119 replies to this topic

[Vortigern]

First, SWG, sorry if you feel we overstepped the mark with Claire. Second, slugma and merill aren't Gen 1 pokémon. Third, those pre-evolutions of Kanto pokémon are not available in this world. They are forms that are evolutionary cousins of the Kanto pokémon, but they are not the same species. And steelix I think would have to be a completely different species to onix. I just can't see a way one could turn into the other. Fourth, it's not that anything you said about Caitlin was particularly character-defining, just that you used her thoughts, and I take exception to that, even if it was only for a moment. Outward appearance, by all means, is common territory, but what goes on inside a character's head is the sole province of that character's owner.

It's possible that Caitlin misinterpreted Claire's look when she didn't recognise raichu. Maybe she was having trouble with Caitlin's accent, maybe Hoenn has a different name for it, whatever, but I was writing what Caitlin saw, or thought she saw. It's all from her point of view.

[some_weirdGuy]

As I said, I'm alright with that sort of stuff. Its part of the fun with RPing IMO, seeing how other people stretch and skew your character just a little beyond what you would have. Naturally if its drasticly off you ask them to change it, or you smooth it over in your next post as best you can.
It was just cause you brought up the topic that I mentioned it. Think of it more as a 'in my defense you do the same sort of stuff to me all the time, so how was I to know its not allowed' comment rather than a 'stop modding my character' comment.

and yes they aren't gen 1, they were just an example of pre-gen 3 pokemon in the gen 3 region. I wasn't searching up gen 1 specifically when I was finding a few to name.

and yes I remember reading your explanation for why they weren't there, I was just saying that I thought it would have been better to just include them since you already have all pokemon 'growing' into their evolutions, so the 'child' versions that were later introduced seem naturally fitting.
Still, they can be dwarf sub-species of them or whatever, I was just sharing my own thoughts on the matter

and steelix seems pretty easily explained. Once they grow to a certain age they stop forming calciferous exoskeleton and instead start forming a ferrous one. Like new hair growing through it doesn't immediately replace the old exoskeleton but comes through as the old skeleton chips off. (under the impression that their exoskeletons are always growing and chipping off since they burrow through solid rock and stuff). That or they shed the old one.

Otherwise, its simply a sub species.

-----

While i'm here, I just realised without pokeballs we're going to have a very hard time gathering any new pokemon to our party without it sounding really contrived.
In pokemon they pass of these wild animals randomly joining a trainers party cause pokeballs both brainwash and imprision them. We don't have that.

Unless we just ignore the stuff you said about wild pokemon's adamant disobedience then we're not going to be getting more pokemon, as we hardly have the time to enslave a pair of wild pokemon, breed them with each other, and then take their child, spend the years it would take to domesticate that and wait for it to grow to a reasonable age.

Yes you mention chains, but that would only work for very small, weak pokemon who can't fight back (which therefore excludes any pokemon who are even slightly useful, even something like a charmnder or pikachu are too dangerous even when chained up, and unless you keep it chained down in a truck you're hardly going to be carting a large sized pokemon around cause they would just overpower you), and even then being wild they will never obey you cause you said thats not how wild pokemon work, and they will run off if you ever let them off the chain.
Added to which it's not like they're nearly human-level intelligence like in the show, so you can't just endear yourself to them with a kind act and thus have them start hanging out with you.


Despite everything I admit it's not impossible, but, as I said, that stuff being the case it's going to sound really contrived no matter how you pull it off.

So what were your thoughts on how this is suppose to work (fluently)?
Was it just expected that we stick with our starter rather than getting more pokemon?
Or was your note on pokemon capture and the untameability of wild pokemon more of a rough stimulus instead of a proper description on the way it is?
(did you just not give this bit too much thought beyond 'pokeballs are unrealistic so out they go, in chains go instead'?)
Or do these chains somehow retain the insidious brainwashing capabilities we saw pokeballs having in the original?

[{IRS}Athos]

Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but Killian gets new pokemon by raiding nests for eggs so that he can imprint the birds to him. I'm assuming that getting other wild pokemon would be similar. If you want one, find a young, impressionable one, and kidnap it.

[Vortigern]

Athos and SWG are both right. The best way to raise new pokémon is to get them from when they're new-born, or hatched or whatever, but that's not always practical. Pokémon are intelligent enough that they can be won over by acts of kindness and little things. If you can prove to them that their life with you will be demonstrably better than if they stay in the wild, chances are they'll be happy enough to stay with you. There would of course be some exceptions; naturally wilful pokémon, those with strong maternal instincts or mates-for-life, among others. But the chains are more just to bring them down in the first place and stop them having an easy run to freedom than to keep them permanently. Think of it like getting a new dog. At first when you take it for a walk you keep it on the lead, but then it gets to know you, and to trust you, and to understand when you give it orders because you've been training it to do so. Sooner or later you can take the lead off and let the dog have its head, because you know it'll come back to you. That's what getting a new pokémon is like.

When you get a newborn pokémon, though, the vast majority will attach to you through familial instinct and will demonstrate greater loyalty to you than any caught pokémon would, and would likely be more receptive to training and more forgiving if you were to neglect them slightly, or even greatly. I can imagine there would be some pathetically faithful pokémon whose owners just didn't give a shit, but the pokémon kept coming back to them because it's all they know.

And the thing about catching the really powerful pokémon is fair enough, it would be difficult, but that's why trainers go about in groups. We give each other backup so that one furious charizard can't (hopefully) kill us all in one go.


SWG: steelix are a subspecies, I guess. They're not onixes and they never were, but they are definitely related. And to change from calciferous to ferrous exoskeletons midway through life would make no sense at all. That would require a wholesale change to their genetic code. And onixes do shed their old exoskeletal bits and pieces, or chip them away, but only very slowly. Their skin is significantly tougher than the rock and dirt they burrow through, so really it's only through fighting each other that they do serious damage. (They do this for mating rights and displays of strength and whatnot.)

[some_weirdGuy]

Ah I see. So its not quite as difficult as the impression that I got.

@Athos:
Yeah, but as i already pointed out, it takes years for pokemon to grow. You're hardly going to be able to use a new born in a battle or something, so you're going to be stuck with a completely useless pokemon for ages unless the story skips ahead a few years for some reason.

[Copaman]

Actually I'm more or less limiting this to the first 149, with a couple of exceptions. SWG asked for special dispensation for a non-Kanto pokémon because his character is from a different country. I'd prefer not to let more foreign pokémon in, although I'm more okay with cyndaquil than shroomish because at least I actually played Gold and Silver. I guess the question is, would you be willing to participate if you weren't allowed your cyndaquil?

Gotcha.

Hmm.

I'm honestly not sure. I think I would be less inclined to join without Cyndaquil. Like I said, Cyndaquil and its more mature forms have always been my favorites. I kept playing Gold and Silver even after I got Crystal, Ruby, etc. just for my Typhlosion. Plus, I've already somewhat thought out the character and his backstory around Cyndaquil.

/shrug.

[some_weirdGuy]

Gotcha.

Hmm.

I'm honestly not sure. I think I would be less inclined to join without Cyndaquil. Like I said, Cyndaquil and its more mature forms have always been my favorites. I kept playing Gold and Silver even after I got Crystal, Ruby, etc. just for my Typhlosion. Plus, I've already somewhat thought out the character and his backstory around Cyndaquil.

/shrug.

Yeah, I know the feeling (as you can guess) XD.
When vort starting saying it was a no go on my starter I definitely changed from 'this could be pretty neat RP' to 'oh... well then not so much'.

Go on vort, give the man his Cyndaquil. What's the harm? It's still set in kanto so we'll only encounter native kanto pokemon, having your 1 starter as something different isn't an issue.

PS. cyndaquil's two evolutions are awesome.

[Vortigern]

Ah, what the hell. Go on then, Copaman, you can have your cyndaquil. I guess it's not so inconceivable that there'd be crossover with Johto anyway, if you look at where Kanto and Johto are in relation to one another. But remember this is set in Kanto, so any wild pokémon and the vast majority of pokémon owned by trainers will be Kanto pokémon. Don't be saying 'OMG it's a wild miltank!' or anything.

[{IRS}Athos]

Ah I see. So its not quite as difficult as the impression that I got.

@Athos:
Yeah, but as i already pointed out, it takes years for pokemon to grow. You're hardly going to be able to use a new born in a battle or something, so you're going to be stuck with a completely useless pokemon for ages unless the story skips ahead a few years for some reason.

Why do you think I use bird pokemon?

[Vortigern]

Because they can fly? He's right, going around poaching eggs from nests is definitely a long-term strategy. But I imagine if your character's parents run a postal service, they would have their own aviary and hatchery, so you still wouldn't need to go around poaching too many. Unless they're special kinds of birds or something. but really what special birds are there apart from the legendaries? (Which you're definitely not having.)

[Copaman]

Ah, what the hell. Go on then, Copaman, you can have your cyndaquil. I guess it's not so inconceivable that there'd be crossover with Johto anyway, if you look at where Kanto and Johto are in relation to one another. But remember this is set in Kanto, so any wild pokémon and the vast majority of pokémon owned by trainers will be Kanto pokémon. Don't be saying 'OMG it's a wild miltank!' or anything.

Cool!

Yeah, I more or less figured it would be that 98% of Kanto trainers are Kanto pokemon...

[{IRS}Athos]

Well, there are Farfetch'd... they're fairly rare.

[Neth]

@ Next person to be in the inn, wake me up?

[some_weirdGuy]

Ah, so it was what I thought. I was wondering weather that inn you mentioned was meant to be the hostel we were in.

edit: I would get to doing that right now Neth(since my person is still inside) but I'm (about to be) working on an assignment. I'm not sure how long I will be with it but I don't want to get distracted.

Edited by some_weirdGuy, 02 September 2011 - 10:53 PM.

[Vortigern]

Well, Neth, if we get back from sparring before SWG is done working, we can wake you up, I guess. By the way, I know this is a small point at most, but I find it rather irksome that you guys keep referring to this hostel as an inn. 'Inn' for me conjures up images of open fires and comely wenches and that whole genre of deal, which is not at all what this is. The place we're currently at is just a house by the side of a main road that rents out beds to travellers in dormitories. This world isn't exactly modern as we would call it, but it's a long way past the standard fantasy-tale era.

[some_weirdGuy]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing when neth mentioned the 'inn'. I actually went and double checked the definition cause i was always under the impression that an inn and a hostel were fairly different things. (one being a place where you get a meal and can rent a room, the other being a place for backpackers that really only consisted of a couple of rooms at most with some beds in them and thats all)
and as you mentioned, inns sound very medieval/fantasy-ish while hostels sound modern and real-worldly.

[Copaman]

edit: lol who is john galt

Edited by Copaman, 04 September 2011 - 08:23 PM.

[Neth]

I was going to put hostel and then went back and checked what it was and someone else had put inn, so I put the same as whoever that was

[Vortigern]

I think Mike said innkeeper at one point, but I think that was more as a mannerism than a technical term. Anyway, now that's cleared up so never mind.

[Copaman]

As this is Gen I we aren't considering passive abilities that were introduced for ALL pokemon starting in Gen III, correct? will have to change my last post if I'm right.