Timewaster's Guide Archive

About half done with this chapter. If I can manage to finish it by Monday, I'll send it out, but I can't guarantee how likely that is...

I dunno... just because you have a beginning, middle, and end in mind from the start, doesn't mean you can't make stuff up as you go along between those points.  Probably not entirely the best idea when writing television, though...

Then again, I've never seen Lost. I really have no idea what I'm talking about ^_^

I'm having some trouble getting it up on teh site, but it will be coming, I promise. And we'll have full video too, so yay.

I'm going to go ahead and "WOOT", if nobody minds 

...not about the trouble, of course. I woot for teh other stuffage...

No, singleforms annoy me, too. It would have to be very cool (or a legendary) for me to even care. Things like Skarmory, maybe.

Normals do learn a lot of interesting moves, but I find it more effective to get that 1.5 or 1.25x same type bonus and a lot of specialists. Also, I don't use straight ice types. There's no need when virtually all water types can learn Ice Beam.

Some of them have proven very useful. I did a scramble challenge with Mawile a few years back, and the little Steel punk managed to amaze me. So they sometimes have an advantage in power, but are sorely lacking in the coolness of evolution. And since i never use Legendaries (they spend the entire game in the box) my options on them are somewhat limited.

Problem with using a Water type for Ice attacks is they lose the STAB Ice types get. And when you're facing Dragons, you need all the power you can get from Ice. I like to go with the Water/Ice dual type compromise when I can.

Yeah, from some quick research you can't get those National Dex pokemon at all until after Elite Four. You can, however, get some interesting ones in the Safari Zone, though it gets complicated.

Houndour is again in Kanto. You won't get it any earlier. There seems to be very, very few changes, if any at all.

Figures. Maybe someone who gets the game before I do, and gets further along, can trade me one early in my own game...

No Water types in Gold and Silver? I can name a bunch off the top of my head: Kingdra, Lanturn, Lapras, Quagsire. If you're really desperate, Vaporeon. All those, with exception of Quagsire because he's mostly useless, are superior to Feraligator. Feraligator just has a much higher attack than special attack, and me? I think Surf is awesome. So Kingdra, with no type weaknesses in the game from his Water/Dragon mix, is excellent. Lanturn is really cool with Water/Electric--its only weakness is Ground, which is easily covered due to his water type. Lapras is just all around excellent if you want a standard Water/Ice, and Quagsire, while being a slow buttmonkey, is only weak to Grass, which can be mitigated with some TMs teaching Ice Beam or Blizzard.

I think R/S and D/P both had much less options in the non-starter Water type department. I know I had to use Vaporeon in a playthrough, and that's just depressing when that's the best you can get.

I never said they had no Water types, just that I wasn't happy with many that they did have. Quagsire and Kingdra are ugly, not to mention I never had the latter because I never had anyone to trade with. The Super Rod is required to catch a Chinchou, and by the time you get it in-game and can catch Chinchou, I generally have little need of it. And since I prefer to use that generations pokemon in their games, Lapras and Vaporeon were out, as were any others that could be found that were also in Red and Blue.

However, I may give Kingdra a try this time around. The WiFi aspect makes things a lot easier, as I can now get all those I never could before.

R/S made up for it, I think, with Milotic. I never cared how long it took to find a Feebas, getting Milotic always made it worthwhile. Wailord, when used right, wasn't too bad either.

I mapped out my team today. It's a bit more ambitious type wise than my traditional line-ups that I prefer, and I was forced into using Lugia. I remember using Lugia in a Silver playthrough long ago, and despite my initial bias against legendary birds due to extreme type weaknesses--Lugia is one of the worst on that front--Lugia is pretty powerful. So that's something. (As an aside, it seems like you can naturally grab Zapdos, Articuno, Moltres, and Mewtwo in this remake. That's pretty cool. I may replace Lugia with Zapdos, because I love Zapdos...)

I'm going with: Typhlosion, Espeon, Lanturn, Quagsire, Lugia, Scizor.

I'm a little peeved at the selection of ground types in SoulSilver. I'm sick of using Steelix or Golem in virtually all of my playthroughs, so I realized that Quagsire fit the bill adequately (not excellently, but adequately). This subsequently made me realize that a lot of my team was weak to Ground, so I took out Ampharos. This worries me, relying on Lanturn, but at the same time, having two water types (each with unique weaknesses, so a single move won't rip through them both) helps to split up the HMs. But, Typhlosion learns Thunderpunch from Move Tutor. How awesome is that?

Lugia was a natural choice, since most of the other Flying types kind of suck. This left me with a distinct hole in my team, when I realized that Scizor is really frickin' cool. I remember liking him a lot.

So, Shivertongue, wanna do a quick WiFi trade-and-trade back so I can evolve Scyther?

I was hoping you'd ask that. XD

I've done some thinking about my own team, and came up with a tentative list. I don't know of all the ones I want to use, only that I want a team of as many I've never used as I can. So, Houndoom if I can get him, Typholsian if I can't. Probably go with Typhosian anyway, now that I think of it, and use Houndoom as a Dark with Fire backup. Scizor and Kingdra are also on the list. I've never considered Gligar, due to the singleform aspect, but he has an evolution that I can get after the National Dex so I might use it. Flying with immunity to Electricity is very nice. And I've always wanted an Ursaring...

Guess I don't quite know yet. I'll have plenty of time, though, as i doubt I'll be able to get it until a few weeks after it comes out. I've actually set up a reward system for myself. If I can get this story I'm working on up to Chapter Ten by the time the game comes out, I get to get it as a reward. If I don't, I can't get it until I have chapter ten done. And they have to be good chapters, ones I'm satisfied with.

Quote from: Shivertongue on February 19, 2010, 10:21:31 PM

Also picked up Mainspring by Jay Lake

Mainspring killed me.  Of course, I didn't really care for his winning Writers of the Future entry either.  Haven't read anything else by him.  Mainspring is all about the world and the newness factor, and so in that way it's more a Science Fiction book.  The story was lacking.  The ending doesn't tie anything up either.  It was extremely frustrating.

I picked it up mainly because I read Green and loved it, and also because I'm making an attempt at writing a novel with Steampunk-ish aspects. I'm basically picking up every novel in the genre I can find, both for enjoyment and for research. I know there's a second book in the series, so if the ending doesn't satisfy me I'll give the sequel a shot and see if that ties up anything.

Quote from: Shivertongue on February 19, 2010, 10:21:31 PM

The Affinity Bridge by George Mann. Have read the first few pages of the latter, but not far enough to know for certain if I like it or not.

Awesome, awesome novel.  Sherlock Steampunk.  I imported book 2 from england. George Mann is, uh, the man...his newest novel (being released shortly), GHOSTS OF MANHATTAN is awesome too.

SERVANT OF A DARK GOD is a very cool book.  It has flaws, but it is good.  Book 2 is already much better (i've read a 1/3rd of it), but of course you will have to wait until the Fall for its release.

I'll be honest and admit something you've probably heard many times before. I picked up The Affinity Bridge based off the review on your site. I'd been looking for more Steampunk to read, and saw the review the first time I went to the site. Since you guys had already shown excellent taste (meaning taste like mine) with other reviews, I went with it. I'm only about three or four chapters in, and I love it already.

Servant of a Dark God is very cool, but the flaws in the writing style (which shouldn't really count as flaws, I suppose, but I digress) tend to stand out to me quite a bit. I think it's the writer in me, and because I usually read it before bed, after spending several hours writing. It's not nearly enough to make me put it down, though, and I have read far worse novels in terms of writing style. The plot and characters hooked me and hooked me deep from the first chapter.

Hey, fires are cool. I have one slot open on my six guy roster for whatever I want. I have very particular type requirements. The five Pokemon I need are: Water, Flying, Ground (to defeat electrics), Electric (far superior to grass in combat. So many flying pokemon to vanquish!), and a Psychic/Ghost/Dark thing. The sixth slot will either be Fighting, Fire, or Grass, I suppose, but Fighting or Fire will always come first (Blaziken was awesome in this regard, as it filled both of these. He's weak to a lot, but its hella fun). I hate Grass Pokemon. So, I do like fire, but I learned long ago with my constant type matchups that they are not wholly necessary.

My particular requirements are somewhat similar. Water, Flying, Fire, Dark and two open slots that depends entirely on what the rest of my party is like. If I don't have one that duals types as Ground, then I have to get a Ground type. Ice is another one that often finds itself in one of these, as it covers Flying, Grass, Ground and Dragon. I've also found that some Normal types can be quite strong, and can learn enough diverse moves that make them incredibly useful. I used Exploud a lot in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald for this exact reason. Fighting often finds it's way in too, although I don't think it will in this game.

I also tend to have a preference for those that evolve twice. I get annoyed with singleforms (as I call them) and tend to get excited when I can build a strong team of threeformers. That's just a weird thing of mine, I guess.

I also hear rumors of people who use more than six Pokemon during the course of a game. These rumors must be made by madmen! It was around Crystal version before I realized I can do away with a lot of grinding by minimizing the amount of Pokemon I use in the game. Thus, my strategy now is to plan precisely which six Pokemon I will have, then get them as quickly as possible.

Yeah, that makes no sense to me at all. I tried it once, and it just didn't work for me. It took too long to get others outside of my established party up to speed. That I honestly enjoy going through the whole game with a party I've built and trained exclusively.

Hmmm. Well, I will definitely start with Cyndaquil, because I love him. But other than that, everything in my roster is up for grabs (as in, everything I need.) That's why I loved Gold and Silver so much: there was an excellent variety to the game. I know Mareep/Ampharos was my traditional electric type, since I got him so early (unfortunately, Ampharos is quite slow... Oh well), but I can think of like three others! There's Jolteon, my all time favorite, and then there is the bizarre and awesome Lanturn. Were I to want Lanturn, this would exclude Kingdra, who is also a fantastic water type. If I chose Jolteon, then I can't have Espeon--and Espeon is also amazing--which leaves me with Misdreavous and hopefully her evolved form, Mismagius (easily my favorite D/P pokemon)... So many choices! With other versions, I could literally choose a starter and there would be a complete dearth of a lot of the interesting types I require.

As you can tell, I can talk about this a lot.

You probably won't be able to get Mismagius until you can get this games National Pokedex. It seems to be how it works - in FireRed and LeafGreen Golbat wouldn't evolve into Crobat without the National Dex.

If I can get Houndour early, I'll probably start with Totodile. I don't remember being especially thrilled with the Water types in Gold and Silver, but Totodile was awesome. If I can't get Houndour, which I expect will be the case, then Cyndaquil definitely. And Espeon. After that it's harder to determine, as I don't like using first-gen Pokemon in a second-gen game. I like Ampharos, and there are ways to improve it's speed enough to suit me, but Jolteon is always a good addition to a team. But that would mean I couldn't get Umbreon, and other Dark types appear too late for my liking. Ambipom was a lot of fun in Diamond/Pearl, so I might see if I can snag an Aipom, despite it being much weaker. Skarmory is great too, and Steel is always useful in a lineup. I'd love it if I could get more than one Eevee, so I could have Espeon and Umbreon... It's a shame so many of the threeformers in Gold and Silver were so unappealing...

And yeah, I too can talk about this a lot. XD

Depends on what the fifth gen games have to offer, personally. If they don't have more Fire Types to offer, than I probably won't bother. Diamond and Pearl sucked in type regard.

However, if SoulSilver and HeartGold allow one to capture a Houndour before the Elite Four... I don't think I'll be able to resist.

Woot! Ellie!

Loved the chapter. Flew right flew it, and then got upset I didn't have more to read. Ellie's inner conflict over Malik was very strong and, like Cynic said, believable. I couldn't help but think he was trying to manipulate her, though, and the way he kept going on about the sword struck me as suspicious.

Magic rings are always cool. I don't care if someone says they're cliché, jewelry that does more than make you look pretty is always welcome. Sneaky ninja ring = awesome.

Morrigan is a hoot. I love me some offbeat, potentially-crazy prophetess'.

One complaint, and I'm not sure why this is, but the ending, while it was a great cliffhanger, felt like it could be stronger. The impact of an advancing army should be larger. Although them being without their maps and stuff now is a funny little twist of fate.

Again, well done, and I await more. Although I suppose we're getting Kail next, and I'll have to wait for more of Ellie