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Trails of Tera Steel (Kiseki-inspired Pokemon Academy Quest)

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Nerdorama said:
I think the point of Erika's thesis and how this quest is interpreting Terastal Energy is that Terastal Energy is real and associated with the game Types, but Pokémon Types are a lot more arbitrary, or (and I'm speculating at this point) more descriptive than prescriptive.
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Nyvis said:
Yeah that's my point too! What's uncontroversial is that pokemon wield type energy to use typed moves, and that a pokemon is generally more effective at employing one or two type energies. They're also correspondingly weak to other types.

The certitude stops there though. There's generalities about pokemon of a given type but they're much less absolute because they're not animals with a common ancestor but just convergent biologies that happens to tap into the same fundamental typed force. So there's no reason to expect universal commonality among ghost types beyond their efficient use of ghost moves.
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If we get our KNOW higher than 14 (provided we want to do that), we should try to continue and/or try to prove Erika's thesis. It seems like a good subject to tackle, judging by these.
 
Nyvis said:
Yeah that's my point too! What's uncontroversial is that pokemon wield type energy to use typed moves, and that a pokemon is generally more effective at employing one or two type energies. They're also correspondingly weak to other types.

The certitude stops there though. There's generalities about pokemon of a given type but they're much less absolute because they're not animals with a common ancestor but just convergent biologies that happens to tap into the same fundamental typed force. So there's no reason to expect universal commonality among ghost types beyond their efficient use of ghost moves.
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Of course, this depends on your regional populations. In Kanto all first stage ghosts are of a ghostly nature, so it makes sense to assume that must be a fundmental rule - than things like Marowak and Annihilape can happen as a pokemon learns to embody the emotional extremes than cause Ghosts, but new ghost types can only be ghostly pokemon.

Then you interact with the rest of the world and meet the exceptions, but Oak has already wrote the book on the evidence he had at the time and he's right on so many other things people assume he's right on everything.
 
Honestly, maybe a hot take, future Paradox Mons are creepier than Ghost pokemon. Like, why did Gardevoir line become a robot. Why all pokemon became robots. The fuck happened. I imagine Erika will have similar questions.
 
Ashen Cross said:
If we get our KNOW higher than 14 (provided we want to do that), we should try to continue and/or try to prove Erika's thesis. It seems like a good subject to tackle, judging by these.
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I'm hoping less for that and more for "Tera research" being Erika's personal subplot that we can help her out with. It's certainly less terrifying than other possibilities for her personal goals.
 
nothingtoseehere said:
Of course, this depends on your regional populations. In Kanto all first stage ghosts are of a ghostly nature, so it makes sense to assume that must be a fundmental rule - than things like Marowak and Annihilape can happen as a pokemon learns to embody the emotional extremes than cause Ghosts, but new ghost types can only be ghostly pokemon.

Then you interact with the rest of the world and meet the exceptions, but Oak has already wrote the book on the evidence he had at the time and he's right on so many other things people assume he's right on everything.
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As I said, really echoes the issues with taxonomy as a classification approach.

I wonder if the pokemon world has something like genetics completely upending the field of categorizing pokemon.
 
Aliya said:
Honestly, maybe a hot take, future Paradox Mons are creepier than Ghost pokemon. Like, why did Gardevoir line become a robot. Why all pokemon became robots. The fuck happened. I imagine Erika will have similar questions.
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Isn't the theory that they're not actually from the future at all? What the Professors thought was a time machine was actually just making what they imagined real. Or something along those lines. Been a while since I saw the discussion around it.

So future Paradox 'Mons are robots because robots are futuristic. Instead of because of any actual chain of events.
 
The ScarVi time machine definitely breaks what passes for established rules in Pokémon time travel, hence calling the things "Paradoxes".

The leading theory I heard was that it was using Terapagos's properties to pull the things from alternate pasts/futures a la Ultra Wormholes but more differenter. Either that or "it's an imagination-granting machine instead" would explain a lot of the oddities.
 
LunaticPanda said:
Isn't the theory that they're not actually from the future at all? What the Professors thought was a time machine was actually just making what they imagined real. Or something along those lines. Been a while since I saw the discussion around it.

So future Paradox 'Mons are robots because robots are futuristic. Instead of because of any actual chain of events.
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Unfortunately, DLC story contradicts that, since
you bring one of the professors back from the past temporarily with the power of Terapagos.
 
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Maybe in the distant future some group or someone made pokemon like the Iron Valiant for whatever reason? Maybe some species of pokemon went extinct or some other form of making artificial pokemon.

Don't know why, but I want to say Porygon.

...A team making robot pokemon in a attempt to complete their goal but now the future just has those versions around now?
 
Tempest Warden said:
Maybe in the distant future some group or someone made pokemon like the Iron Valiant for whatever reason? Maybe some species of pokemon went extinct or some other form of making artificial pokemon.

Don't know why, but I want to say Porygon.

...A team making robot pokemon in a attempt to complete their goal but now the future just has those versions around now?
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It's Team Plasma 3. A group of concerned do-gooders who finally ban the sport of Pokémon battling, but need to create Robot Pokémon to battle in their place to sate the bloodthirst of the population.

Their consistent, 570-590 base stat totals are a balancing feature by the developers.
 
LunaticPanda said:
It's Team Plasma 3. A group of concerned do-gooders who finally ban the sport of Pokémon battling, but need to create Robot Pokémon to battle in their place to sate the bloodthirst of the population.

Their consistent, 570-590 base stat totals are a balancing feature by the developers.
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Of course the robots end up just as sentient and it's thus just as cruel :V
 
Personally, I'd vote for Espurr or Shuppet.

Espurr because we need a psychic at some point, some type balancing on our team, and because the [REDACTED] group plotline could be interesting.

Shuppet because I'd love being a ghost type specialist (with maybe one or two outside-type), Banette would be a perfect user of Will-O-Wisp and act as an attrition fighter to compliment a Dragupult's speed blitzes and bandages, and I'd be interested exploring the intricacies of ghost types. If we need a dark type we can always find and conquer a Spiritomb, or Sableye if you feel like being lame.

justinkal said:
Will-o-Wisp is also good as an easy way to start a campfire. Always nice to have at least one flame based attack on your team for non-combat utility!
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We'd become a true ghost specialist if we decide to use ghost flames from hell for our campfires instead of just carrying a flint and steel or matches.

So now I'm even more supportive of Shuppet.
 
I'm honestly wanting to vote for None. The three options don't call to me, we have all sorts of other dens we can find with more options to pick from, and just grabbing the first pokemon we run across feels kinda...eh.

So unless one is written in a way that catches my brain, I'm going to vote that we explore more before catching something.
 
Espurr just calls to me on fundamental level. It having a typing we need is just a cherry on top.
 
Having been reminded of the 6 mon limit, it's between Espurr and none for me, leaning towards none.
Given how vital a strong team with good growth potential is likely to be, I would advocate for scouting out the various dens before commiting AP to capture attempts unless we find a truly exceptional Pokemon.
 
allmightytoaster said:
Having been reminded of the 6 mon limit, it's between Espurr and none for me, leaning towards none.
Given how vital a strong team with good growth potential is likely to be, I would advocate for scouting out the various dens before commiting AP to capture attempts unless we find a truly exceptional Pokemon.
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I don't think we need to meta-game that hard, unless im misunderstanding the mechanics of the quest, pokemon strength is decided mainly by the level of a pokemon. Meaning a 8-badge Meostic should be of similar strength to a 8-badge Hatterene. Outside of the moves said pokemon can learn, their typing, ability, and possible hidden traits that we aren't aware off like tanky pokemon like Snorlax having higher HP then their level indicates, I don't think we need to grind for the best of the best pokemon to have an effective team.

Course I might have missed or misunderstood something within the Quest mechanics, if so then just ignore what I wrote on top.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that Mariana's SKILL Stat is also a big factor for how battles will operate, so just raising that alone should increase the effectiveness of our pokemon team regardless of what pokemon make it up.
 
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None of the options are bad (honestly without taking evolutions into account I'm pretty sure all of them are better on paper than Dreepy) and I don't think we exactly need an elite OU team to be successful in this quest. It's pretty far off from the themes, frankly, and as long as we've got, like, coverage, I think we can follow the narrative on who we befriend.
 
Jaguar2234 said:
I don't think we need to meta-game that hard, unless im misunderstanding the mechanics of the quest, pokemon strength is decided mainly by the level of a pokemon. Meaning a 8-badge Meostic should be of similar strength to a 8-badge Hatterene. Outside of the moves said pokemon can learn, their typing, ability, and possible hidden traits that we aren't aware off like tanky pokemon like Snorlax having higher HP then their level indicates, I don't think we need to grind for the best of the best pokemon to have an effective team.

Course I might have missed or misunderstood something within the Quest mechanics, if so then just ignore what I wrote on top.
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I don't want to grind. But given the reminder that we will be limited to five new pokemon in total for the entire game, I do think we should at least look at whats on offer.

I argued for Espurr under the assumption "which of these three is best". Now I know that the question is "Out of every pokemon that could possibly show up this entire quest, do you think one if these would be in your top five?" To which my preffered answer is "can I see whats on offer first?"
 
Hmm, narratively speaking, I feel at least one of our Pokemon should be something horse-esque that we can ride. It feels wrong for our character not to have one like that.

Other than that, I can't say I have any particular preferences, but I also don't have any real idea what my preferences would actually be.
 
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