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route_292014-10-26 02:14 pm
these_balls) wrote in route_292014-10-26 02:14 pm
Entry tags:
And So It Begins...
Hey, Routers! Here's hoping you've been getting properly Hoenn Hyped™ for the past week, because we're now on the eve of this year's big Halloween plot and it's looming ever closer! Are you ready to do battle with not one but two rival teams and their Legendary-wielding bosses? We sure hope so!
Please read this entire post carefully! There are very important details about how this is going to work inside!
THE LEAD-UP TO THE PLOT — A TIMELINE:
Reminder: this plot ICly occurs from Wednesday, October 29 through Friday, October 31. Therefore, the IC timing of pre-plot occurrences will be as follows, though OOCly players may forward-date and backdate posts as they see fit to react to any of these occurrences as they like:
Sunday, October 26: The Gen VI swarms emerge from hiding in the wild and begin migrating toward Tohjo Falls. Players may use this migration as an IC incentive for going on the plot if necessary; however, we are not requiring that players temporarily lose their Gen VI Pokemon to the migration.
Monday, October 27: The migration continues, accompanied by a massive earthquake that may result in property damage as players see fit; some physical signs of the quake such as cracks in the earth and slightly altered terrain will remain.
Tuesday, October 28: Formations of Mysterious Plot Crystals™ will begin to break the surface in areas all across Johto and Kanto. The formations will be larger and more frequent in the inland areas, with the highest concentration in the mountainous regions. The height at which these formations break the surface may range from six inches at minimum to five feet in height at maximum. Like the shards of plot crystal people have been observing all month, these crystal formations will continue to give Psychics headaches and will explode if struck with energy or beam attacks.
Wednesday, October 29: Early in the morning of the 29th, characters who have signed up for the plot will receive a psychic message from a distant, authoritative voice asking them for their help. To the character, this voice may either sound like a generic request for assistance, or it may seem to bear a striking resemblance to someone that the character would be highly inclined to listen to — a loved one, a friend, etc. Shortly after receiving this "psychic call", a portal in space will open up in front of the character; passing through this portal in any fashion (walking through, diving through, tripping over a crack in the sidewalk and accidentally falling through, throwing someone else through, etc.) will transport the character instantly to Tohjo Falls.
If your character is not going on the plot, they are welcome to help out on the home front by attacking the crystal masses that have broken through the surface in an attempt to keep them down, or to assist in cleanup and rescue efforts in the aftermath of the earthquakes, or whatever else you see fit to do for the duration! If you have a question about whether or not an activity is viable, please feel free to ask us!
HOW TO WIN THE INTRO CHALLENGE:
Congratulations: you've reached Tohjo Falls before any of the Jennies. Unfortunately, this means it's up to all of you to stop what's going down there for the time being. There are a ton of Team Magma and Team Aqua goons trying to secure the location for their respective bosses, and while they fight one another, they're also causing rampant chaos and quite possibly tying up the attention of the Elite Four (are they even around?) as they vie for control. While you're not obligated to help secure the area and retake control of the house for the forces of Good™, it'd probably make things a lot more advantageous for you in the long run, wouldn't it? And with what's coming up, you could definitely use every advantage you can get. Just one person helping out won't work, though; there are too many grunts for a lone hero to triumph. To beat them back and retake the Tohjo, you're going to have to work together.
Or a majority of you will have to, anyway. Here's how that will work:
On the plot masterpost, we have created a Intro Challenge Participation Subthread. Between the time when the log for the Intro Challenge goes up (we're aiming for around 3:00 PM EST on the 27th) and 9:00 PM EST on October 28, participating characters must tag into the log with either one top-level comment or one response to a top-level comment and then link us to it in that thread. We will be using that proof of participation to determine whether or not the participating characters have achieved the win condition for the plot.
☆ THE NUMBER TO MEET OR BEAT IS 50 PARTICIPANTS ☆.
If 50 or more characters tag into the intro challenge log before the 9:00 PM EST deadline on October 28, a number of fun and excellent rewards will be unlocked for you, going into the second phase of the plot! If players do not meet the win threshold before the deadline, they will go into the second phase of the plot without these rewards.
NOTE THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO FIGHT THE GRUNTS IN ORDER TO HAVE "PARTICIPATED". So long as your character is there in some capacity for at least one tag, they get credit for showing up and will be counted toward the final total.
Some suggestions of things you could do to participate in the log are:
• Engage the grunts in battle
• Trick the grunts into taking one another out
• Set up traps to take out the grunts
• Accidentally take out people on your own side with traps
• Run around without any idea what's going on
• Interrogate the grunts for more information
• Get captured by grunts and require a rescue
• Distract people who were trying to fight the grunts
• Wonder where the bathroom is
• Complain about two new evil teams coming into Rocket turf
• Eat a sandwich
• Eat two sandwiches
The possibilities are endless.
THE BATTLEGROUND:
Or: why does love always feel like a battlefield?
Many of you remember Tohjo Falls from your visits there during Pokemon Prom the past two years; in the event that you succeed in meeting or beating the win threshold for this log, you will unlock the house you remember from Prom as a bonus map that can be accessed! In the meantime, though, here is a rough diagram of the area around the house that you'll be battling in, with notable features as follows:
KEY:
• GRAY areas in the north are a range of mountains that form a natural barrier around part of the Tohjo plain where the Elite Four's resort is located. It is both difficult and dangerous to get up into the mountains proper, but this seems to be the direction from which most of the Team Magma Grunts are entering the area.
• GREEN areas in the southeast and southwest are densely-packed forested areas interspersed by lakes and rivers that seem to be feeding into the main waterway into the area. It is both difficult and dangerous to venture into the woodlands proper, but this seems to be the direction from which most of the Team Aqua Grunts are entering the area.
• The BLUE area in the south is the massive lake that feeds the eponymous falls that give Tohjo its name. You will also find Team Aqua Grunts here taking great care to hold control of the lake, if you're interested in engaging in a water battle.
• PINK diamonds in the east and west are the sites of massive formations of Mysterious Plot Crystals™ jutting up from beneath the surface; the Grunts on both teams appear somewhat wary of these growths, so they will be keeping a reasonable distance from them while still doing their best to protect them.
• The BROWN rectangle dead-center in the map is...the Elite Four's resort. Not exactly what you might call a fortunate place to be located, but it's easy to see why this might be considered prime real estate for both teams. You're likely to find members of both Team Aqua and Team Magma hanging around here, so be cautious!
THE POSSIBLE REWARDS:
If 50 or more characters successfully check in on our Intro Challenge Participation Subthread before 9:00 PM EST on Tuesday, October 28, these are the rewards that everyone will unlock:
• A one-half win threshold instead of two-thirds on the Boss Battle Log, making the number to beat only 37 characters!
• The ability to sleep overnight in the Elite Four's residence and thereby heal up all of your Pokemon through the magic of "it's an NPC's house"!
• Access to select areas of the Elite Four's residence on the second log!
• Access to healing items and battle items found inside the Elite Four's residence!
• Access to running water and an actual bathroom!
• The ability to Mega Evolve one member of their roster during the Boss Battle Log!
Should players successfully unlock these rewards, we will include details in our next infopost that explain how the necessary Key Stones will be acquired and distributed (spoilers: they're in Lance's basement), and what restrictions we are placing on their use for the purposes of the battle, if any!
A FEW NOTES ABOUT THE BOSS BATTLE:
Win or lose, come Wednesday you'll all be fighting Maxie and Archie, complete with their legendaries, in a no-holds-barred battle for Tohjo that might just decide the fate of the world as we know it. As noted above, you'll be receiving a more in-depth infopost once we've established whether or not players have won the Intro Challenge, but here are a few things we wanted to discuss about the Boss Battle log well in advance:
• Maxie and Archie will be arriving with the start of the log and will have first priority to set up top-level comments on the log. Players who intend to battle them will respond to their top levels; they will not be tagging out anywhere else on the log save for their own threads.
• Because of the way the battlefield will be arranged, and to prevent our amazing NPC mods from potentially getting overwhelmed by battle threads, YOU MAY ONLY FIGHT ONE TEAM BOSS PER CHARACTER. ICly this will make sense because they'll be on opposite sides of a massive battlefield from each other, but OOCly speaking, you'll have to pick one boss only if you intend to do battle with them.
• Regardless of whether players win or lose the Intro Challenge, the bosses will have Mega Evolution at their disposal. So watch out!
• We are asking that battlers please keep their battles concise. In the interest of being fair to everyone who wants a shot at fighting the NPCs, and as a way of helping to bail out the NPC mods if they start getting swamped, the Bosses will also have limited access to their Legendaries during this battle. For the vast majority of the log, Kyogre and Groudon will be preoccupied with blasting the ever-living daylights out of each other, and will not be responding to Maxie and Archie's commands. However, the NPC mods reserve the right to end a battle via Legendary if need be, so please take that into consideration! Our intent here is not to stonewall anyone's fun, but rather to make sure that everyone has a reasonably equal shot at the bosses; this mechanic will be used sparingly, if at all, and the NPC mods will warn you in advance if it's coming so that players can wrap threads and avoid it by ending the thread via a different means if so desired.
A FINAL REMINDER:
IT IS HIGHLY IMPORTANT THAT YOU GET YOUR CHARACTER'S ONE COMMENT IN AND LINK US TO IT DURING THE PROVIDED TIME WINDOWS FOR EACH LOG. Obviously, you're not limited to one comment and we highly encourage people to play out their encounters on both logs to their heart's content. However, for the purposes of adjudicating whether or not the plot has been won, participating characters must tag the log and show us proof of it on the participation thread. That is the thread we will be using to do the final count; we will NOT be checking the log post itself for the tally. IF YOU FAIL TO PROPERLY LINK US TO YOUR PARTICIPATION COMMENTS AS DIRECTED, YOU WILL NOT BE COUNTED. So make sure to get it in to us in a timely manner!
Win or lose, the plot will ICly conclude at 11:59:59 PM EST on October 31, and all participating characters will be returned to their starting locations — or another location of their choice — via Pokemon teleportation magic. Because Arceus loves you.
☆ IMPORTANT LINKS ☆
The Preliminary Infopost | The Hoennween Event Masterpost | Mod Questions Thread
Please read this entire post carefully! There are very important details about how this is going to work inside!
THE LEAD-UP TO THE PLOT — A TIMELINE:
Reminder: this plot ICly occurs from Wednesday, October 29 through Friday, October 31. Therefore, the IC timing of pre-plot occurrences will be as follows, though OOCly players may forward-date and backdate posts as they see fit to react to any of these occurrences as they like:
Monday, October 27: The migration continues, accompanied by a massive earthquake that may result in property damage as players see fit; some physical signs of the quake such as cracks in the earth and slightly altered terrain will remain.
Tuesday, October 28: Formations of Mysterious Plot Crystals™ will begin to break the surface in areas all across Johto and Kanto. The formations will be larger and more frequent in the inland areas, with the highest concentration in the mountainous regions. The height at which these formations break the surface may range from six inches at minimum to five feet in height at maximum. Like the shards of plot crystal people have been observing all month, these crystal formations will continue to give Psychics headaches and will explode if struck with energy or beam attacks.
Wednesday, October 29: Early in the morning of the 29th, characters who have signed up for the plot will receive a psychic message from a distant, authoritative voice asking them for their help. To the character, this voice may either sound like a generic request for assistance, or it may seem to bear a striking resemblance to someone that the character would be highly inclined to listen to — a loved one, a friend, etc. Shortly after receiving this "psychic call", a portal in space will open up in front of the character; passing through this portal in any fashion (walking through, diving through, tripping over a crack in the sidewalk and accidentally falling through, throwing someone else through, etc.) will transport the character instantly to Tohjo Falls.
If your character is not going on the plot, they are welcome to help out on the home front by attacking the crystal masses that have broken through the surface in an attempt to keep them down, or to assist in cleanup and rescue efforts in the aftermath of the earthquakes, or whatever else you see fit to do for the duration! If you have a question about whether or not an activity is viable, please feel free to ask us!
HOW TO WIN THE INTRO CHALLENGE:
Congratulations: you've reached Tohjo Falls before any of the Jennies. Unfortunately, this means it's up to all of you to stop what's going down there for the time being. There are a ton of Team Magma and Team Aqua goons trying to secure the location for their respective bosses, and while they fight one another, they're also causing rampant chaos and quite possibly tying up the attention of the Elite Four (are they even around?) as they vie for control. While you're not obligated to help secure the area and retake control of the house for the forces of Good™, it'd probably make things a lot more advantageous for you in the long run, wouldn't it? And with what's coming up, you could definitely use every advantage you can get. Just one person helping out won't work, though; there are too many grunts for a lone hero to triumph. To beat them back and retake the Tohjo, you're going to have to work together.
Or a majority of you will have to, anyway. Here's how that will work:
On the plot masterpost, we have created a Intro Challenge Participation Subthread. Between the time when the log for the Intro Challenge goes up (we're aiming for around 3:00 PM EST on the 27th) and 9:00 PM EST on October 28, participating characters must tag into the log with either one top-level comment or one response to a top-level comment and then link us to it in that thread. We will be using that proof of participation to determine whether or not the participating characters have achieved the win condition for the plot.
If 50 or more characters tag into the intro challenge log before the 9:00 PM EST deadline on October 28, a number of fun and excellent rewards will be unlocked for you, going into the second phase of the plot! If players do not meet the win threshold before the deadline, they will go into the second phase of the plot without these rewards.
NOTE THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO FIGHT THE GRUNTS IN ORDER TO HAVE "PARTICIPATED". So long as your character is there in some capacity for at least one tag, they get credit for showing up and will be counted toward the final total.
Some suggestions of things you could do to participate in the log are:
• Trick the grunts into taking one another out
• Set up traps to take out the grunts
• Accidentally take out people on your own side with traps
• Run around without any idea what's going on
• Interrogate the grunts for more information
• Get captured by grunts and require a rescue
• Distract people who were trying to fight the grunts
• Wonder where the bathroom is
• Complain about two new evil teams coming into Rocket turf
• Eat a sandwich
• Eat two sandwiches
The possibilities are endless.
THE BATTLEGROUND:
Or: why does love always feel like a battlefield?
Many of you remember Tohjo Falls from your visits there during Pokemon Prom the past two years; in the event that you succeed in meeting or beating the win threshold for this log, you will unlock the house you remember from Prom as a bonus map that can be accessed! In the meantime, though, here is a rough diagram of the area around the house that you'll be battling in, with notable features as follows:
KEY:
• GRAY areas in the north are a range of mountains that form a natural barrier around part of the Tohjo plain where the Elite Four's resort is located. It is both difficult and dangerous to get up into the mountains proper, but this seems to be the direction from which most of the Team Magma Grunts are entering the area.
• GREEN areas in the southeast and southwest are densely-packed forested areas interspersed by lakes and rivers that seem to be feeding into the main waterway into the area. It is both difficult and dangerous to venture into the woodlands proper, but this seems to be the direction from which most of the Team Aqua Grunts are entering the area.
• The BLUE area in the south is the massive lake that feeds the eponymous falls that give Tohjo its name. You will also find Team Aqua Grunts here taking great care to hold control of the lake, if you're interested in engaging in a water battle.
• PINK diamonds in the east and west are the sites of massive formations of Mysterious Plot Crystals™ jutting up from beneath the surface; the Grunts on both teams appear somewhat wary of these growths, so they will be keeping a reasonable distance from them while still doing their best to protect them.
• The BROWN rectangle dead-center in the map is...the Elite Four's resort. Not exactly what you might call a fortunate place to be located, but it's easy to see why this might be considered prime real estate for both teams. You're likely to find members of both Team Aqua and Team Magma hanging around here, so be cautious!
THE POSSIBLE REWARDS:
If 50 or more characters successfully check in on our Intro Challenge Participation Subthread before 9:00 PM EST on Tuesday, October 28, these are the rewards that everyone will unlock:
• A one-half win threshold instead of two-thirds on the Boss Battle Log, making the number to beat only 37 characters!
• The ability to sleep overnight in the Elite Four's residence and thereby heal up all of your Pokemon through the magic of "it's an NPC's house"!
• Access to select areas of the Elite Four's residence on the second log!
• Access to healing items and battle items found inside the Elite Four's residence!
• Access to running water and an actual bathroom!
• The ability to Mega Evolve one member of their roster during the Boss Battle Log!
Should players successfully unlock these rewards, we will include details in our next infopost that explain how the necessary Key Stones will be acquired and distributed (spoilers: they're in Lance's basement), and what restrictions we are placing on their use for the purposes of the battle, if any!
A FEW NOTES ABOUT THE BOSS BATTLE:
Win or lose, come Wednesday you'll all be fighting Maxie and Archie, complete with their legendaries, in a no-holds-barred battle for Tohjo that might just decide the fate of the world as we know it. As noted above, you'll be receiving a more in-depth infopost once we've established whether or not players have won the Intro Challenge, but here are a few things we wanted to discuss about the Boss Battle log well in advance:
• Because of the way the battlefield will be arranged, and to prevent our amazing NPC mods from potentially getting overwhelmed by battle threads, YOU MAY ONLY FIGHT ONE TEAM BOSS PER CHARACTER. ICly this will make sense because they'll be on opposite sides of a massive battlefield from each other, but OOCly speaking, you'll have to pick one boss only if you intend to do battle with them.
• Regardless of whether players win or lose the Intro Challenge, the bosses will have Mega Evolution at their disposal. So watch out!
• We are asking that battlers please keep their battles concise. In the interest of being fair to everyone who wants a shot at fighting the NPCs, and as a way of helping to bail out the NPC mods if they start getting swamped, the Bosses will also have limited access to their Legendaries during this battle. For the vast majority of the log, Kyogre and Groudon will be preoccupied with blasting the ever-living daylights out of each other, and will not be responding to Maxie and Archie's commands. However, the NPC mods reserve the right to end a battle via Legendary if need be, so please take that into consideration! Our intent here is not to stonewall anyone's fun, but rather to make sure that everyone has a reasonably equal shot at the bosses; this mechanic will be used sparingly, if at all, and the NPC mods will warn you in advance if it's coming so that players can wrap threads and avoid it by ending the thread via a different means if so desired.
A FINAL REMINDER:
IT IS HIGHLY IMPORTANT THAT YOU GET YOUR CHARACTER'S ONE COMMENT IN AND LINK US TO IT DURING THE PROVIDED TIME WINDOWS FOR EACH LOG. Obviously, you're not limited to one comment and we highly encourage people to play out their encounters on both logs to their heart's content. However, for the purposes of adjudicating whether or not the plot has been won, participating characters must tag the log and show us proof of it on the participation thread. That is the thread we will be using to do the final count; we will NOT be checking the log post itself for the tally. IF YOU FAIL TO PROPERLY LINK US TO YOUR PARTICIPATION COMMENTS AS DIRECTED, YOU WILL NOT BE COUNTED. So make sure to get it in to us in a timely manner!
Win or lose, the plot will ICly conclude at 11:59:59 PM EST on October 31, and all participating characters will be returned to their starting locations — or another location of their choice — via Pokemon teleportation magic. Because Arceus loves you.
The Preliminary Infopost | The Hoennween Event Masterpost | Mod Questions Thread