June News and Notices 2016

Subject: June News and Notices 2016 Wed Jun 01, 2016 2:06 pm

Welcome to the news and notices thread that contains any and all updates and news for the month of June 2016!

As mentioned in the May news thread, I plan to make this 'news update' format a regular thing on PMD. However I noticed that not many users took the time to post in last month's thread, and so I would also like to encourage any readers to post in this thread if they have something to say or comment on! We like to know you're reading this after all, and your opinions matter! If you have something to say please come out and say it! I'd like to use the news format to also provoke small discussions on various site issues, and so i'll attempt to include a discussion topic at the end of each news thread from this point forward! I'm still toying with the format so if any of you have anything you'd like to see mentioned or updated on in the news threads, send me a PM!

Anywho moving on to our general updates~

- General News & Updates -

Extra Move Slots Price Decided!

The poll to decide on the pricing of the 2 possible extra move slots ended on May 23rd, and it was decided that each extra move slot would cost 800 poké!

The poll is located ->here<- if anyone is interested in the distribution of votes.

Up to two extra move slots can be purchased per character, and this can be done by posting in the Admin Request thread, similar to how you would post a normal transaction or purchase an extra thread slot!

Administrator Nominations

Now that the move slot pricing poll is over, we are ready to begin accepting nominations for our next administrator!

As a member of PMD you may nominate one person for the role of administrator and can do so by sending me a personal message(PM). Please include within your nomination PM, the username of the member you wish to nominate, and the reasons for which you would consider them to be right for the role of administrator.

You are not permitted to reveal who you have nominated until we select our new administrator, as all nominations are anonymous. Nominations will remain open for the next few weeks.

- Current Sitewide Event -

There isn't particulrly anything new to update about the current event and so I have copied the event breakdown from last month to reiterate how members can get involved!

As you may or may not be aware, the current sitewide event 'The Wake of Destruction' is still ongoing. (Main thread located ->here<-)
Arceus and Giratina still both have one out of three recruits, whereas Zygarde has none.

How can you participate in this event? Now that's a good question! Here's how!:

The battle for Mewtwo, Arceus's second recruit still rages on in Serene Cave and you can participate by rolling a Mewtwo encounter in that particular dungeon!
Zygarde's first recruit, Shaymin has been located in Misty Mire, but requires rescuing! In order to participate in freeing Shaymin, you must work to defeat any Muk, Gourgeist, Malamar and Reuniclus that you encounter in Misty Mire.
The clue for Giratina's second recruit can be found in the event thread, if you can work out what it is you need to do, you may just be rewarded...

Note that any who participate in dealing damage to Mewtwo, or defeating even a single opponent to help free Shaymin will be eligible to require the rewards offered for completing each section of the event! Similar is true for any other parts of the event; each user who actively participates and results in progression of the event will receive rewards.

If you happen to roll Mewtwo in Serene Cave, or defeat one of the above mentioned opponents in Misty Mire, please notify myself (@Solilo) or another administrator so that we can update the event thread!

A quick reminder that the escort rule can be utilised in any event related threads, as long as said thread is specifically marked as an Event Thread by the user posting it. The escort rule allows a character with higher energy to escort up to two extra characters to a dungeon that they would not normally be able to access due to the constraints of the energy system. It costs 5 extra energy per pokemon being escorted for the higher energy character to enter that dungeon, and any character that is being escorted will have 0 energy upon entering the dungeon and will have to replenish their energy with berries or other items.

It is wise to confirm with a staff member before using the escort rule, just to be safe. But the rule was always intended to help us be inclusive of newer members of the site who might want to explore the areas linked to site events but who have characters with low energy.

- Staff Changes & Updates -

New Staff

This month we do not have any new staff, but I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that staff applications for the Character Moderator, Board Updater and Record Checker positions are all still open and can be applied for in ->this<- linked thread.

Please note that when applying to be staff, you must be of Member rank or higher (this means you have 250 posts or more on your account ^-^)

- Independant Organisation News -

Just a reminder to all members that we have four Independant Organisations (IOs) on the site currently, and characters can apply for membership in any of these whilst their character is still being looked over for approval by Character Moderators. Some IOs have their own conditions for joining though, so you may have to wait until after your character is approved to finalise your IO signup for various reasons!

The list of current IOs on the site is located ->here<- and includes Steamrise Inn, The Tribe of Renewed Life, Blacktooth Kingdom and the Windrose Scouts.

I plan to use this particular section of the news threads to report on various news in IOs and generate interest in the IOs on the site, and so if any IO founders have any news they would like me to include in this section, feel free to send me a message and i'll fit it in here!

Windrose Scouts News

I would like to congratulate @brooklynrage and @aMEWzing as their characters Giles the Shuckle and Genevieve Treavus the Misdreavus completed their entry requirements for joining the Windrose Scouts and have become fully fledged members of WS! Although this happened in late May I didn't add this feature until now and I still feel a congrats is in order!

If anyone is interested in joining the Windrose Scouts, the signup thread can be found ->here<-
WS is currently two members away from choosing their second in command! Perhaps it could be you?

- Other Notices -

Rules and Report Function

As per, here's your monthly reminder to keep yourself up to date with all of the site's rules! The rules board is located ->here<- and though we will usually notify when large rule changes take place, we do still make smaller edits without a big notice so it's worth re-reading them every now and again.

Finally i'd also like to remind everyone that in order to help staff and moderators do their jobs more easily, we encourage you to report any post in a thread that you see is breaking the site's rules by using the report button located on each post.

June News and Notices 2016 Icon_post_report

This little icon is located by the Quote, Edit and Delete buttons of each post and upon clicking you can select a reasoning for the report, and write why you are reporting that particular post.

By doing this, we can more quickly and easily deal with posts that are breaking the rules as staff are notified of posts that are reported!

Birthdays!

Last but not least, I'll conclude the news part of this month's news thread by wishing a very happy birthday to the following users, whose birthdays are all this month!

Lord E V
AKPokemonFan
TheRussBuss
Digizel
Hyacinthum
PirateGuy3001
Thor Quantum
demnoss
blade12
I liek Squirtles
mariosonicman1

Happy Birthday to you all!!

Discussion Topic

As mentioned at the beginning of this news thread, I would like to incorporate a discussion topic into each news thread. This week's is whether you believe Everstones should continue to be used on the site, or whether they are obsolete.

Lastly, if you have a discussion topic you'd like to have asked here, send me a PM and it might be included in next month's news thread ^-^

Subject: Re: June News and Notices 2016 Wed Jun 01, 2016 2:34 pm

First off, happy birthday to Eevee and to everyone else for this month. I hope you all enjoy those special days.

Everstones... I really can't offer much, I'm afraid. My only character needs a Soothe Bell followed by a Shiny Stone to fully evolve (which she won't, I'm only after the bell) so I have no real use for them at present. On that note, I intend to have my second character join WS so you can look forward to at least one more new member in the future.

Posts : 2129 Poké : 1760 Join date : 2012-08-04

I believe everstones are obselete due to the fact that, as far as I know, they being removed would only give players the option to evolve their level-based characters whenever they want, after meeting the level requirement of course, without the need of an item that they, for whatever reason, may neverend up finding.

Edit: I'll elaborate more later and fix all the commas as well, just doing this basic post on my stance.

Subject: Re: June News and Notices 2016 Wed Jun 01, 2016 5:50 pm

Happy birthday to all those in June~

As for everstones, I plan on evolving my characters as soon as they are able to, so everstones don't really affect me but it would make sense for PMD not to have everstones simply because the PMD GAMES don't have everstones, and indeed, you can evolve your character whenever you see fit in the PMD games as long as they've met the requirements.

Subject: Re: June News and Notices 2016 Wed Jun 01, 2016 6:14 pm

Yeah, I gotta agree with Silver on this. Perhaps it could be the subject of a future poll if more agree?

Subject: Re: June News and Notices 2016 Wed Jun 01, 2016 7:10 pm

I believe everstones should be obsolete, but not removed from the site. It could be used for another purpose. (This is especially good if we need to modify dice to remove it.)

Without going too much into detail. It could be used for some kind of event. Putting these onto a rare item list if possible.

(Wait... Then why would it still be in the dice xD Flawed logic right there! LET'S KEEP IT IN THE POST HAHA)

Posts : 1110 Poké : 2445 Join date : 2014-03-12

Yay, congrats to me (and Brook) for making it into Windrose Scouts! *high fives self*

And with the Everstone discussion, I at first thought it was a good idea to give it a purpose, but now that I think about it, there is no way to reverse evolution, so anyone trying to find an Everstone, failed to in time, and ended up evolving would not be able to go back. Just what could make Everstones have a use, I don't know.

Subject: Re: June News and Notices 2016 Thu Jun 02, 2016 1:02 am

I am in the boat of "don't care" when it comes to everstones, since.... well, I'm me. My characters require items to evolve. The only exception is my zorua, whom I'll evolve instantly if I get the chance to. Although I don't think it's a big enough deal to go through the trouble of removing it. More importantly, the ways in which evolution work here are based primarily on the main games, and in the main games, the everstone is meant to make it easier to inhibit evolution. The only other way to do it is by pressing B, which is canonically the trainer scaring the Pokemon out of evolving. There are no trainers here to do that, and I highly doubt a character would be able to consistently scare themselves. This means if we are to stick to the way evolution works in the main games, everstones need to remain how they are on the site.

Now, of course, they could be changed or removed without any immediate unhealthy issues arising, but then that would potentially give people room to complain about OTHER things involving evolution in the future.

Subject: Re: June News and Notices 2016 Thu Jun 02, 2016 2:02 pm

With everstones the problem with them is whether you want to take PMD or main game continuity tbh. Our site already has mixed ways of evolving, some are main game based and some are PMD based to fit around what we can and can't do. Whether we have Everstones or not doesn't matter, because we can reason it either way. PMD doesn't have everstones, main games do.

The main issue here is whether it's really worth it to use an entire item to prevent someone from evolving, and whether it's really fair to the RPer as a whole, which is kinda what I want you guys to think about, because i'm not sure myself.

What I don't want to do, is uphold a rule specifically because it's a rule that's been in place for a while. There should be a reason for it, if it is to remain. For example, if I were to argue the other side, I could see it as; if we understand evolution as a natural process of a pokemon's growth, the item would purposefully inhibit that growth to the individual who wants to bypass and ignore that natural process.

Really, the everstone issue doesn't affect me either because my characters never get levels high enough to evolve because I don't RP all of them enough to get them there, which is why i'm posing the question to users who are more fit to give an opinion on the matter and how it might affect them.

Posts : 1110 Poké : 2445 Join date : 2014-03-12

Well, to be fair, PMD has a lot of things we don't have. For example, a specific place to evolve, and because of that I think we should change the current system in some way. Whether that is adding a place for Pokemon to evolve specifically like in the games or a system for the Everstones, I don't know. The most important thing to note right now is the current way of using Everstones is flawed, and there should be a way to work around that.

Subject: Re: June News and Notices 2016 Thu Jun 02, 2016 11:11 pm

Okay, I'm a bit more focused right now, so I'll elaborate on what I said previously. We use some of the methods of evolution from the PMD games, but not the ways evolution as a whole works. That would cause problems since in most PMD games, Pokemon cannot evolve unless under incredibly specific conditions, and in the most recent one, I hear the special snowflake main characters can evolve and devolve at will or something along those lines. So, we use the way in which evolution works in the main games, which means the ways to stop evolution through level-up indefinitely are to be scared constantly or have an everstone. Again, the prior seems a bit far-fetched to argue, even for an extremely timid character, since no character has some jerk following them around 24/7 and scaring them every time they start evolving.

Now, ignoring this doesn't cause any problems in itself, but hear me out. If you ignore this one thing, it could invite arguments pertaining to evolution in the future. I personally don't care whether or not it's removed, but I'd prefer not to have any users come along and try to abuse the fact that they've seen that this rule is malleable. Some people would likely try and argue for things that would be a bigger deal, and they would likely bring up that this change happened. For instance, if someone came up and said "I want this Pokemon's evolution to not work in the way it does on the site," your main argument would likely be "It's based on the games." If this change goes through, a particularly spiteful, determined person could say "Evolution by level doesn't work exactly like this in any of the games."

Again, it doesn't affect me, so it isn't a big deal to me, and an argument arising in the future isn't exactly the most likely thing. But it could still happen, so I feel like it's still worth considering. Given my mother is a dog trainer and I've been around dogs my entire life, I know that if you give them something once, they'll keep asking for more and more of it. People can be a lot like dogs in that way; if you give in once, they'll expect you to give in again, and they'll fight harder for it next time.

That's all I really have to say on the matter. I don't think changing the way everstones work on the site or even entirely removing them would cause any problems from a mechanical standpoint. I just think it could potentially fuel some fires.

Subject: Re: June News and Notices 2016 Fri Jun 03, 2016 12:42 am

I still believe the everstone shouldn't be required to prevent evolution. You can have a thread that gains many levels, but growth wise for your character could be poor.

Some people like to have their characters grow slower than others when it comes to this. I would use Joey as an example of someone that would be a child for a while until plots progressed. However, his evolution requirements do not use his level on the site so it would be a very poor example. However, think of his kind of character as another species, then you got it spot on.

Posts : 2129 Poké : 1760 Join date : 2012-08-04

Alright, very overdue but let me explain my own problems with everstones. All of my characters so far that evolve take levels to evolve. When my first worries arose with Akuroma, he was already level 20 or so, and I was rping him so much, he would've (and did) easily gained the levels to evolve him into a Gardevoir. I had no idea where Dawn stones were nor Everstones. Nobody on the site knew or would tell me where said items were. It was only through taking a gamble, stopping all other threads, and going to Sandstone Cave that I actually found a Dawn stone there and was able to evolve Akuroma into a Gallade.

Now I'm at the problem of Gauel. At first, yes I was going to evolve him all the way, it's why he has a Sceptilite. However, after discussing some rp plans with Fox, I've decided to keep him as a Grovyle for as long as possible. Now, at first I didn't question the Everstone's use until I heard from, I think, Blue. She told me that I could have an Everstone equipped with another item. To me, that makes no sense. Why make this one item special from the rest? If you're making it keep its affect even if I have, say, a Joy Ribbon on, then why even bother letting it be a thing? Simply removing it from the site, or finding it a new purpose, only changes one thing: I and other people who will need it don't have to go looking for it.

Another problem is in the sense of pre-evolution moves. Some Pokemon can only learn certain moves by reaching a level higher than required to evolve, and won't be able to learn that move again if they evolve. It's unfair to force that person to give up on a move simply because they're level is now too high for them to stay in the pre-evolved form and they don't have an item that's purpose on the site is to literally give itself a purpose.

As a side note: No, the main characters in Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon cannot switch between their primary and final evolutions at will. It's literally a plot device for the games and when you reach the post game it no longer exists. So if that's the main argument you were worried about arising, it won't arise because it was specific to those games as a plot device.

For any other arguments arising, the only ones I can think of are people arguing for pokemon that require happiness or friendship. We've already dealt with that, now you need gummis or a soothe bell to evolve if you need said conditions. All other types of evolution require items, as far as I'm aware. Granted Sun and Moon might come out with a special evolution with those bracelets that do the same as the scarves in PSMD /shot

Subject: Re: June News and Notices 2016 Sun Jun 05, 2016 4:18 am

My point with the evolution shenanigans in PMSD was simply that it said it could happen, and it was not my main point or concern. It was just a supporting point. I listed other points and even some examples of the most likely arguments to arise. If you make exceptions to your rules and systems, it opens them up to hostile criticism when someone else wants to make an exception.

Subject: Re: June News and Notices 2016 Wed Jun 08, 2016 3:31 am

I can totally understand Dracorexion's point on pre-evolution moves (and everything else, but that's the part I'll stick to). This specific example hasn't been a problem to me in any PMD game but I know firsthand from Omega Ruby that Shroomish can learn Spore at level 40, a move Breloom is otherwise unable to get. As Shroomish evolves at level 23, the forum's rules say that Shroomish can choose to evolve anywhere between levels 11-28, after which point it has no choice but to evolve and thus miss a move exclusive to the basic stage simply because the roleplayer was unable to find an Everstone in time.

Either I'm stark raving mad or that's just a little bit too unfair. The Everstone definitely needs reviewing at the very least.

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