I think the Ravnica sub-arc went well. If I was to provide some criticism, I'd say that there was a bit too much reliance on telling instead of showing, and that there could have been more opportunities to get involved in the intrigue instead of merely observing it - though that did help to prevent railroading. Other than that, I'd say it went alright.
As for Okamiquest, I've already stated that if I thought it was being messed up I wouldn't be participating. Thus far it's been enjoyable, despite me not being familiar with the source material. My only real gripe is that Conquest and Okamiquest don't really seem to "gel" - the more mythical aspects of Okamiquest are kind of hard to reconcile with the more realistic feel of Conquest, and that combined with the lack of interconnectivity makes it difficult to imagine that the two take place in the same universe and timeframe. I can't really think of any ways to fix that, though, and aside from that complaint everything else is fine.
@Herbert
I was afraid of that. I think it might have been a little easier if there was more participation in it, but for 80 percent of it, it was something that you and I were doing and nothing else. And given the lack of general participation of people who knew the storyline mostly, I did have to tell a lot. I think showing could have been done more if I had more activity from the get-go...
"If I am to be met with disrespect, then I must first love myself with a fierceness no fool can take away." - Vraska, Gorgon assassin@ Umbra: I wouldn't mind interacting, but it doesn't really matter if I don't have time to interact with anyone, or no one picks up on the fact that I want to interact when I do have time and nothing better to do, which happened several times in the Holon arc. (guess that one might be my own fault for not including the phrase "open for interaction" in my posts, though)
Plus, when I do get to interact with someone, it quickly gets late at night, and then I'll get in trouble because I'm not supposed to be staying up late now that school has started up again. (stupid timezones...)
Psyche: Thanks!
Herbert: Point, but I don't really have the same difficulty imagining it, and I am trying to intermingle Okamiquest and the main arc in places. Thanks, though.
DS: Ah... Still, you don't HAVE to put your chars on a bus.
edited 26th Aug '13 2:00:16 PM by Umbramatic
Contact Me!Pippi: That would be appreciated, although there's really no hurry. And good luck with your essay.
Psyche: -pats- To be entirely fair, I didn't make much effort to get Alice involved with intrigue myself, mostly because I wasn't sure how. Perhaps some form of railroading might actually help, since I've often found that when faced with a plot where they do anything, people tend get overwhelmed and do nothing instead.
edited 26th Aug '13 2:48:52 PM by Herbert40k
Okay, two questions...
Maggie's Orre Team
I've pretty much already decided on Crow's Orre Team, but I still need to decide on seven Pokemon for Maggie's. Only thing I'm fairly sure about is that I'll probably be boxing Maggie's Psychic types, though I could change my mind on that. Suggestions?
Orre Arc Planning
I know we've got a rough idea of which leaders are in charge of what (Though I'm sort of unsure on Sunsun's situation), but I think a different goal of Cipher's that we should try and stop (other than just snag all the Shadows) might help things. Any suggestions for that?
"Don't worry, murder is a sign of affection." - An amalgamation of DunsparceAh. Odin could probably be Admin of R&D then if Umbra's fine with it.
And as for some goals... I think most of their goals in the games have been geared toward making stronger Shadow Pokemon and perfecting the Shadowing Process. Only way I can think of building on that would be more XDs and I don't know if we really want that. Maybe we could do something with whatever's going to be happening with Every too, but I don't know.
edited 27th Aug '13 8:33:03 AM by crowlover
"Don't worry, murder is a sign of affection." - An amalgamation of DunsparceWell, the obvious go-to evil plan for Cipher would be the Shadowing of more Legendaries, but as Crow said, that's probably not something we really want for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that it's cliche. Attempting to refine Shadow Pokemon in general works, certainly, but that's more of a gradual thing and not something that allows for many plot "events", if that makes sense. And I know that each of the Cipher Admins has their own agenda, but those are generally planned to be separate from the main plot, if I understand correctly.
Perhaps we could go for something more mundane? Cipher's been threatening to take over Orre for a while, maybe they could actually start trying to do so? There are a number of problems with that idea, not least that it's highly mundane and paints Cipher as even more militaristic than they are already, but it's a basic plot idea if we need one.
And I'm afraid I have no idea what's going on with Every, so I can't comment on that.
edited 27th Aug '13 8:52:56 AM by Herbert40k
Orre
Cid is actually in a pretty good place for things, then. Considering that reviving the XD project is his singular goal, having the leadership refocus their interests that way would put him straight into the limelight. Though, anything about Shadowfication would fall under his experience, so there's that, too.
Admittedly, my schoolwork is eating up some time, but minus the odd person wrecking themselves of the trailer hitch of my truck (like yesterday), I'll still be regularly available in the afternoons.
edited 27th Aug '13 8:56:18 AM by 0blivionmobile
Fixed Profile pageI don't know what Odin is head of, actually. Though R&D could work.
Maybe we should figure out which admins are in charge of what, as well as a main plot.
Contact Me!As for a main plot, how about after making sure there are no more Cipher members in Holon, the police ask us to go to Orre and finally get rid of Cipher.
While we're there, we go on a search-and-destroy mission for Cipher bases throughout all of the cities, and along the way we discover that they're working on some new project that we need to decide on?
Victory! Honor! Destiny! Mutton!Tossing this idea out since it just came to me:
Shadowfying eggs?
It's a little off of Cipher's main MO of stealing mons, THEN Shadowfying them, but it would be a natural progression of the Shadow research.
On the other hand, it might be going just a liiiiiiittle far, even for Cipher.
Fixed Profile pageCrewe: The search-and-destroy thing is probably what we're going to end up going with, though there's still the actual project itself to think of.
Dune: I think I'm going to have to agree with Straw that that idea's a little too extreme. It doesn't seem like it'd be particularly beneficial, either - after all, once it's hatched, a Shadowed infant is still just an infant, regardless of how vicious it might be.
Also, regarding positions, I think it might be worth clearing up the difference between an Admin and a Commander, since we've already had some confusion regarding the position of two characters (Jet and Iulianus). This is how I think the positions work:
- Admins are the guys in charge - they don't answer to anyone except Ardos himself, though since they work as a group they still need to heed the opinions of the other Admins. They don't do field work unless they particularly want to. Each Admin also has their own department.
- Commanders are senior to Peons but below Admins, and usually work for one Admin in particular. They command a number of staff themselves but do not have a department of their own. These are the guys that do a lot of the grunt work, since they're essentially junior officers.
Is that correct? And if so, are all our current Admins/Commanders in the right positions?

I think you're doing great with it~ I'm not following the Okami parts of it so much, but you're still kinda the defacto leader of the Conquest aspects of it too, and I think you've done wonderfully with it.
"If I am to be met with disrespect, then I must first love myself with a fierceness no fool can take away." - Vraska, Gorgon assassin