The Heights of Londo [OOC 2] - What? OOC is evolving!

[tgva8889]

I am also fine with the option of "Alyssa spends a lot of time talking to someone about it off-screen, but still has to overcome it through actual character development in person" so we can do off-screen sections of Alyssa talking about her feelings and then actually roleplay her overcoming her fears by interacting with Dark-type Pokemon that are around. I imagine some stuff like "I talked to Torchwood about trying this so I'm gonna do that, Leah can you send out Sable?"

I think Alyssa wants to start talking about it privately but given that the reason she wants to overcome it is so she can be better to people around her she will need to overcome her fears with other people around, like Leah, which will ultimately lead to some roleplaying opportunities.

Also I didn't mean to make things more difficult! I'm glad to help make things more interesting, and I think as much counseling as possible won't be enough on its own so there will definitely be roleplaying opportunities over the course of this month in-game that we'll be moving through.

[Comissar]

To clarify, Leah thought Nika's clothing would've come from lots of encounters with non-natives, which to her mind means travelling.

[Hazuki]

Aye, that makes sense.

[tgva8889]

Let's see how much Alyssa knows about eggs!

Pokemon EDU: (2d6)[6]

[tgva8889]

I just wanted to let you know that I caught your book author reference.

[Hazuki]

Finally someone recognizes my cleverness!

[Comissar]

Apologies for the lack of post today, feeling very under the weather and struggling to work one out. Will try and get something up tomorrow morning.

[Hazuki]

That's okay. Take your time.

[tgva8889]

I've been there too, no worries.

[Hazuki]

So...thoughts on Gen 8/its starter Pokemon?

[tgva8889]

I don't think I like the designs that much as a gut feeling and I thought the names were really awful, but I'll give them a chance to grow on me. The world design looks really awesome, so I'm excited for Gen 8 all the same.

[Comissar]

Sobble looks like the best of the three to me. Also, feels weird to have a psuedo-familiar looking region! The architecture looks a lot like buildings I'm pretty familiar with!

[Hazuki]

I agree with none of the starters jumping out as the best, though I might go with Sobble just because everyone else seems to be doing that. But then, I chose the water starter for Gen 7 and 6, and that meant missing out on adding one of the other new cool Water Pokemon to my team. Might just wait on the evolutions before deciding.

That's 'cause it looks UK-y, right, Comissar? I liked the uniform that one girl had, though neither of the protagonist designs jump out to me like others have. I mean, the dudes have been kinda generic for the last few gens anyway, but Moon was 10/10.

[Comissar]

Yup, the building designs remind me heavily of some of the older buildings you'll see in the countryside. And the countryside itself, along with the chalk pokémon(?) on the side of the hill is reminiscent of rural britain.

[Hazuki]

But I didn't see a single monocle OR top hat.

[Hazuki]

It's time for the fourth IC thread!

[Comissar]

Man, 4th IC. Time flies!

Also, the monocles and top hats are reserved for when you visit the Etonian part of the region.

[tgva8889]

Happy 4th IC thread! We're still having fun and that's awesome.

I love the subtle British aesthetic, though. It's very different from past Pokemon games and distinct enough that when I saw the hills I was like "Oh, this is based on Great Britain."

[Hazuki]

At first, I thought it was Spain - some of the buildings reminded me of Karnaca from Dishonored 2, actually. But, yeah, that gave way in the face of the industrial and countryside stuff.

Have y'all seen the map of the place? It's very tall and narrow. I'm wondering what the layout will be like, when ti comes to the player's journey, 'cause a straight line could be boring.

[Comissar]

At first, I thought it was Spain - some of the buildings reminded me of Karnaca from Dishonored 2, actually. But, yeah, that gave way in the face of the industrial and countryside stuff.

Have y'all seen the map of the place? It's very tall and narrow. I'm wondering what the layout will be like, when ti comes to the player's journey, 'cause a straight line could be boring.

Well, the topography of the UK is pretty varied, so even if they make it a north/south, they can add in a lot of terrain variability to keep it interesting.

[tgva8889]

Yeah, I'm not sure what the plan is for the map traversal. It'd be kind of neat if there was some more good backtracking in this game so it didn't feel like it was just "always go one direction to get where you need to go"

[Hazuki]

Aye. Although some of what's good about backtracking (Noticing new things/paths) is very difficult to do, because of Fly and past experience. Sure, some people might check out old routes for new sidepaths, but there's only ever been (often) underwhelming items down those. And most will just Fly right back to the destination anyway.

[tgva8889]

I remember in Gold/Silver there was a lot of backtracking you could do through Union Cave that was completely optional, as well as a lot of pretty useful items you could obtain through backtracking most easily (mainly attack-boosting items which were nice). I guess I'm hoping for more areas like that, where there's some time and effort to go through exploring some area that offers a lot of potentially interesting stuff like new Pokemon or treasures of some note. Like, I liked in Black/White how there was some backtracking and a specific cave for Cobalion, or how in Diamond/Pearl there was an entire cave that was optional that was the only place you could find Gible.

[Comissar]

In Leah's head right now - "I don't know! I'm just guessing now! I thought you just wanted me to tell you what it was, not why you have it!"

And yeah, I kinda wish there was more replayability to Pokémon games without having to restart entirely. I like going back through with new teams after beating the game, but I'm pretty much limited to facing off against wild Pokémon at that point. Would be nice if you could re-battle the majority of trainers + gym leaders.

[Hazuki]

Oh, I agree that backtracking is cool! I just don't think that the methods of travel available for it allow you to naturally weave it into the game. Perhaps sidequests are something they could do, to encourage people to explore?

Poor, naive Leah. Doesn't she know NPCs can't solve their own problems?

[tgva8889]

On the other hand, I did like what Gen 7 did with the Pokemon League, showing you where it would be throughout the game and then, when you finished the last challenge, being like, "Hey, it's open now, come test your strength!" I thought that was neat. There's still some ability to do some of that stuff I think.

[Hazuki]

Aye, that was good. I was disappointed to find out that they were going back to gyms. I mean, gyms are cool and all, but I liked Trials more. The boss fights felt more boss-y than just another trainer battle.

[tgva8889]

Trials were, in general, more difficult than anything in the previous games. It turns out 2v1 battles are hard. On the other hand, Z-moves did allow you to cheese the vast majority of them in a single round, which did kind of ruin the challenge.

[Hazuki]

...was that a thing? I don't remember ever doing it. I do know that people could use Inkay and...I think it's called Topsy Turvy, a move that reverses stat boosts, effectively meaning the Totem Pokemon got hit with -4 combat stages.

[Comissar]

So... Nika's shown herself to be willing to wear stuff that's the wrong size for the sake of it being foreign, but is she about Leah's build? I've been assuming so, but I don't think I ever stopped to double check.