Shoshopu

Smeargle was actually a thing in 2014 VGC and was really interesting to play around. I actually have an old replay from a practice battle I did with one of my old teams back then. I don't have a capture card so it's a crappy phone recording I ended up ditching Meowstic as a support later for the more offensive Mienshao, but Meowstic was a force to be reckoned with. you can hear Fyrilsunn talking in the background rofl

I dunno if my post conveyed this at all but I'm much more interested in double battles/VGC than the Smogon meta. oAo Not to excuse all of the Pokemon team's mistakes (letting primal Kyogre/Groudon/Rayquaza into VGC? really?), but a lot of the things that are found to be overly centralizing and powerful in singles are much more balanced in doubles. Kangaskhan included.

Aww dang I went to bed and missed two pages In Japan? I'm not really sure. I know Japan kicked our asses at Worlds in 2015 because they brought their mega Kangaskhan and we didn't. (Among other things, but mega Kangaskhan was a big one that nobody expected, for some reason!) Apparently the US meta thought it'd be like 2014, where everybody was expecting mega Kangaskhan counters, thus nobody brought mega Kangaskhan. In 2014 the VGC meta was entirely different though, because only Pokemon from the pre-E4 Kalos Pokedex were allowed. In 2015 Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire came out, and the banlist busted wide open to allow everything but the cover-legendaries + event-only legendaries + Mewtwo, so Japan brought their Landorus-T, their Heatran, their Cresselia... and their mega Kangaskhan. Honestly I liked the 2014 VGC meta better because the limited pool of Pokemon gave less popular Pokemon a time to shine, because their stronger counterparts were banned- and we got stuff like Pachirisu winning Worlds, which only worked on account of the very specific circumstances. You'd have to tailor very specific stat setups on your Pokemon to counter very specific things, and take your opponents by surprise... and that was a lot of fun. Now that practically all the Pokemon are allowed it's just the regular old 252/252/4 EV setup for a lot of Pokemon, you try to go wide with your teams instead of there being so few Pokemon that there are specific threats. I don't think less of people who use the same four or five strong Pokemon on their teams, like some people seem to, that's just the nature of the competitive game. If you want to do well you use the best tools provided for you. I feel like a lot of the USA VGC community is searching for That One Pokemon that nobody would expect that's going to become the Next Big Thing in the metagame and get hung up on it because they want to be "original", whereas the Japanese VGC community is a lot more connected than ours is, they share their teams a lot more and they're less secretive, and they also have a lot more local grassroots tournaments- easier because they're smaller geographically I suppose. Their metagame progresses a lot faster than ours and ours is always trying to keep up with theirs when practically all we can do is google translate their blogs... Apparently in 2016 VGC, Kyogre, Groudon and Rayquaza are in, including their mega-evolved forms. I'm interested in seeing how that goes but I can only see it being completely centralizing and everybody using it or using things to beat everybody else's. sorry I turned that into a tangent about the VGC I just like talking about the VGC and wish I didn't need hundreds of dollars and lots of gasoline to compete

My love for pokemon is well-known among my friends. One of them back in Maine made me a nidoran♂ eye pillow, which I just started keeping on my bed. I was stashing it in the closet saving it for the future, but decided it should be used. D: That's cool! I wish I had some custom made Kangaskhan stuff! I've started collecting Kangaskhan merch but a lot of it is really small/obscure and hard to find. Or on the Japanese equivalent of eBay, which I have yet to figure out. Not pictured is a beat up Burger King keychain I keep on my purse and a Safari Ball I found in a game store. I wanna get the 1/40 scale Zukan figures, but they tend to be expensive T_T I'm also still missing a couple of the Kids figures... There's no mega Kangaskhan figures, for some reason, which is really lame ;_; Maybe they feel like she was a mistake and want to sweep it under the rug now, haha

Were you happy with the mega? Mine is Nidoran(m). Heck yeah I was! She went from being the poor man's/novelty version of Tauros in gen 1, to kinda mediocre afterwards... to being literally the best mega Pokemon in the game. I'm unhappy with how other people dislike her now for how broken she is, but it's really satisfying to me how busted they made her. I like to play in double battles where it's a little more balanced, though! Nidoran is a cutie, one of my gen 1 favorites for sure +_+

I've never done a nuzlocke on a physical cartridge... only on emulators. I just don't have the heart to. Now that I think about it, in gen IV with the help of a friend I did a run where I used Kangaskhan as my starter and just deposited my actual starter for most of the game. SPEAKING OF KANGASKHAN who's y'all's favorite Pokemon? Mine is... Kangaskhan. :v

I also went with Chespin, it and its evolutions are cuties!! Ever since gen 2 I've generally gone with the grass types, although in Sapphire and Alpha Sapphire I went with Mudkip. Treeko is probably my least favorite grass starter. Let's see, my starters have gone... Bulbasaur, Cyndaquil, Mudkip, Piplup, Oshawott, and finally Chespin (with Charmander as my secondary starter). Piplup is my fave starter ever, since Pearl was my first game. I also feel you on the disliking Treeko thing, but Snivy is even worse imo. I was a spoiled kid (with no friends rofl) who had Red and Blue, and Gold and Silver. I got Charmander on Red and Squirtle on Blue because that felt right, but I liked Squirtle more of the two. Later on in the gen 3 remakes I picked Bulbasaur. Gen 2... in silver I picked Meganium and I don't rightly remember what I picked in Gold, probably Cyndaquil, but I know in Crystal I picked Totodile. Gen 3 is when I started picking one, and I picked Mudkip... then Blaziken in Emerald... Okay, actually my starters are all over the place but if you asked me to point to my favorites I'd tell you grass types. But honestly I like pretty much all Pokemon. I'll try using everything once. And I like Snivy :< Serperior is pretty cool!

I also went with Chespin, it and its evolutions are cuties!! Ever since gen 2 I've generally gone with the grass types, although in Sapphire and Alpha Sapphire I went with Mudkip. Treeko is probably my least favorite grass starter.

OH NO AN OOC THREAD I CAN ACTUALLY TALK ABOUT I'm kinda hoping they just go with one Z. I liked gen V better than gen IV, but I didn't really finish BW2. It was an interesting idea but I'm not sure what the feedback was and whether or not they'd like to do it again.

This ^ And ogling roegadyn players. I almost feel guilty for that sometimes. They never seem to notice when I do it on Shoshopu, though. 8-) edit: didn't see this one earlier, but absolutely this one too

Maybe? It's kind of strange, but in the render of the Lalafell wearing the outfit the big belts around the waist are brown, while in the datamined models it's purple, and it's the only place the colors really differ. (the datamined model shows some blue on the shoes but I reckon that's the pants clipping through the boots because of the way it's being rendered, probably) Since the model was mined last December it's entirely possible they've just updated the color scheme prior to implementation. Is the Advent Attire and Wild Rose Attire dyeable? I don't think it is...? (I've never seen the Wild Rose Attire in anything but the default colors, anyway)

Until the anima quest where Gerolt and co. just casually go there and hang out, I was sort of under the impression very few people even knew the place existed, let alone where it was? Unless I missed the part in the MSQ where you and the crew make this information public to everyone...?

Okay, count me as considerably less excited then.

If the belt is attached to the pants rather than the shirt then count me very excited. Also! The lamp is so cute!! However, I always wanted the FFXI chocobo plush (they were apparently discontinued by the time I was aware of their existence) and I'm really disappointed this new plush is significantly uglier. I guess it's more realistic for a baby bird to be, but considering FFXI and FFXIV's chocobos are practically identical except in the count of polygons they have to render their appearance... a little let down, yes

That's basically my feelings on it. At this point in time I would say none of my characters are killable- not that I play any of my characters besides Shoshopu out in the open anyway. Perhaps when the right time comes and it would make for a great narrative effect I will, or maybe whenever I quit-- or maybe I'll try to align those two events for the narrative benefit of my RP partners I'll soon be parting with. If it fits. That's not to say I've never considered what would happen if she did get killed off. I like to imagine all the time what would happen if something happened to her or Fyrilsunn- who would go first and how would the other respond, etc. It's fun to think about and it might happen some day, but I don't have a timeline for when it may happen. Although RP is a collaborative effort and things may happen spontaneously and unexpectedly, I still have a strong narrative inclination and won't just let my character get killed off by whatever at the whims of someone else. Now, injuries? Hell yes, bring on the injuries. That's fine. Shopu can take it, she's a tough little potato

It's my new gathering music. Only 9 million to go before 3.3......

I get the same feeling playing human characters, so I almost understand how you feel. Playing fantasy races are like breathing to me, but playing a human... It feels a lot like this: GEEZ I feel this so much!! I really get into fantasy races and their lore and culture and how these things are influenced by their different physiologies... So even though I almost never play the human (or human stand-in), it's also not a thing I've "always wanted to try". At this point I don't even consider it an option. I guess Roegadyn women are an exception in this case-- I have three-- while they're not this game's "humans" they're also not especially short, or really big like the men, nor have any extra appendages or pointy ears or whatever. they're about the closest thing I've gotten to playing a vanilla human character.

A generic fantasy hero. Nice guy who has a one-handed sword and doesn't afraid of anything. And a cat boy. Kinda because everyone else seems to have done it and I never have ? I already kinda have a character in mind but I'd have to... 1) get him onto Balmung, 2) level up Paladin on him so he can have a one-handed sword and I don't like tanking, 3) get him through the MSQ because I want him to be from the griffin tribe so he should be from, like, the sea of clouds or at least Dravania somewhere, right? but that's so time consuming and also miserable

Couldn't "the topaz geometry" just mean "the geometry of the topaz"? As in, geometric aspects of the gem itself? Like, say, a gem cut with certain facets and angles would make this specific kind of carbuncle? I never paid much attention to the cutscenes after the first time but it's not like they actually point to a grimoire page and go "this, right there, use that" is it? You're probably right but I'm very much attached to the idea that the geometric shapes of the crystals Matters and that would be downplayed by the requirement of a grimoire or additional glyph.

This is my understanding of it as well. Thaumaturges and conjurers have to play by equivalent exchange while white and black mages don't. That's basically the entire problem with them and how they almost destroyed the world in the War of the Magi and are now outlawed etc etc

There have honestly been a lot of arcanima threads lately and I'm sure someone will link them/quote from them soon but right now I'm just gonna focus on these specific questions. Some of this is confirmed ingame but we don't know many specifics of arcanima at all and a lot of it is theoretical, headcanons, educated guesses, etc. 1) How does Arcanist magic work? I know that they use mathematical equations related to the arrangement of different symbols and whatnot to cast spells (like badass geometry? ), but do they have to carve the symbols onto something? Do they have to touch a diagram with their palm? Do they have to say something related to the diagram? Or do they just have to… I dunno, look at the diagram? Arcanima is shaping aether through geometry into spells. They cast them using their grimoires as a focus, and the grimoires contain geometries and glyphs written with special aether-conducting ink. 2) What purpose does the grimoire actually serve? Is it just a handicap, so they can have a visual of the symbols to help them? I.e., can they cast without the grimoire, and it’s just more difficult? See above. It's a focus. I think it could be possible for an arcanist to shape magic without one if they knew the diagrams very well and could manipulate aether precisely with just the hands, but a lot of people think of the glyphs in the grimoires as circuits for the aether to travel through if that helps you imagine it. 3) Speaking of carving symbols into things, I read to summon carbuncle they have to carve the summoning symbols into a crystal. Is this necessary? Are the crystals one-time use? Why is this the process? I.e., is the necessary aether stored in the crystals and used up once cast? The game never goes into this afaik. My headcanon is that yes, you need one, but you don't have to carve stuff INTO the crystal (the "carbuncle's ruby"), but it's the cut and size of the gem itself that shapes the carbuncle you summon with it. They don't get consumed. Channeling aether through the crystal is like filtering light through a prism or something. Aether goes in, carbuncle comes out. It is the process because it's Final Fantasy. 4) Do arcanists use solely their own aether, or do they also draw from other things? If other things, what other things? Do they have to be living? Do they have to be crystals? They use their own aether and they channel it through the diagrams. I think they could use crystals if they wanted to, though. You can be creative with this. 5) What purpose do carbuncle serve? Are they mostly for extra firepower? Does it damage the arcanist when their carbuncle is hurt or destroyed? Is it the same carbuncle each summon? Mealvaan's Gate, the Arcanist's Guild, is the also the customs office of Limsa Lominsa. Carbuncles, I imagine, are used like drug dogs and the like. You could get creative with this since they seem to have some sentience to them, like a dog or something. The carbuncle being hurt doesn't hurt the user, it's a different entity. I like to think each crystal's carbuncle is unique and could be the same one with each summoning, especially since downstairs int he Arcanist's Guild they appear to be training carbuncles. if your carbuncle couldn't retain memories this would be useless, unless they're just practicing controlling carbuncles and not actually training the carbuncles.

so if I counted correctly, that's something like around seven maintenances since November 9th, including tonight's? I didn't miss any, did I? edit: 8 maintenances, approx 26 hours and 10 minutes' worth of maintenance, to those who need to know...

Hello there! Welcome! Have you been RPing in the Drowning Wench? A friend of mine was telling me the other day that he saw a lalafell who was IC using a lot of alliteration. Might that have been you? He'd asked if that was "a lalafell thing", to which I replied "well, it was a tarutaru thing"

You can always gather the materials and have a crafter make the stuff for you? My FC has lots of high level crafters, but even if you have to search for a crafter in PF, tipping isn't nearly as expensive as the gear itself or leveling the craft yourself. It's not so hard to get nice crafted gear for dungeoning or glamours if you know crafters or aren't afraid to reach out.

What the heckie are "mansions"?? That sounds cool but also When did they actually confirm housing for 3.2? I missed this. Even if it's being pushed back, at least knowing there's a confirmed time frame at all (3.3) makes me happy. Also The Lost City of Amdapor (Hard)?! Yes! I can't wait for this dungeon! And, finally, the mentoring system sounds pretty cool. In FFXI it was just a little flag next to your name (a globe with a red M on it) that basically said to people "if you have a question I will answer it." To become one you had to be a certain level and then buy it.