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Dareon posted:I do, however, wish I could get fossils besides fricking Arctovish. You can, it's just a huge bloody pain. You have to use the digger brothers in the Wild Area, specifically the "more skilled" one, and the chance of him giving you the off-version fossil is significantly lower. The annoying part is this costs 500 Watts per attempt, and it forces you to save beforehand, so you can't savescum, you actually have to grind out the resources. (At least with the DLC there's Digging Pa on the Isle of Armour to make it really easy to stock up tons of watts, this isn't as big a pain as it used to be. Ask me how I know.) There was also a Wild Area News thing that had them drop as raid rewards, last March, but obviously that's no longer an option.
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Jan 24, 2021 17:02
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What a fun island to do stuff in, and good to stop where you are, leave the grinding and bullshit side modes to me in 5 years 
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Jan 24, 2021 17:35
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Dareon posted:Side note, I expected a lot of references to British culture. I did not expect a reference to their early approach to paleontology. Did... did I reference that? I didn't mean to. I mean, there's plenty to talk about when it comes to 19th century British science (Piltdown Man) but I didn't set out to make a statement on it. Or maybe its just the 'mons. Crosspeice posted:What a fun island to do stuff in, and good to stop where you are, leave the grinding and bullshit side modes to me in 5 years 
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Jan 24, 2021 18:15
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Falconier111 posted:Did... did I reference that? I didn't mean to. I mean, there's plenty to talk about when it comes to 19th century British science (Piltdown Man) but I didn't set out to make a statement on it. Or maybe its just the 'mons. I meant Cara Liss herself and the Galar fossils, yeah. I only know bits and pieces of the early days of archeology, but sticking two maybe-possibly-slightly-related fossils together and claiming it was a real animal is absolutely on brand for those days.
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Jan 24, 2021 19:35
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Dareon posted:I meant Cara Liss herself and the Galar fossils, yeah. I only know bits and pieces of the early days of archeology, but sticking two maybe-possibly-slightly-related fossils together and claiming it was a real animal is absolutely on brand for those days. I'm still vaguely holding out hope we'll get a discovery in the next gen that allows us to see the actual creatures we've been frankensteining things out of the halves of. (I like the designs of a lot of the halves we see, but ugh, the frankenfossils repulse me too much to use. I can't bear to use Dracovish despite it apparently being a competitive monster.)
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Jan 25, 2021 04:03
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Update 66: Ceilidh Sent Out Angel Saturday night, I got back in contact with The Golux, universally-respected provider of LP assistance materials, to demonstrate the half of the multiplayer experience I missed last time. So let’s get into exploring that, shall we?  As before, we have to take a second to connect to the Internet and actually locate each other. While you can do any of this with random players, to have any control over your experience, you need to share an eight digit code with your other partners. There’s nothing stopping you from entering a code some other group of people are using, which I learned by using 1111 1111 and hooking up with random Japanese players who immediately dropped the moment they saw who I was.  Look at this thing. It’s like Turffield come to life.  I sent my Porygon over for it (managing to catch an unexpected screenshot of the start of the trading animation I’d missed the first time). Before it went over, I gave my Porygon an item called an Upgrade…  … Which does exactly that. And when they trade it back with another specific item…  … We get yet another evolution. Trading evolutions, especially ones that require holdable items like these two, aren’t overwhelmingly common; as  as Gamefreak can be about forcing social interaction, they do recognize not everybody is going to be able to get their hands on trading partners. It’s still frustrating to have to do that. Great status symbol, though.  They also send me over some interesting new Pokémon, one of which I decide deserves a noble sacrifice. Thank you, Murphy. Have you ever seen that meme of the one guy saluting and crying and then yelling? That’s how I feel right now.  But that’s only half of what I want to show you today. What would Pokémon be, after all, if the games didn’t let friends beat each other up? (As an aside, I wasn’t exactly taking notes during this fight, so there’s a very good chance I misrepresented something. Let me know anything I missed or, if you’re up for it, leave a post that discusses your side of the matter).  While there are countless different ways to set up individual battles, we opted for a few baseline rules that should be mostly self-explanatory. The big thing is the whole “set of all to 50” things; it means your Pokémon face-off on equal grounds instead of letting the more powerful player just wrecked the other one. Also worth noting; it lets you set your own background music, so I naturally go with the game’s most appropriate battle theme. The one that uses Double Slap. Pokémon Sword & Shield - Battle! (Mysterious Being) [1 HOUR]     We start off on the right foot by me assuming this was some Ice-type just from the little thumbnail it gives you of the enemy’s team before the battle, so I sent out Bruce; unfortunately, Angel here is completely unrelated, leaving me to just try to win the damage race. I do, but Bruce is in bad shape afterwards.  McQ here seals the deal, since I forget about its Disguise ability. It just soaks up a Pyro Ball and wears through Bruce, making my starter my first casualty of the fight. I throw out Mr. Blobby in response, but both him and McQ end up shuffled out.  I try to see if I can outtank Stardust here with one of the big Wailords, but it doesn’t work; it manages to put out more damage than I’m comfortable with and I sub it out for Bart. Fortunately, Bart’s more than powerful enough to take it down. E: I have no idea how it got Burned.  Same with McQ, though it’s a lot closer. Play Rough is no joke.  James here is a different story entirely. While I do some damage to him, he nailed Bart with a couple powerful attacks that knock him out, leaving James sitting pretty. The Wailord, which I decided to just use up here, knocked off just a little bit more health before going down in turn.  At this point I don’t have any real good counters for James, so I go ahead and call out Goch in the hopes that I can outspeed him and hit him with a very powerful attack. I couldn’t outspeed him, but I could hit him; a Dynamax Cannon turns out to be the solution.  I took one look at such an obvious Steel-type and started using Flamethrower – and it worked! For the most part.  I did not expect it to be able to break out a super-effective High Horsepower. The thing drops Goch all the way down to nine hit points before I can finish melting the Melmetal down.    I know from experience that these things are terrifying; if it manages to do anything, it will take Goch out of the fight and force me to fall back on one of my two remaining Pokémon. At this point my plan was to have Mr. Blobby do what it could to wear it down before sending out Zamazenta to seal the deal.    But I underestimated Goch and it pulled off a true photo finish  ! Y Ddraig Goch got to be a dragon slayer. That was a hell of a fight! I don’t have much to say other than being impressed and happy I got to participate – oh, except for the fact that my party is like half Legendaries which probably skewed the results a little bit. But either way, many thanks to The Golux again for helping me show off the other half of this game’s multiplayer. E: The Golux posted:It was a good match! I don't do as many battles as I probably should because my prediction is pretty bad (see also me not considering Dynamax cannon when I was trying to take out Ddraig with Clang). Stardust had a flame orb, which burns him after the first turn in battle which activates his Guts, making him stronger on offense... but I just noticed in that battle that he doesn't actually have Facade, which is the other usual part of the combination; instead he has Body Slam to try to inflict paralysis. Togekiss is my favorite pokemon, and McQ is also a very good boy. I tried to show off interesting mons and ones that would make for a fun battle! …  … ……………… I can’t do it. How galling.… I… I suppose I’m just not ready to discuss it get. Or at least, I’m not ready to blurt it out. I-I mean, I know quite well it would do my soul good to at least discuss this with another person, and I know if I could just get a grip on it I might be able to fully focus on being a Trainer, but I just can’t bring myself to do it… Then… Can I wager a guess? As you wish  I’ve seen you levitate Pokéballs constantly, and there are very, very few psychics in the world that can get away with that. But I haven’t seen any evidence of you reading minds or projecting thoughts or teleporting or hypnotizing or anything else that psychics are supposed to be able to do. Well spotted. Is that why they kicked you out?…… Do you know the difference between mental illness and insanity? No? One of the therapists asked me that a few years ago. They told me that… Give me a second to reconstruct this. They said, mental illness is biological and insanity is perceptual; mental illness is what happens when your brain functions in ways that happen to make it harder to function in society, while insanity is what happens when your worldview is so offkilter it makes it harder to function in society. They are hardly mutually exclusive, and often go hand-in-hand, but they are separate, and they can and do exist independently.  Let’s say somebody thinks the government talks to Skwovets through his teeth, I guess he read too many questionable blog posts and it melted his brain. You could argue that you’d have to have something loose just to believe that in the first place, but that really isn’t the case, because the darkest secret of human psychology is that if people hear something enough, they eventually start to believe it even in spite of themselves. Anyway, there’s nothing actually wrong upstairs, he’s just convinced of something that’s completely barmy. He’s mentally healthy, but insane. Meanwhile, let’s say there’s somebody with severe depression. Sometimes, his brain will just up and try to kill him. He knows drat well it’s feeding him lies, he knows the world isn’t actually that bleak, but his brain chemistry says otherwise. He’s mentally ill but terribly, terribly sane.… When Hyde has a meltdown, he usually does it because there’s something around him that… Scratches his brain, I suppose. I’ve come into the habit of lifting him up and applying uniform pressure to his body every time it happens; he seems to find it calming. Yeah, for us, that sort of thing never happens at random, it happens when something hits us wrong and our bodies revolt. Even if we know it shouldn’t be THAT big a deal, we really can’t help it. That’s the latter. As for the former… I’ll be honest, I’ve seen a whole lotta nutters since a couple summers ago, some worse than others. You’ve probably heard some of their names on the news: Team Yell, Chairman Rose (and Macro Cosmos at large, too), those brothers… Me? Kind of? I mean, yeah, you absolutely had the wrong idea about me, but everybody’s a little mad. It’s hard to know what’s objectively real, after all, and we all have to convince ourselves of things we can’t prove and even things we suspect our true just to get by. But you were upfront about it. I noticed, a lot of people aren’t, because that twisted worldview thing only comes into play when it has some bearing on their actions. If someone is mad – I mean real mad, Skwovet-teeth mad – you might never know unless it comes up. You might never know about that guy unless you bring up the government, Pokémon, or teeth, and even then he might hide it or it might just not be relevant to the conversation. But the moment he decides he needs to start knocking out teeth to cut lines of communication, it gets obvious. And potentially dangerous.… All three of those groups… When you got them alone, Team Yell were perfectly ordinary, but they managed to convince themselves they could help Marnie by undercutting her efforts, and they ended up costing a lot of people’s chances at the Cup, to Marnie’s dismay. Rose… I think Rose was convinced he knew better than anybody else in anything and if he was mistaken, anybody else would be even more so. His cult of personality in MC thought similarly. As long as reality didn’t call his bluff, Macro Cosmos was the most powerful organization in Galar. But as it turned out, he didn’t always know what he was doing, and it turned back to bite him and nearly had the region ruined in the process when his master plan turned out to be a half-baked mess. And the brothers… They functioned perfectly well as politicians when there wasn’t anything royal involved. But when the government was weak and they knew the heir to the throne? Of COURSE Galar will accept its King. Of COURSE the heir to the throne will accept his birthright. Of COURSE Zacian and Zamazenta were easily-manipulated fakes they could use to stage their takeover. The moment the flaws in their logic became obvious, the moment the whole plan collapsed. And I became so convinced I had to defeat you that I resorted to sabotage and cheating. Yeah, but you made up for it. And that’s the rub. Because I’ve been lucky with most of the people I faced off against; either they came around eventually or I managed to beat them into the dirt enough that it didn’t matter anymore. But a lot of insane people… You can’t actually convince them. They can’t tell how mad they are because to them, that madness is perfectly logical. It’s a part of their worldview, it’s what they think the most rational way to view the world is even though it’s actually completely round the bend. For so many of them, there’s nothing you can do that will fix them or bring them back around because, in a way, they’re perfectly ordinary and healthy individuals. And I just implied the mentally ill are inherently unhealthy, which brings up a lot of complications around the concept of neurodiversity or whatever, but that aside… I’m getting lost. I think what I’m trying to say is that sometimes, people who seem otherwise perfectly ordinary can turn out to be mad, even dangerously so. You’re an excellent Trainer and probably one of the greatest telekinetics alive, but your family rejected you based on what you couldn’t do instead of your actual abilities, and that’s complete madness………… Is that everything? I suppose so? I don’t know if any of that made sense, it was just a tad stream of consciousness. I daresay it’s a lot to think about, but it didn’t HURT, at least. That’s good to hear… Actually, something just occurred to me. I need to go handle something. But before I go, can I ask you an invasive question? I suppose. Are you into men? Not usually, no. I have been known to make exceptions for the intelligent and earnest, however. HAVE you now.…  You sure look like you’re in a hurry. You off somewhere? Aye, wanted to let you know before I headed out. Do you think Sonia could use any help in the Crown Tundra? Last she texted me she said had her hands full down there, so probably. Excellent. I have some business there I need to wrap up there anyway. This is a little sudden. Since when have I not gone places impulsively? Ha, fair. Oh, before I go: have you talked with Avery there at all? Not really? He’s a little intimidating, to be honest. Here’s a piece of advice; go over there and strike up a conversation on Psychic-types. Sure? Trust me. You two have fun, I have a taxi and a train to catch.I started writing this back at Turffield. Did not expect it to be this topical. Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Jan 26, 2021 |
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Jan 26, 2021 04:47
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It was a good match! I don't do as many battles as I probably should because my prediction is pretty bad (see also me not considering Dynamax cannon when I was trying to take out Ddraig with Clang). Stardust had a flame orb, which burns him after the first turn in battle which activates his Guts, making him stronger on offense... but I just noticed in that battle that he doesn't actually have Facade, which is the other usual part of the combination; instead he has Body Slam to try to inflict paralysis. Togekiss is my favorite pokemon, and McQ is also a very good boy. I tried to show off interesting mons and ones that would make for a fun battle!
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Jan 26, 2021 07:24
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Honestly, I don't do competitive battles very often (see: at all) because I just don't find it as interesting. Plus, I'm missing a third of my old traditional team that I had actually half-way setup for competitiveness because of Dexit - one of them technically *could* come over, but it would have to sacrifice an *important* coverage move to do so, and I don't want to give that up - I'm hoping I'll be able to bring the full team in to the (hopefully) eventual Gen 4 remakes.
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Jan 26, 2021 22:51
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I'm honestly glad Nintendo had switched to official comps being doubles, not only did it pissed off the smogen community but it really opens up the range of viable mons and movelists
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Jan 26, 2021 23:05
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Have I posted this in this thread?    I don't THINK I've posted this in this thread. (Original source is here, best I can figure) E: I also need a name for my Rayquaza
Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Jan 27, 2021 |
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Jan 26, 2021 23:07
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Update 67: Ultra-Mega-Charmin’ Before we head out, I want to real briefly touch on something I missed back on the Isle.  Once you finish the DLC’s storyline, characters from the main game will start showing up on the island. There’s only ever one present (they change daily) and they don’t seem to do anything for you unless I missed something, but if you want to exchange two lines of conversation with a random Gym Leader, the game’s got you covered. Anyway. … The Crown Tundra - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST    Oh, this was the best idea you ever had, Gloria.  What, it’s April? Of course there’s nothing to worry about. It’s spring, after all!  No, you won’t need a heavy coat, you’ll only be up there for a few days until you have to head back to Uni.   And besides, it’s a warm spring elsewhere in the island, surely it’s exactly the same up here in the loving tundra!  You’re only here to yell at some old people and then leave, you don’t need to plan ahead!  You’re pure Cameran, you’re smart and tough… …So of course you can go haring off into the Highlands unprepared like a BLOODY STUPID IDIOT!Welcome to the Crown Tundra, the local equivalent of Scotland. Apparently, this DLC was specifically designed to take the place of the traditional third version. Why, back in my day, the third version fixed a lot of the major issues the previous release brought up and augmented the game as a whole instead of being five hours of content slapped on to the postgame  Anyway, we immediately walk into a family dispute. Peony's Theme - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST    … My neck! I’m here to battle loads and loads of rare Dynamax Pokémon!     Come on, Nia! Be reasonable!  Just keep walking, too cold to get involved – gently caress! My dad is stubborn as steel, and he won’t leave me alone! Back me up, would you? Sorry, I just have to – Brilliant! Have a great time with this geezer, then! Now hold on, lass!   Brace yourself—I’m pretty ferocious in battle!  Battle! (Peony) - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST      This… This really isn’t all that much of a fight. His Pokémon are hardly worth dismissing; level 70 Copperajahs and Aggrons are no joke.    But he only has two Pokémon, and those two Pokémon are weak to Fire. He goes down tragically quickly.   Hmm?  Of course! My Nia’s the sweetest, darlingest daughter a dad could ask for! I brought her out here so we could have a proper father-daughter trip. Our very first! And now that we’ve got here, she grabs the first Trainer she finds, makes ’em a decoy, and legs it! That’s my dear Nia for you! That’s the type of girl she is! Ultra-mega-charmin’, isn’t it? Still, without her, I can’t start this Adven-tour of legendary spots I’ve planned for us! Sounds to me like she wants good old Papa to chase after her! Well, she needn’t worry— I’m not one for wastin’ time! Which means it’s time I got a move on. Cheers for a fine battle! …God, it’s so loving cold out…And now we get our first opportunity to explore the Crown Tundra. Like the Isle of Armor, it’s basically the Wild Area come again, complete with Dens and wild Pokémon wandering around –  Oh no. Oh no, tell me they didn’t –  One of the standing arguments genwunners roll out is how newer Pokémon designs are dumber and less original then the first ones. The fact that the first generation of Pokémon contained an outright Goddamn blackface Pokémon is a living example of how much bullshit that it. Yeah, yeah, I know it has different cultural implications in Japan, Pokémon is a feature of the international market and has been for 30 years! They should know better than that by now!  Anyway, this particular bastard gives me the chance to illustrate something interesting (except for the fact that, like an idiot, I missed the screenshot). While I’ve struggled to catch wild Pokémon in the past, usually they succumbed after a couple balls at most or I couldn’t catch them the first place. But this thing… Drop it into the yellow? Nope. Drop it into the red? Escapes after one shake as opposed to the customary three. Put it to sleep? Now it goes to TWO shakes. I couldn’t tell why it was such a nightmare. And then something unexpected happened: when one of my balls sucked it up, it shook in the air, let off some stars, landed, shook once, and successfully caught the Pokémon. That’s what’s called a critical catch, the equivalent of a critical hit as applied to catch rates. As you can probably guess from the name. Too bad I don’t plan on using it.  Aha! This must be the Max Lair that Nia was talking about. Which means my darlin’ daughter is in there right now, havin’ a giggle with some rare Dynamax Pokémon! Well, kid, maybe you ought to come as well! Right! Just you hold on, Nia, my dear! …Right then, let’s weigh my options. On the one hand, I can follow a man who I’m almost certain is the younger brother of Rose and a former champion in his own right, or I can head off to Freezington and – wait, there’s infrastructure around that cave, which means there’s people in it, which means it’s probably warm in there. Decision made.… Max Lair - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST   My precious daughter’s in there, and I’m goin’ in after her!Scientist: I understand, sir, but— But what?! I’m here to have an adventure, and I want to kick it off right now!Scientist: I simply can’t allow it, sir! Grr! Nothin’s all right, and everythin’s the matter! This ultra-mega-numpty of a scientist insists on gettin’ in my way!Scientist: “Numpty of a—”? I beg your pardon, sir!  Scientist: Dynamax Adventures are quite fraught with peril, I’m afraid, and— Gaaah! I’ve got no patience for standin’ here listenin’ to you rattle off the fine print! Scientist: You seem to know this gentleman. Would you simply listen to my explanation? If so, then I could allow the two of you to enter as a pair. Aha! Now you’re talkin’! Go on, then. Let’s hear what the good lady’s got to say! And then we’ll go find my little Nia together! Right? Right!At this point the game describes what’s coming (and halfway through Peony legs it into the cave on his own), but I think I’ll take over from here. Dynamax Adventure - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST Basically, Dynamax Adventures are a revised, restructured version of Dynamax battles scaled up in almost every way.  First off, though Adventures also involve four players, they don’t get to bring their own Pokémon; instead, everyone gets their choice of a few rental Pokémon with preset movelists. You have to give them back at the end.  Instead of just fighting one Dynamax Pokémon, you actually fight several split between various paths through the cave (some of which contain Trainers or other events that offer you various things). All the players vote on which path to follow after each battle. It’s worth noting that though the game tells you one of the Types of each Pokémon you might face, it only tells you one. It’s entirely possible to get blindsided by an unexpected Type combination. That’s happened to me. Multiple times.  Each of those battles sits somewhere between a standard Dynamax battle and what you might find in a Den: like the former, they lack the ability to throw up shields or use multiple attacks per turn, but like the latter, the Dynamax never wears off and the Adventure ends if four friendly Pokémon faint.  After you finish one of them off, you have the standard option to catch it. If you do, you get the chance to try and switch it for their current Pokémon, but even though everyone can catch it only one player will get it; since Pokémon don’t heal between fights and you often burn through PP just trying to keep everything under control, players often end up competing over Pokémon late into the Adventure. Battle! (Legendary Raid) - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST  After three fights, no matter what route you take, you end up at the culmination of your journey: a fight against legendary Pokémon from a previous generation. These guys have a built-in advantage over your team already, between their level (all other Pokémon in the Adventure, rental or fought, sit about five levels lower) and the high stats being a Legendary gives them, but they also break some of the rules; once they drop into the yellow they get a second attack per turn and start dispelling your stat alterations like Den Pokémon do. Combine that with the fact that you’ve probably already lost a couple Pokémon making your way there… Catching a Legendary with AI partners is not IMPOSSIBLE, but you really have to hope you get lucky.  Yeah, I think I’m going to take home a Nidoking instead of a RAYQUAZA. Win or lose, after the Adventure wraps up you get to take home your choice of the Pokémon you caught during your journey and, unlike earlier, multiple players can take home the same Pokémon. God, can you imagine the industrial levels of salt this poo poo would produce otherwise?  Even if you don’t choose to take a Pokémon home, you always get a few pieces of Dynite ore for wrapping up the journey (you get more for things like defeating the Legendary and joining other human players). You can then blow them on a mixture of things you can buy elsewhere for the PokéYen coming out of your ears at this point or several fabulously expensive items with limited utility. You see those costs? You get three pieces for going through an adventure without winning and 10 or so if you hit the various reward conditions.  I have to say, I like this process significantly better than the standard Den system; you get more options of stuff to catch, you don’t have to put up with lovely AI Pokémon even if you go it alone, and, of course, you have the chance to catch Legendaries. I even enjoy the fights more, since you don’t have to wade your way through layers of shields and ridiculous amounts of health while Martin boosts his useless Pokémon’s stats endlessly. It’s well designed like its predecessor never was.  Worth noting: during one Adventure with several really incompetent human players, I decided to stress-test the Adventure system, half to record the results for the LP and half because gently caress those people; I quit the game mid-Adventure and rebooted the game to try again. When I talked to the scientist again, she tried to guilt trip me for abandoning my comrades and I was like, “gently caress those people” and tried to start another multiplayer Adventure. Funny thing? Normally it took about 30 seconds of the five minute time limit to find enough eligible players to kick things off. After bailing like an rear end in a top hat, I ended up sitting there for the whole five minutes staring at the screen until the game just provided me with AI partners anyway. Subtle, petty, and passive-aggressive: I like it. Not that it stopped me from beating the Adventure, the only time I’ve done so while not in Multiplayer. And in return, I got one of the signature Pokémon of Gen 3, my favorite generation! Speaking of which, I need a name for this Rayquaza. I also caught the Ho-oh and Xurkitree, but I’m less likely to use those. E: I also caught a Xerneas which I will DEFINITELY use. Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Jan 28, 2021 |
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Jan 27, 2021 23:53
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Worth noting that, unlike Avery/Klara, Peony's pokemon are not lower level if you go to the tundra, say, before the first gym. Which you can do. I think Adventures are much better balanced and more fun than regular raids but they only reach their full potential when you have friends you can communicate with playing with you so you can coordinate strategy, since some of the rental mons work better together than others. Also, I actually kind of like having to work with the wonky movesets on the rentals, gets you to use mons and moves you'd never normally consider. Sucks when you just can't get any mons that aren't weak to the boss and then get schmucked, though, and a couple of the bosses (Kyogre, Zygarde) pretty much require getting one of the five or so rental mons that have Wide Guard. Oh, some of the legendaries in Adventure are version exclusive, generally box legendaries. Shield gets Lugia, Latias, Kyogre, Palkia, Thundurus, Zekrom, Yveltal, and Lunala, while Sword gets their counterparts... but if you're playing online you'll end up in other-version raids sometimes when you don't ask to go after a particular mon.
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Jan 28, 2021 08:19
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I'm kinda surprised you only just mentioned critical catches. They're based around number of mons caught, and at my typical pace, I tend to start getting them around Hulbury. Plus one of the Game Freak guys gives you a charm that supposedly helps. I haven't looked up numbers, but I'm sure they exist. I guess I figured you weren't mentioning them because it wasn't important to the experience. Also one other significant difference from the normal catch animation: Instead of a gentle lob, your trainer just loving fastballs the ball straight at the mon's head.  I haven't really had much of a problem with single-player Max Raid Adventures, although earlier today I was muttering "Excuse me, there seems to be some mistake, you've partnered me with Martin." It seems like his overly-defensive behavior happens regardless of what mon he's using. Also granted I've only done like three because I don't really like having legendaries on my team, but that's entirely a personal thing (And for some reason Kubfu/Urshifu didn't count, I love my wing chun bear). One thing that helps the experience is they use a cut-down catch animation, so I'm not getting up and making a sandwich three times in ten minutes. e: The Golux posted:Worth noting that, unlike Avery/Klara, Peony's pokemon are not lower level if you go to the tundra, say, before the first gym. Which you can do. e2: For Rayquaza... Pendragon might be a bit too on the nose. e3: Uther! Dareon fucked around with this message at 08:40 on Jan 28, 2021 |
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Jan 28, 2021 08:35
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Peony's great. He's clearly not all there but he's so happy and enthusiastic and has very powerful Dad energy. I love him. For very similar reasons I utterly loathe Nia. We haven't seen the last of her and she gets much worse.
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Jan 28, 2021 08:55
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Idle thought, it seems like it would be entirely possible to go to the tundra at the earliest point, get steamrolled by Peony (The story continues regardless) and do a Max Raid Adventure, keeping whatever you manage to get out of it and absolutely steamrolling the rest of the game.
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Jan 28, 2021 10:22
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Dareon posted:Idle thought, it seems like it would be entirely possible to go to the tundra at the earliest point, get steamrolled by Peony (The story continues regardless) and do a Max Raid Adventure, keeping whatever you manage to get out of it and absolutely steamrolling the rest of the game. Yeah, I haven't done it but I'm pretty sure it's possible. First Max Raid is guaranteed Suicune, level 70, and you're the OT so it'll always obey you. It would be very silly.
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Jan 28, 2021 11:03
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Black Robe posted:Yeah, I haven't done it but I'm pretty sure it's possible. First Max Raid is guaranteed Suicune, level 70, and you're the OT so it'll always obey you. It would be very silly. Man, you wouldn’t even have to make it to the end, just catch yourself half a dozen Pokémon, put them on your team, and steamroll every Gym. Something I didn’t mention: I think Adventure catch rates are 100%, meaning I caught half the level 65 Pokémon in there with the sort of Pokéballs you can buy in Wedghurst. Something else I didn’t mention; according to the script (thanks Black Robe!), there are lines that Hunt that you absolutely can get schooled by Peony and continue along the road without having to beat him, something I wouldn’t have expected. I might just be misreading it, though.
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Jan 28, 2021 16:09
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As far as I know, you absolutely can lose to Peony and keep going, and get level 65 pokemon that will obey you from the beginning of the game. I know this was at least possible at some point; there have been some minor patches to the game since then, but I don't know if they "fixed" it or not. The pokemon you catch in Adventures also have a 1/100 chance to be shiny, which is much higher than the normal shiny rate. I've gotten two or three incidental shinies there just while collecting the legendaries. There are a few other mechanics worth mentioning. First: You're only allowed to get each legendary pokemon once. If you catch it and choose to keep something else, it can show up again, but once you keep it that's it. The ones you've successfully acquired will stop appearing as possible targets, meaning if you have the list you can start predicting what things are more accurately from the types (e.g. there are only two possible Ghost types, so if you've caught Giratina and see one, you know it's Lunala). Once you've caught one of everything, it goes back to choosing randomly from the entire pool each time. Second: if you fail, you can "save the location" of the legendary you fought to keep trying again (in which case you can guarantee that specific legendary will be at the end). It lets you store 3 "locations" this way, after that you need to swap them out. Also, if you talk to Peonia in the lobby she will sometimes offer to sell you a location for a handful of Dynite Ore, which means if you just want a specific thing you don't necessarily have to grind through the randomness. (Saving locations is also good if you're hosting for players of the other version, if you prepare in advance and save the exclusive ones.) I liked this mode at first, but found it more and more frustrating the more I played of it (this may, in part, be because I was only playing it solo and had to deal with the NPCs often making poor choices). It feels more luck-based than anything else, your success depends on which pokemon are available, and combined with how long it can take to get through a given run, it can be really annoying. I think you're underselling some of the rewards a little, though. Take a look at the Ability Patch. This item is completely new and does a thing we've never had access to before: it lets you swap any Pokemon between its normal ability and hidden ability. Hidden abilities were already much more accessible in this game than they'd been previously (they show up in raid dens), but this is an unprecedented level of control and actually makes them reasonable to use. (Okay, a lot of them are terrible, but some of them are really good and completely change how the pokemon behaves.)
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Jan 28, 2021 16:29
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Explopyro posted:As far as I know, you absolutely can lose to Peony and keep going, and get level 65 pokemon that will obey you from the beginning of the game. I know this was at least possible at some point; there have been some minor patches to the game since then, but I don't know if they "fixed" it or not. Can I work bits of this into the next post?
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Jan 28, 2021 18:04
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Sure. Use whatever you like 
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Jan 28, 2021 18:11
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Yeah the main reason not to keep the legendary you catch is if you want to try again for a better nature or a shiny (Apparently shiny odds are way better in adventures, I think I saw 1 in 100?). Also you can totally end up fighting a legendary you already caught, at least if you join someone else's adventure, it just runs away without letting you catch it.
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Jan 28, 2021 19:39
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One correction is the Ability Patch turns regular abilities into HAs, but it doesn't do the other way around, so that's the one single thing about a Pokemon you cannot change anymore, well aside from Gender if you're not Azurill. You can change a Pokemon, ability, change it to its HA, you can max its IVs, wipe and change its EVs, finds shinies way easier than before, craft its moveset with ease with relearnable TR and past evolution moves, and with Poke Jobs you can get battle ready Pokemon in just a few hours without having to do a drat thing.
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Jan 28, 2021 19:46
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Yeah they really don't want No Guard Fissure Machamps running around, or something.
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Jan 28, 2021 19:56
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Crosspeice posted:One correction is the Ability Patch turns regular abilities into HAs, but it doesn't do the other way around Wow. I didn't know this, but I just tested it and you're absolutely right. What a weird decision. I wonder if No Guard Fissure Machamp really is the explanation, or if it's just that they didn't want the effect to be nondeterministic for species with multiple abilities (which would be silly if so but I guess I can kind of understand it). The Golux posted:Yeah the main reason not to keep the legendary you catch is if you want to try again for a better nature or a shiny (Apparently shiny odds are way better in adventures, I think I saw 1 in 100?). Yeah, it's 1/100 and that applies to the legendaries too. You can fight it if someone else hosts, but repeats won't spawn if you're hosting until you've gotten everything else.
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Jan 28, 2021 20:24
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Explopyro posted:I wonder if No Guard Fissure Machamp really is the explanation, or if it's just that they didn't want the effect to be nondeterministic for species with multiple abilities (which would be silly if so but I guess I can kind of understand it). I mean, would *you* want the competitive scene to be flooded with Machamps that *literally cannot miss* with a one-hit-KO move?
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Jan 28, 2021 22:26
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Update 68: Can You Imagine If I Actually Talked Like That Before we begin, I would like to note that Adventures are the first part of this game I find myself actively going back to. I mean, I enjoy the game in general, but when I sit down do some more gameplay for the LP, I often end up just grinding out a few more Adventures for giggles. If you choose buy the DLC, this is probably the thing you want to do. Also, some words of wisdom: Explopyro posted:As far as I know, you absolutely can lose to Peony and keep going, and get level 65 pokemon that will obey you from the beginning of the game. I know this was at least possible at some point; there have been some minor patches to the game since then, but I don't know if they "fixed" it or not. Crosspeice posted:One correction is the Ability Patch turns regular abilities into HAs, but it doesn't do the other way around, so that's the one single thing about a Pokemon you cannot change anymore, well aside from Gender if you're not Azurill. You can change a Pokemon, ability, change it to its HA, you can max its IVs, wipe and change its EVs, finds shinies way easier than before, craft its moveset with ease with relearnable TR and past evolution moves, and with Poke Jobs you can get battle ready Pokemon in just a few hours without having to do a drat thing. Anyway. Dynamax Adventure - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST    Are you here for a Dynamax Adventure, too? Wicked! Guess we’re on the same wavelength!   Thank you? So is my dad on his way here, too? I haven’t seen him... Has he got turned around and wound up back at the entrance? Listen—sorry for using you to distract my old man back there. He’s as stubborn as a Mudbray! Things go all right after I left? I won the fight, so… He used to be a Gym Leader, you know. Even on holiday, he’s no pushover! Y’know, my dad was going mad with excitement for this trip. He kept going on about how he’d planned for us to check out local legends on this super-intense adventure tour—or “Adven-tour” as he calls it... But I mean, come on! What girl my age would be caught dead doing some naff thing like that with her dad? Besides, I really fancy having more battles with Dynamax Pokémon! Ahhh, the thrill of battling one of those massive, towering Pokémon... Just thinking about it gets me pumped! Hee hee! You know what? I’ve just had a thought! You’re a pretty fierce Trainer, right? Oh, no need to worry! He’s so hyped up about all this. It’d be a shame to just leave him on his own. I know he’s mad excited about this and I know why, but… I’d rather not deal with it now, you know? And who knows? You could end up running into a Legendary Pokémon! How about I meet back up with you two after I’ve had my own fun in the Max Lair? Go on, then. Enjoy your twosome tour of legends! Tell my old man the deal and all that!…SO glad it isn’t so cold in here, means I can stop fixating on it and fixate on something else…… Max Lair - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST     I’ve learned that firsthead now— Firsthand, I mean. I was just checkin’ to see if my little girl was behind some rocks, and look how I’ve ended up! Scientist: Behind some rocks? Is your daughter a Rolycoly, sir? There we go—I’m up! No little bump’s gonna keep me down long. That kip’s got me feelin’ right as rain! Hmmm... You don’t say. So dear Nia’s set on stayin’ away till she’s had her fill of this Dynamax Adventure stuff…and she wants the two of us to go ahead and get crackin’ on the grand Peony Adven-tour? …dear Nia’s sake… And tryin’ to press her into doin’ what I wanna do probably won’t win me any “dad of the year” awards. Yeah, eventually you have to – Right, then! What’s your name, kid? Gloria, but – Wait—have I already told you so? Gahaha! Then it’s twice as nice to meet you!  Gahaha! Don’t fret, now! I’ve done all sorts of preparations already! We’re goin’ to have ourselves a real treat of a Legendary Pokémon hunt! So that’s decided! Now then, Gloria! Let’s get ourselves to Freezington! It’s a town just a short ways off. Time for a strategic plannin’ meetin’ for Peony’s Adven-tour!   … If there’s anything that defines that whole family, it’s the inability to listen. From now on, Peonia hangs out in the Lair for you to talk to if you want; she’ll offer you bits of advice that you really don’t need and occasionally the location of a Legendary for a little bit of Ore. She will also accompany you on Adventures from time to time as one of the random AI Trainers the game spawns for you. …  Mmhmm. Mmhmm. , right? Oh, uh, absolutely! Mmhmm.… … I know that it isn’t the original Xerneas like the one that popped up in Kalos, but it’s still a Kalosian superweapon. Or, more accurately, it’s a recreated Kalosian counter-superweapon. Mmhmm. The Empire used to collect evidence of Legendaries from other Regions back in the day and engaged in Pokémon breeding programs up here. They chose the Crown Tundra because there weren’t many people living around here and there was a big unoccupied tunnel system they could squirrel themselves away in. No noise complaints, you see. Mmhmm. After the revolution, the government took the program over and started using new technologies instead of focus breeding, like with Porygon, if you’ve ever heard of it. All the pseudo-Legendaries down here are descended from artificial Pokémon they made before they discontinued the program a few decades ago and lots of them escaped into the wild… Mmhmm.……… Time for a shot in the dark. Did you know they just rolled out a line of designer clothing on Scissor Street based on Xerneas’s antlers?…  … … I KNOW! I know dad kind of resents it, but I’m glad I don’t have to deal with reporters trying to learn the secrets of the Gym all day anymore. Worst single part of my childhood. It must be a lot worse for you, though, you’re more famous than dad ever was. Well, the trick is finding the right place to live, I think. My first year in Uni I was in Motostoke – God drat miserable, nobody left me alone. Then I transferred over to Spikemuth and suddenly everybody was friendly and let me breathe. They were more obsessed with Piers, anyway. Spikemuth? Isn’t it dangerous? No! That’s just a stereotype. It’s not like all Camerans are all grotty Neds looking to shiv you. Oh God, that’s fair. Some of my mates get hit by that from time to time. It’s awful, you know? Right, exactly! Right tragic…… … Does the phrase “AMAB” mean anything to you? Ah. Yeah. He’s been nothing but supportive ever since I started talking to him about fixing it and all, but I think he feels guilty? I mean, he shouldn’t, it’s not like he did anything and he’s been nothing but helpful, but… Just because you SHOULDN’T feel guilty doesn’t mean you don’t feel guilty sometimes, right? Right! Anyway, a few months ago he got it into his head that he should plan a father-daughter trip somewhere, which I tried to discourage, because I just wanted to stay home? But he just wouldn’t listen and basically took me on a big ol’ school trip like that’s something parents do for their kids. Look, dad, I love you, I appreciate everything you’re doing for me, I wish you wouldn’t do this, too…… …Well, I’d say that was a successful expedition, wasn’t it? Absolutely. It was wonderful working with you! I’ll be hanging around here for a while. Are you planning on coming back around? Definitely, I’m not missing the chance to add some of these things to my team. Join me on your next time in? You don’t have to ask. … The trip to Freezington doesn’t take very long; I actually stumbled onto it by accident when putting off going into the Lair earlier (I wanted to settle on whether or not I should just head straight to town for story purposes  ). We enter a cutscene the moment we step foot in the village.Freezington - Pokémon Sword and Shield OST (RECOMMENDED LISTENING)      Mayor: I must say, it’s a surprise to have visitors arriving in our out-of-the-way town one after another.  Mayor: After all, there’s very little otherwise to attract visitors to our sleepy corner of the region. Not really, but that’s absolutely the sort of thing I’d be interested in.Mayor: Oh. That’s a shame.   Mayor: But since you’ve made the journey, I must offer you this Freezington specialty as a memento! He gives us a sweatshirt that has a little logo on it  .Mayor: It’s a shirt emblazoned with the likeness of the King of Bountiful Harvests. I’m afraid it hasn’t sold quite as well as we’d hoped. We’ve got a fair number left over… The illustration’s based on extremely ancient accounts of the king’s appearance. Hence the unusually sized head. If you’d like to see what the king really…  Huh. Looks a lot like a Pokémon.Mayor: You wouldn’t be the first to say so. They say he fathered the first Dynasty of Cameran Kings, though, so he isn’t likely to have been one. (You hear that?) (Heh.)Mayor: That’s actually an interesting story… Sir, I’m sorry to interrupt, but can I ask you to direct me to the old Laird’s manor? I have… Business with the people there.Mayor: Well isn’t THAT something to hear. Can I ask YOU the business you have with them? …Mayor: Wait, aren’t you the girl who won the Cup a few years back? … About 20 years ago they kicked one of the members and her infant child out.Mayor: Oh. Oh, that was you. That was a nasty bit of business. I am truly sorry we couldn’t do anything for you. That… I don’t care about that. I just… I don’t want them back in my life or anything, but… I guess I just want to rub their noses in it? I’ve been…Mayor: You don’t have to explain yourself to me, don’t worry. I’ll take you to the site. Unfortunately…  What do you MEAN they didn’t leave a forwarding address?!I assumed you wouldn't mind me including your post, Crosspiece, let me know if you want it removed for whatever reason. Also, always remember to doublecheck your LP posts, children; don't be like me and create a mutant by pasting the update into the middle of the already-pasted update and uploading it like that. Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Feb 22, 2021 |
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Jan 28, 2021 22:49
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Ooh, interesting... I was wondering how you were going to do this.
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Jan 28, 2021 23:36
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I must have caught that just as it went up; needless to say, I was quite confused for a bit. Making Peonia trans is an interesting choice; I wouldn't have thought of it, but now that you've done it I look at the colours in her portrait and can't not see the trans flag.
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Jan 29, 2021 00:57
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Explopyro posted:I must have caught that just as it went up; needless to say, I was quite confused for a bit. Nice! The only thing I wonder about is - does this imply Peonia was also named Peony, before transition? I know it's typically maximally gauche to ask about deadnames but my curiosity is getting the better of me here
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Jan 29, 2021 11:30
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Quackles posted:Nice! The only thing I wonder about is - does this imply Peonia was also named Peony, before transition? Also genuinely surprised we haven’t had any britgoons complaining about the weather yet.
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Jan 29, 2021 14:51
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Falconier111 posted:Before we begin, I would like to note that Adventures are the first part of this game I find myself actively going back to. I mean, I enjoy the game in general, but when I sit down do some more gameplay for the LP, I often end up just grinding out a few more Adventures for giggles. If you choose to buy one DLC, the Crown Tundra is probably the one you want to go for. Explopyro posted:Making Peonia trans is an interesting choice; I wouldn't have thought of it, but now that you've done it I look at the colours in her portrait and can't not see the trans flag. Falconier111 posted:Also genuinely surprised we haven’t had any britgoons complaining about the weather yet.
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Jan 29, 2021 17:50
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Quantum Toast posted:Complaining about the weather is kind of like the background radiation of conversation, you can safely assume it's there even if you don't hear it. Not if you want to be in the OP it isn’t 
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Jan 29, 2021 19:09
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Quackles posted:Nice! The only thing I wonder about is - does this imply Peonia was also named Peony, before transition? Oh god oh god I do not know the protocol for referring to a trans person before they were trans at all I am terrified of loving this up If so, they were probably usually called Junior, which just gives me Indiana Jones jokes, which could be read as incredibly offensive in this context. And my brain just split off a tangent about how the only people with last names in the Pokemon universe are the professors. And Ash himself.
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Jan 29, 2021 20:07
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Falconier111 posted:Not if you want to be in the OP it isn’t Honestly, the only things that stand out to me about Galarian weather are the sandstorms (mostly just a side effect of every Pokemon region having to have a desert) and the fact that you don't see much of anything besides hail outside the three Wild Areas. Give me pouring rain in Motostoke or Hulbury and I'd feel right at home.
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Jan 29, 2021 21:48
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Yeah the game is pretty accurate in that England has a giant empty wasteland in the middle of it, though Crown Tundra is a little unrealistic since we don't get that much snow, it's a little too warm cause of the Gulf Stream. Otherwise my weather in Pokemon Go switches between Mr. Mime Community Day with cloudy, or Volbeat Community Day with rain.
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Jan 29, 2021 22:19
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Crosspeice posted:Yeah the game is pretty accurate in that England has a giant empty wasteland in the middle of it
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Jan 29, 2021 23:20
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Crosspeice posted:Yeah the game is pretty accurate in that England has a giant empty wasteland in the middle of it, London? 
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Jan 29, 2021 23:42
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Dareon posted:Oh god oh god I do not know the protocol for referring to a trans person before they were trans at all I am terrified of loving this up Use the name they chose and their pronouns. You might like Love Lives Here, by Amanda Jetté Knox — she wrote about her experiences as someone whose partner and one of their kids transitioned, and she does an excellent job about discussing all of that.
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Jan 30, 2021 04:44
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Dareon posted:And my brain just split off a tangent about how the only people with last names in the Pokemon universe are the professors. And Ash himself. The rival in RSE/ORAS is the child of Prof. Birch and therefore shares the surname. Several manga characters have surnames as well. For example, the character in the XY arc of Adventures based on the female player character is Yvonne "Y" Gabena.
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Jan 30, 2021 11:45
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NyoroEevee posted:Well, N's full name is Natural Harmonia Gropius. Going on to Bulbapedia, reading N's article, and realizing that wiki uses a Magikarp to indicate substandard articles made me feel happiness.
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Jan 30, 2021 17:38
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