Hello folks! The FAQ/game mechanic rewrite is (theoretically) complete. Please click on "Patch Notes" for an extensive (and yet still not exhaustive...) list of changes!
PATCH NOTES
- Rules page updated
- Primarily rewording for clarity
- Age minimum for players (not characters) has been raised from 15 to 18
Activity Check overhaul
- No actual activity requirements have been adjusted this time! This is primarily a timing/administrative update. (Phew.)
- From now on, the next activity check comment will now be posted immediately after the previous activity check closes. (I.e. it will be available to respond to all month!)
- Starting with the upcoming activity check, AC will be due on the 1st day of the following month. (Rather than the 8th.)
- Starting with the upcoming activity check, there will no longer be a separate "AC Warning" and "AC Results" post. AC results will be posted on the 2nd of each month; players will have a grace period of 2 days to respond to the post with a link to their late AC submission. After this time players without AC will be swept (with no additional post).
Trainer/Breeder/Rocket character classes replaced with Class Ranking system
- Character Class Ranking page added (please view page for all details)
- Character Class Change page removed (will now be handled with Character Class Ranks)
- Rocket Mission page deprecated (will now be handled with Character Class Ranks)
- Trainer, Breeder, Rocket 101 pages updated to remove things now handled with Character Class Ranks
- Applications "Affiliation" section now just asks whether a character will show up as a standard trainer or as a Rocket
Significant FAQ overhaul
- Pages removed/combined into main FAQ or other relevant pages:
- Extended FAQ: Travel & Locations
- Extended FAQ: Money & Jobs
- Extended FAQ: Battles & Pokemon Moves
- Extended FAQ: Moves, Abilities, and Weather
- (Old) Battling 101
General FAQ sections reworked
- Sections reduced from Game Info, Team Rocket, Training and Raising, Johto/Kanto, and Misc. to Game Basics, Pokemon Basics, and Setting Basics
- Extended FAQ sections reworked to be: Training 101, Breeding 101, Rocket 101, Pokemon, Non-Player Characters
- Lots of rewording for clarity and/or simplification
- FAQ updated to refer to new Class system rather than old Trainer/Breeder/Rocket system
- Money/jobs have been abstracted to remove (most) mentions of actual money, so people don't worry about tracking it
- Re-applied characters can now regain nearly everything they achieved in their previous run
- Many many other changes!
Extended FAQ: Pokemon page simplified
- Pokemon with similar special evolution conditions combined into one entry
- FAQ questions reworded for clarity/simplification
- Some info moved from Training 101
Training 101 updated (from Trainer 101)
- Added a “give me the bare minimum” section
- No more trainer discounts, as money is not being tracked
- Pokemon growth rates are now based on Class Ranking rather than being a Trainer (I.e. by default, Pokemon grow at 5 levels a week for everyone)
- Everyone can now catch wild shinies. For more details, see "Shiny Requests reworked" section later
- Upon gaining their 16th badge, everyone can now get a second Mega Stone
Breeding 101 updated (from Breeder 101)
- Added a “give me the bare minimum” section
- For more details, see "Breeding reworked" section later
Items reworked
- TMs are no longer seasonal. All TMs not listed elsewhere can be found in Goldenrod and Celadon.
- Berries and TM pages are now linked in the general Items page.
- Berries now have a “give me the bare minimum” section
Badge Requests updated
- Added a “What should I be putting in the Battle Details?” section
Shiny Requests reworked
- Wild shiny requests are no longer locked to Trainers
- Breeding shiny requests are no longer locked to Breeders (but require a minimum Class Rank)
- Shiny requests now require evidence of activity (please view page for all details)
Breeding reworked
- "Simple" breeding option added (please view Breeding FAQ page for all details)
- Perks locked to Breeders are now unlocked and/or removed (i.e. all trainers can breed Pokemon with Hidden Abilities)
- Shiny breeding is now handled through Shiny Requests
- Some editing of JKBA pages so they’re no longer locked to Breeders. For now JKBA is staying; based on player poll results we may deprecate it in the future, if it sees no use.
Hiatus and Drop pages combined
Reserves page deprecated (with the slow pace of VR applications, reserves are not really necessary anymore)
Taken list updated
- Removed Trainer/Breeder/Rocket Grunt affiliation from entries and form
- Removed email field from all entries, except in cases where it was the only contact provided, in which case it ended up in the Contact field.
- Standardized plurk contact in all entries, and updated form for standardization
If you have any concerns, questions, or other comments, please do go ahead and comment below! And please do the same if you find any broken links, or links to pages that are now deprecated/seem to refer to something that no longer applies! (There is a non-zero chance we missed something in a fury of editing.)
In addition, we have a very quick poll for players! VR's Fourth Wall event is usually around November - however, this year, we started keeping events bi-monthly, rather than monthly. November happens to be an "off" month with no event, so we were originally planning to do it in December... but December is also a month that's heavy on holidays and people not having much time to RP. So we decided it would make more sense to check what players would like!
Please head on over to vote here. (There are a few other options besides November and December.)
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indigo_league) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
the_plateau2025-09-06 11:53 pm
no subject
Some odds and ends/questions/comments:
1. For the changes that have a visible in-character impact (e.g. drop in weekly level gains until a class rank is gained for former trainers, lack of formal seasonal rotation for TMs, shiny Pokémon+item for Master rank jobs), will that somehow be advertised? Or will people suddenly wonder why their Pokémon are growing more slowly?
2. When you say the current month's activity check starts immediately after the previous one closes, is that after regular AC end or the grace period?
3. For class ranks that can be grandfathered in, if a character would have two different classes, would you prefer having a different comment for each class or one for both? In addition, if a single thread or post refers to both potential classes, could it be used as evidence for both?
4. On the Breeding page, there's still a mention of egg numbers between brackets for trainers and Rockets, even though there are no bracketed numbers anymore.
5. On the Pokémon page of the FAQ, our friend Malamar is marked as being from Sinnoh rather than Kalos. Every region wants to claim our friend Malamar...
6. The NPCs FAQ page and the Badge Request page disagree about the identity of the first member of the Elite 4.
That's it for the moment! Thank you again for all your hard work!
no subject
1. There won't be any IC advertisement! But for your specific examples:
Drops in levels: This is just mysteriously happening now and nobody knows why...
Seasonal rotations: Something changed in the department store's supply contracts, so now they're getting changes in supply more often than seasonally! (But that still doesn't mean they'll always have what you want...)
Shiny Pokemon + item: IC, characters wouldn't necessarily notice the shiny Pokemon difference - as far as they're ICly concerned, it was random luck before and it'll be random luck now. Maybe former Trainers will be like "huh, I never got shinies in my eggs before" or former Breeders will be like "huh, I never managed to run into a wild one before" but it could always just be luck, too.
As far as the item - obviously, characters will absolutely notice an item showing up! But there's no direct IC awareness of rank, that's more an OOC representation of someone's status. (Even an IC awareness of class is kind of nebulous, you may choose to have your character have an Official IC title or not. Or, for example, IC Aurora Gym Leaders are aware that they're Gym Leaders even if they don't officially have that on the Class Ranking page.) So at most characters might notice "huh, characters who are really really successful eventually get an item as a present from Arceus, just like we sometimes get presents around December..."
Feel free to generally assume stuff along these lines for any other differences! If there's an explanation that makes sense to you IC for characters to wave it away, go with it; if there's no reasonable IC explanation, it's just mysteriously happening now.
2. After regular AC ends, so generally on the 2nd of each month! (This particular month, it'll be on the ~9th - the only reason I'm not already opening the comment is to prevent confusion about which one to comment to, this first month.)
3. One comment with two forms is fine! (But two comments is also fine.)
And yep, using a single thread for both classes is fine, within reason (basically: we may start squinting if you're just copying all the threads between both, but if you have a handful of threads that are really really good for both classes - go for it).
4-5. Oops. Thank you for the catch, give me a few minutes and I will correct these. (Our poor friend Malamar, tugged in all directions)
6. Yep, this is on our list of tiny remaining things to update! For now, the Badge Requests page is the more updated/accurate listing of members.