that last comment? That is the Legendary Pokemon Giratina. Do you think a mere Pokeball could stop it from doing what it wants? It's only here because it believes that there's a mutual benefit. Or perhaps it wants to repay its debt to Geara for freeing it. Either way, I don't expect it to stick around for too long. Well aren't you just fascinating, Professor. So studious and intelligent. But that's what I would expect from someone who's a Professor. If you know everything then, Prof... Then tell me. No please don't have your crisis of conscience now, wait until the whole cast is here so you can kill two birds with one stone. It'll save yourself the trouble of explaining yourself to Arceus later. You should know that answer more than any of us. Is any of this worth the turmoil we put people through? What do you think? Melia was right. You are a monster... Pfft... So you heard the whole thing then? You should be more careful. One may find it easy to plant a microphone on you or something. Yeah seriously what a weird power move for someone whose last mission was a failure on account of him deliberately sabotaging the job. Perhaps I wanted, or needed an incentive to push you off this cliff when you got back. You've said terrible things to Melia, but I believe it will make her stronger. You better watch your drat mouth, Jenner! You know very well that you're on thin ice already, so don't make me report you to Geara. And answer me this. If I'm a monster, then what does that make you? Don't you dare take the liberty to judge me after what you've done. After what you put your own daughter through?! Oh Zetta... I'm just like you. A monster. But we're monsters in different ways. Aren't we? ...Pocket monsters. Scene end.  There are indeed Deoxys here.    These Deoxys must be weak as hell to lose to Fire Spin.  But we're beset by another Deoxys.  And it looks like it's not satisfied with just pummelling Braixen.  We're pitted against a Deoxys (crazy, I know), and I messed up because my nice-smelling bee is still my lead party member.  Deoxys has really lopsided stats that err towards attack (well this form anyway) and Speed, so I hope you have some Pokemon who can take hits. Spook2004 can do so quite well. To compensate for its obscene attack, it has miserable defenses, so these battles aren't very hard. Still, another of many arbitrary legnedary fights that will never cease.  So Jan decided one wasn't enough, there are five of these patrolling around which will just re-enact that previous fight.  You can avoid all of them. Hold on Melia, I'm doing something really quick!  Collectibles are more important than you right now!  So is training a new Pokemon. Sorry!  Ok we're good.  We do a cool battle montage where I don't actually do anything, it just says I'm beating them... good enough.  While this is happening, it looks like someone is observing our actions, in a really poorly lit room.  Turns out, it's the same Angie who's been terrorising Kristiline Town.  And yeah we rescued Aelita with absolutely pitiful resistance from the bad guys, what a halfhearted hostage situation.  I spoke to Crawli earlier. We're going to have another meeting. Harsh decisions will have to be made. I'm not... really looking forward to it.  tldr of this entire meeting, Melia wants the group to split up, Arceus is in the group going after Saki.  We also need a TM for Magma Drift, a HM-like move which'll let us cross lava. We need two more badges to (legally) use it. It's not like Nim cares in any capacity how long we take, she's got bigger problems like not breathing. To get the TM, we need to go to Kristiline town where Angie has been exerting her control. Aelita said she hated meetings earlier, I think I'm starting to see why.   Someone else hasn't been getting enough screen time and is also due to make a reappearance, in yet another aside. ???: No! This is my favorite song. You'll just have to deal with it! Touch it and the hand comes off!  Anyway back to us. By the way, I did some reading in the lobby and I found a book on Magma Drift! It turns out Magma Drift requires at least 7 badges to be used. That's a pretty annoying rule for people who just wanted to get around the island in the old days. The book suggests the rule was placed there because using the move was very risky for both the person and the Pokemon. ...Anyway, this poses a problem for some of us. You have 5 badges, don't you? Which means you need two badges to use the TM. I was thinking we could postpone our trip to Kristiline so that you could fight Crawli? I think it'd make things better if- Some music interjects, something I wouldn't have noticed since I always have the tab muted (that's a big reason why I really halfassed all the music inclusions; it's something I never think about).  It's the same music as the boat from before.   Last time Venam saw Melia she thought Melia was dead.  Hey where was my hug. I didn't get one even when my mom died. No I get it apparently being friends for several hours isn't enough for you  After an unspecified amount of time passes, we explain what's happened the last few episodes. Yeah... and now we need to find a way to Kristiline Town. But before that, I wanted to see if Arceus wanted to battle Crawli. It has to do with that whole Magma Drift issue. It requires 7 badges. drat, that sucks, but... Ahh dear, can something just go right for once in Arceus' life. Wh-What? He just got up and left? But why?! He didn't even tell us that he was leaving... Did you talk to him, Venam? How do you know this? Oh yeah, I was here because I tricked some old manager that I was part of this engineer squad. You know the ones that fixed that generator in the sewers? He sent us here on a job to fix some transporter pad or something. Old people are so senile, hah! I'm getting paid to do nothing! And plus I get a free trip to Terajuma Island? What a steal! Melia doesn't approve, but Arceus is probably thinking something along the lines of "gently caress I could've avoided getting locked in a concentration camp if I had just lied". We'll know for next time, at least. What? Why are you looking at me like that? I leave you alone for a few months and this is what you do? Was Ren not there to scold you or something? I can't believe you'd be this selfish and greedy! That pay should be going to someone who actually works for a living! H-Hey, it took a lot of work to convince that old man I was an engineer! F-Fine, I'll give the workers 25 per- 95 percent of your earnings should go to them. 95?? YOU DIRTY 'OL SLUDGEBAG, I'M TAKING 20. 98 percent. You hurt me... But fine... 15 percent! No taksies backsies. Haha we're complicit in fraud. We can add this to the growing list of felonies Arceus has committed. His Dad knows where his secret base is. So if you wanna know where Crawli is, ask him. Sigh, fine, but if I find out those workers didn't get paid correctly, I'm reporting you to Crawli. I hear the jailtime for such an offense is punishable up to 10 years. Yeah sure I'm not exactly missing out on much by staying here with Venam.  He's up in the Hula meadow, and you'll immediately know why he's pretty hard to miss...  These Ludicolo weren't here before!  Which means the man won't be far away! A place of tranquility, peace, reflection... and dance! I spin for grooviness! I spin for inner soul! And yet again you come to stop me from spinnin'? He is indeed spinning on the spot constantly.      Sorry old man but I'm about to make a mockery of you again.  Same as before, Rorim's team is heavily Dance themed, meaning eaach of his Pokemon know some form of Dance move. Bellossum has Quiver Dance to boost its special stats and speed, Oricorio has its signature Revelation Dance to deal Electric damage. Neither are too scary.  I am however a lot more scared of other Pokemon he has, so I'm taking no chances. Stealth Rock is a delightfully broken move that will deal damage to the opponent's Pokemon, this damage is 1/8 of the opponent's HP, multiplied by the target's weakness to rock. A Pokemon with a x4 weakness will lose half of it's health from the word go.  Like that! Volcarona is one of the most popular Pokemon competitively, by virtue of impressive stats and the Quiver Dance move. If you let it set up, it only gets harder to kill on the special side and deals even more damage. And not outspeeding it is always bad.  Spook2004 is by far my tankiest guy and a single unboosted (although admittedly there's a 1.5x modifier from the forest terrain) attack from Volcarona did that much damage.  I took a turn to setup with Salazzle so nothing on Rorim's team can live through her attacks.  The field seeds continue to be irritating, having a free Protect is a huge momentum killer. Not to mention the attack boost Altaria gets.  Still, it's pretty weak even with the unfair garbage surrounding it.  He's still spinning No, no! I won't forget this! No no, for a darn second! Ooh I will make you pay, Arceus! Oh yes, I will make you pay! Please. He went to his super secret hideout to get his secret Pokemon! So he said that he was gonna get his ace and take care of things himself! He's tired, oh so tired! Tired of all the troubles that plague him! But where would that be? I bet you'd like to know! ...I don't have a choice now, do I?  That's on the first island; good thing we know a guy.  We depart, here's hoping Rorim finds his bugs.  Ohh, looks like we have a stalker! Crazed Nancy fan (we're a C-list celeb, it must be constantly brought up), or something more sinister? (It's  Oh and would you look at that, another aside which provides context Arceus really shouldn't have. Skip this wall of text if philosophical tangents with pretty obvious answers about Pokemon aren't your thing. I like to study many things about Pokemon, but there's one thing I've been thinking about lately. The psychology of Pokemon is fascinating. Pokemon may find other Pokemon and treat them as companions, enemies, and even family. In some regions like Alola, Reborn City, and Aevium, Pokemon gather into communal groups often. Whether it be for merely social reasons, or a means of mutual beneficial survival. It's all there. In our world. But can Pokemon understand the true core concept of friendship? Do Pokemon understand the concept of deception and betrayal? Do some Pokemon act in community to benefit themselves only? Do Pokemon understand the meaning of misunderstanding? This is what inspires me to learn more. How similar are Pokemon to people? Are we different at all in that aspect? Who can say...?There'll be a few more of these, for better or, more likely, worse.  Anyway, we've got to find Crawli, now that we have a lead. We have badges to collect!  Take us away Augustus, to adventures (the swamp)!  What lies in store for Arceus in the swamp, I guess we'll find out next time. What a jam packed update where a lot happens but not a lot happens at the same time, if that makes sense. Today's Shiny:  This is very close to the point where I changed to the new version, which newly included Meltan and Melmetal. They're there because putting effort into things players cannot use is something that seems to happen a lot in this game!
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2020 11:28
|
|
|
Knockoff Miror B is really stupid and I loathe him, but he's by far the best character we've seen in a long time. He acknowledged that we exist, he talked directly to us, he ignored other NPCs in order to talk to us, he recalled something we did that actually affected him, and then later he battled us before giving us what we needed without any arbitrary roadblocks or pointless waffle. Nobody else has actually treated us like the protagonist in forever. We're just a vessel to be monologued at. Or dialogued around. Everyone else just needs to stop talking and get out of the way. Or at least explain what happens if we try and use a mandatory field move without the legal number of badges. Do we explode? Because that would probably be a mercy at this point.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2020 12:19
|
|
|
Black Robe posted:Or at least explain what happens if we try and use a mandatory field move without the legal number of badges. Do we explode? Because that would probably be a mercy at this point. Someone would only use it to blow up a train.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2020 13:07
|
|
|
For a second there, I thought I was going to have to update my avatar. I figured someone would be going in that lava pit by the end of that scene.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2020 13:37
|
|
|
Psycho Knight posted:For a second there, I thought I was going to have to update my avatar. I figured someone would be going in that lava pit by the end of that scene. Arceus has a Medicham in her party 
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2020 13:43
|
|
|
Pugnacious Doggie posted:Arceus has a Medicham in her party Luckily, Arceus has no agency as a character, so her Medicham would never be used in cutscene zone. I think Arceus is safe from that particular cheap story beat.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2020 14:15
|
|
|
The benefit of being a nonentity?
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2020 23:36
|
|
|
I can see this bit being fun, and honestly I kinda like Melia. I just wish Jan would do away with grinding the pacing to a halt so you can go get some badged to cross a bridge.
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2020 01:08
|
|
|
Okay, I'll admit, the "Lights, Camera, Action" bit there was actually pretty funny.
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2020 02:46
|
|
|
I guess the x in "Dexoys" is meant to be a k sound instead of a achs sound like in Deoxys
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2020 03:13
|
|
|
rannum posted:I guess the x in "Dexoys" is meant to be a k sound instead of a achs sound like in Deoxys I'm not even sure what you mean by this. On another unrelated note, traversing across lava is a neat idea for a field move that the official games haven't done, but that doesn't make badge-limited HMs not a huge pain.
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2020 07:32
|
|
|
The Golux posted:I'm not even sure what you mean by this. It's probably meant to sound more like "decoys".
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2020 08:17
|
|
|
Since they’re ostensibly weaker than the real legendary (through how the game portrays them, make no mistake these are Deoxys mechanically) that was how I parsed it, yeah
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2020 08:30
|
|
|
Dragonatrix posted:It's probably meant to sound more like "decoys". Pugnacious Doggie posted:Since they’re ostensibly weaker than the real legendary (through how the game portrays them, make no mistake these are Deoxys mechanically) that was how I parsed it, yeah Yeah this is what I meant. When he was saying it before it was always "Dexoys" so I wasnt sure if it was just a weird nickname but then once we fought one just called "Dexoy" and it was a swarm of them all over I realized it was a weird pun.
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2020 15:34
|
|
|
ah, I get it now. Actually, with base 50 HP and 50/20 defenses, deoxys normal/attack goes down pretty easy to almost anything with sucker punch, I think...
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2020 17:46
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 8, 2024 22:18 |
|
|
Sneakily pushing the update to the next page, here's hoping i can do basic math e: thank goodness i didn't make a fool out of myself
|
|
#
?
May 13, 2020 10:55
|
|