What do you think about the U.S. governments excessive military spending?

it's excessive

What do you think of age of consent laws?

too low

should be 30, minimum

Quote from: challengerX on September 08, 2017, 12:52:32 PM

Too bad you failed your suicide attempt

don't do this man

yeah you should ban him for that Death Threat(tm)

So, in preparation for Gold/Silver's rerelease, I've just been going over all of my favorites to see which Pokémon I'd like to use this time around (despite the fact that I'm nuzlocking, and I only have a slim chance of catching everything I want).

Turns out, this generation doesn't want me to have any of my favorite Pokémon.

We'll start off light. Ledian is one of my favorite Bug-types, despite being one of the weakest Pokémon of all time. Ledyba can only be found in the morning, though, so if I want to use one in this nuzlocke, I'll have to set my alarm clock. It's the only Pokémon in the game that is exclusively available in the morning.

I've never used a Smeargle, and I've never actually seen one in Silver before, so I thought about using that. Turns out, it's a 10% encounter on the outside of the Ruins of Alph, which isn't accessible until the late game, if I recall correctly. This one isn't SO bad, but if I want it in a nuzlocke, I'll have to use some Repels—and even then, I'll likely just end up with a Natu instead. Still better than Unown, at least.

Steelix, Scizor, Politoed, Slowking, and Kingdra are all AWESOME Pokémon that I'd love to use, and I cannot use any of them, because they all involve trades. Not just trades, but trades with obnoxiously rare items attached. Every single one of them—even Porygon2, who evolves from my favorite Pokémon of all time.

Sneasel and Misdreavus are only available after you beat the Elite 4.

Ariados, Ursaring, Gligar, and Mantine are all varying degrees of cool/interesting, but they're all exclusive to Gold (I'm playing Silver). It's okay, though—Silver has better exclusives anyway (like Skarmory).

Not only is Celebi unobtainable, it has NEVER been obtainable in this generation's entire fucking history—unless you lived in Japan. They literally never had a Celebi distribution event for this game in the west. You can still get it by doing this really bizarre glitch involving the daycare, but fuck. The things we had to resort to just to get our hands on this fucking thing, which is one of my favorite legendaries, if not my most favorite.

And then there's Pineco and Heracross. Hoo boy. It's probably common knowledge that these two Pokémon only appear when you headbutt trees, which was always a pretty funny and cool mechanic on its own—but I've never actually delved into how the mechanic works until just recently.

There are two kinds of headbuttable trees—"forest" trees and "mountain" trees. You can find the Caterpie family, Weedle family, Exeggcute, or Pineco in a "forest" tree, and you can find Spearow, Aipom, or Heracross in a "mountain" tree. Sounds simple enough, but there's more to it. I'll try to explain it as best as I can.

Both of these groups of trees, forest and mountain, are split into two subgroups—"moderate-encounter" (ME) and "low-encounter" (LE). Whether you're able to find a Pineco or Heracross in any given tree depends on which subgroup the tree belongs to. The trees are randomly generated and placed based on your trainer ID, so they're always arranged and set differently when you start a new game. And to top it all off, they are visually indistinguishable from each other, and they may not even appear on certain routes at all.

The only way to "tell" which trees are MEs or LEs is by testing it yourself. An ME tree will produce a lot of Pokémon, and an LE tree will produce fewer. In Gold/Silver, Pineco and Heracross will only appear in LE trees—but in Crystal, for whatever reason, they only appear in MEs.

Once you find yourself a good tree, you have a 30% chance of encountering a Heracross or Pineco, depending on whether you searched in a forest/mountain area—which, by the way, also varies depending on whether you're playing Crystal. Azalea Town, for example, is considered a "forest" area in Gold/Silver, but a "mountain" area in Crystal.

These all seem to be recent developments, too. No one was sure how any of this shit worked until very recently. There have been Prima strategy guides written for these games, telling kids that they have a 30% chance of finding a Heracross by headbutting trees, leading them all to headbutting the wrong trees about 2000 times before realizing they've been had.

So yeah, I guess I can kiss my odds of using a Heracross in this playthrough goodbye—or almost any of my favorites, for that matter. Just my luck, I suppose. Rare Pokémon have always been a cool and exciting mechanic, and I'm not opposed to it, but it just sucks to know that there's so many great Pokémon that I straight-up cannot get for the absolute silliest fucking reasons. And I haven't even got into the first-gen Pokémon.

At least I can reliably get Typhlosion, Crobat, and Ampharos—and maybe if I end up with something lame like Aipom, I might grow to appreciate it. That's the magic of nuzlockes, after all.

i wish this fucking website didn't give me a fucking tutorial on how to use it every single time i log in

in second generation pokémon games, your rival in this game is notorious for being a huge prick, probably the worst in the franchise—not only does he hate the weak and love talking others down, there are several moments where he'll physically kick and shove you around just for being in his way—and, worst of all, he raises his pokémon with hatred and not love

but naturally, he does come to a point where he sees the error in his ways, and he starts becoming a better trainer and better overall person once you beat the game

one of his key pokémon that he uses throughout the playthrough is a golbat

golbat is the evolved form of zubat, and it can evolve further into a crobat, its final form—but only when its friendship stat is raised above a certain point (friendship is a hidden stat that goes up when the game thinks you're treating your pokémon "nicely," typically by walking around with it, winning battles, grooming it, giving it treats, etc)

and wouldn't you know it—as soon as your rival starts changing his ways, his golbat evolves into a crobat, showing that he really does care for his pokémon after all, d'aww

that's not something i noticed until several years after i beat the game for the first time, and the fact that they added that little touch that no one ever notices still makes me smile

you remind me of this youtube channel that i used to watch that nobody but me would know about

he was a pathological liar and lied about his suicide several times and people wonder why anyone takes him seriously

Hmm... Idk really. I disagree with your positions, but at the same time I understand where you're coming from when you are calm and explain yourself. I'd say modding, but then I think of Bethesda and how they take advantage of mods to make up for their own shortcomings, and then try to make people pay for it (lol). So idk.

likewise

i guess if i had to bring up something, it would either have to do with veganism or drug use, but i think you're already well-aware that you're in the wrong on both of those subjects already, so it's harder to say

I don't agree with your stance on mods, with the whole "you should consume games in the way that the creator intended". What if that way is shitty? Mods in single player games doesn't affect anyone negatively. I get if you personally want to experience games in the most pure way or whatever, but that doesn't make mods an inherently bad thing.

"drunkposting is acceptable behavior"

Quote from: Verbatim on September 08, 2017, 10:55:29 AM

Quote from: SecondClass on September 08, 2017, 10:55:02 AM

Quote from: Verbatim on September 08, 2017, 10:53:58 AM

Quote from: SecondClass on September 08, 2017, 10:44:26 AM

Quote from: Verbatim on September 08, 2017, 10:40:39 AM

Quote from: SecondClass on September 08, 2017, 10:36:34 AM

Quote from: Verbatim on September 08, 2017, 10:14:51 AM

Quote from: SecondClass on September 08, 2017, 10:00:49 AM

Quote from: Verbatim on September 08, 2017, 07:56:34 AM

Quote from: SecondClass on September 08, 2017, 07:31:38 AM

judgment is okay

it's not that it's "okay"—it is practically required, if you care about having a society of intellectuals, which you should

you've always had a knack for taking good ideas and concepts and injecting them with toxins

between your views on men, your views on drug use, and your silly "individual > collective" attitude, i can't decide which one is worse

Id rather have a society of free thinkers than a society of intellectuals

they're one in the same

collectivism does not preclude free thinking

if anything, it encourages it

lolno

collectivism encourages beneficial thinking, not free thinking

they're one in the same

there's no such thing as non-beneficial thinking

"I want to go do heroin because it makes me feel good" is free thinking, but not beneficial thinking

if you want to do heroin, you're probably addicted to it

addiction is the antithesis of free-thinking

not true

free thinking is thinking whatever you want

and an addict doesn't think about what he wants

you are you on drugs

you are society on collectivism

false

using heroin is the literal act of destroying your self and replacing it with a distorted lesser version

Quote from: Verbatim on September 08, 2017, 10:40:39 AM

Quote from: SecondClass on September 08, 2017, 10:36:34 AM

Quote from: Verbatim on September 08, 2017, 10:14:51 AM

Quote from: SecondClass on September 08, 2017, 10:00:49 AM

Quote from: Verbatim on September 08, 2017, 07:56:34 AM

Quote from: SecondClass on September 08, 2017, 07:31:38 AM

judgment is okay

it's not that it's "okay"—it is practically required, if you care about having a society of intellectuals, which you should

you've always had a knack for taking good ideas and concepts and injecting them with toxins

between your views on men, your views on drug use, and your silly "individual > collective" attitude, i can't decide which one is worse

Id rather have a society of free thinkers than a society of intellectuals

they're one in the same

collectivism does not preclude free thinking

if anything, it encourages it

lolno

collectivism encourages beneficial thinking, not free thinking

they're one in the same

there's no such thing as non-beneficial thinking

"I want to go do heroin because it makes me feel good" is free thinking, but not beneficial thinking

if you want to do heroin, you're probably addicted to it

addiction is the antithesis of free-thinking

COMMIN THROUGH WITH THE COLD CUTS ALWAYS TOUCHIN GIRLS BUTTS

what is this un-google-able song

Quote from: Paul Andersen on June 13, 2017, 04:58:54 PM

Verb, go download the 3DS theme for Samus Returns

i like my zelda theme though

how does it look

Quote from: Verbatim on September 07, 2017, 05:18:30 PM

Quote from: Flee on September 07, 2017, 05:09:07 PM

What Snake said. Your views on circumcision are just incorrect and seemingly contradict some of your core beliefs.

"my little pony is not the worst cartoon in all of western animation"

sorry to be predictable but i honestly can't think of anything more egregious than that

Yeah, pretty predictable. I know you were just exaggerating, but it's definitely not such a horrible cartoon if you don't count the fanbase and memery.

having seen it several times, i can say without irony that it's the worst western cartoon i've ever seen a substantial amount of

judgment is okay

it's not that it's "okay"—it is practically required, if you care about having a society of intellectuals, which you should

you've always had a knack for taking good ideas and concepts and injecting them with toxins

between your views on men, your views on drug use, and your silly "individual > collective" attitude, i can't decide which one is worse