The Pokédex - Extended Fanon Edition

Hmm... can't think of any immediately, though there probably are. I imagine TMs are based off the journal, though probably with more videos and annotations for the lay trainer.

D'oh, didn't see your questions earlier. For the gauntlet, probably either:

• Gym leaders are allowed some latitude in the parameters of their badge challenges, and frequently insist that challengers battle some of the Gym trainers, both to give their trainers some fresh practice and to gauge the challenger's strength
• or, there's no need to fight the other trainers at a Gym (the anime and manga don't seem to work that way), but even in a Gym it's still rude to refuse a fellow trainer's challenge

By "Junior Trainer", I assume you mean a Gym trainer? It varies with the Gym; in most gyms, it's probably open to any interested resident of the town.

Also, if we want to consider setting up an external site for this project, the end of a semester is a good time to discuss it.

edited 27th Nov '10 10:19:14 PM by Tangent128

Not a bad idea. I can get us a room but we'd have to readapt the page codes to either Mediawiki (easy, fast) or Dokuwiki (easier, slower). That unless they can get their hands on this site's backend, which from what I have read is a heavily modified... something.

seeing as gym trainers are just the same type of trainers you see elsewhere in the game, I'd say it's the second option. The gym trainers are essentially the gym leaders Groupie Brigade, I'd imagine.

edited 27th Nov '10 10:35:00 PM by Blissey1

It's a Ship of Theseus'd Pm Wiki, basically. Heavily specialized for troping now.

I think we use a fairly small subset of the markup, though. I imagine I could throw together an inelegant regex parser for it in a day once school's out. Could then convert that to another markup, but it'd be easier on the contributors to not have to code-switch between the thread and wiki.

What accommodations are you thinking of? My preferred VPS provider is currently sold out of the low-end plans.

Alright, here's my promised Weedle Line.

Weedle Line

Morphs [Oak Catalog #]

• Weedle [#013]
  • Weedle is a small, larval insect Pokémon, approximately one foot long. It is a dull tan color. Several tiny, pink feet run along its underside, and a sharp stinger extends from the top of its head and the tip of its tail. Its eyes are black, and in the middle of its face is a round, pink protuberance that serves as a sensory organ.

• Kakuna [#014]
  • A transitory stage, the Kakuna is covered in a yellow, plated, teardrop-shaped chitin shell approximately two feet long. It has one extendable stinger at its bottom tip, and is often found hanging from tree branches by a strand of silk.

• Beedrill [#015]
  • Despite the misnomer title, the mature Beedrill bears a closer resemblance to a wasp than a bee, scaled up to a height of approximately three feet. Unlike many insects, the Beedrill only has four limbs: two spindly blue legs, and two arms that end in white 18-inch conical stingers. Its body coloring is a distinctive yellow with black stripes circling the abdomen, and its compound eyes are bright red. The Beedrill has a wingspan of approximately two feet.

Notable Biology

All stages of this evolutionary line possess poisoned stingers. The Weedle has one on either end of its body; the Kakuna has an extendable one on its bottom tip; and the Beedrill has a large conic stinger on each arm and one more at the tip of its abdomen. The toxin is relatively mild as far as poison-types go, and serves more as a predator deterrent than a primary offensive tactic. The Beedrill's conic arm-stingers serve as stabbing implements and a platform to shed and fire smaller projectile needles rather than means to administer poison, though with proper training and diet it can improve toxic potency on par with other mainline poison-types.

This evolutionary line reaches its final form extremely quickly, even more so than most bug-types. The Weedle phase rarely lasts more than three weeks, most of which is spent consuming and internally storing large amounts of food. The Kakuna phase is almost completely inert, content to hang from a tree branch by a strand of silk for another two weeks and enjoy its relative safety in a shell too hard for predators to bother with, while it processes the stored food and grows until ready to emerge as a Beedrill.

The Beedrill has tough, powerful wings, reinforced with a gridwork of veins. In the wild it is fully capable of rapid flight, hovering, and all manner of high-speed aerial maneuvers while carrying a Kakuna. In rare cases, a trained Beedrill in peak physical condition can go as far as to lift a teenage human airborne.

Of note is the Beedrill's emergency response, termed "Swarm" by trainers — over a period of a few days, the specimen will accumulate and store a large dose of catecholamine in its abdomen. In the event of injury, the Beedrill will deliver this dose into its system, sending its sympathetic nervous system into overdrive, and heightening its physical performance. Contrary to popular rumor, this effect has no adverse effects on the specimen's long-term physiology or health, nor does it dramatically increase the size of its arm-stingers (and in competitive circles, instructing a Beedrill whose Swarm has just kicked in to "pierce the heavens" will usually result in an exasperated warning to the trainer).

Habitat

This line is found primarily in light-density forests around the world, and is a commonplace sight to rookie trainers or rural citizens. Weedle are oft found foraging in the vicinity of their colony, Kakuna hang peacefully from tree branches, and Beedrill will move about freely when not maintaining a colony.

This species adapts well to life in captivity, and is capable of keeping full health in a variety of different environments.

Diet

Weedle and Beedrill are omnivorous scavengers. Kakuna do not eat at all.

Hazards

The temperaments of the Weedle and Kakuna phases are quite benign. Beedrill, however, have a considerably hotter temper, and have earned a reputation for being extremely territorial while nesting — an image not helped by the fact that they provide very little warning before attacking an intruder. Traveling trainers should be on the lookout for signature compartmented nests high in branches to make sure they do not intrude upon a Beedrill colony, and should be wary if they see more than one or two Weedle within a hundred yards or so.

As noted, the poison of this species is relatively mild unless one has an allergy, unlikely to cause noticeably more damage than the puncture wound used to deliver it, and mostly serves to make them not worth the trouble of predators (though carrying Antidote is always a good idea).

Courting and Childrearing

Beedrill spend much of their lives foraging solitarily, but will occasionally congregate into temporary colonies of ten or so to nest. A colony will select a tree in a low-density clearing, and construct a segmented wood fiber nest in which to lay eggs.

Hatched Weedle (around 60-80 of them per colony) are allowed to forage in the vicinity of the colony, and are guarded with typical fierceness by the patrolling Beedrill colony. Once the young are in the Kakuna phase, the Beedrill consider their job essentially done, the colony breaks up, and the Beedrill resume solitary lives until the next mating season.

Social Structure

Weedle are claimed by the Beedrill colony as a whole, rather than any specific set of biological parents. Benign and curious creatures, Weedle will investigate anything that looks remotely tasty or interesting, and will often stray out of range of the colony's patrols.

Kakuna are solitary, as are Beedrill when not in an active colony.

Trainer's Notes

It is unwise for a rookie trainer to attempt to capture a wild Beedrill — they tend to be quite stubborn, and it is difficult to earn the respect and obedience of one. Similarly, while Kakuna are easiest to capture, it is generally unwise for a rookie to do so as well. Kakuna tend to hold a grudge about being captured in their state of helplessness, which will manifest overtly upon their maturing into Beedrill. Attempting to earn their favor prior to their final evolution often results in either contempt or spoiling.

Weedle is a typical "first-catch" option for rookie trainers, and the battle to do so is rather trivial. However, if not captured quickly, the ruckus of battling the Weedle may attract angry Beedrill as well, and a trainer can be overwhelmed. The colony will usually relent and allow capture if two Beedrill are defeated — if more show up, it means the colony has already lost several young that season and the trainer is highly advised to leave.

The best way to ingratiate oneself with a Weedle is by appealing to its appetite and curiosity. Weedle must eat ravenously to prepare for cocooning, but are used to most of it being general forest detritus — feeding your Weedle a variety of fruit, meat, and grains it would be unlikely to come across otherwise will leave quite an impression, as well as lead to healthier development. Allowing the Weedle to investigate your tools, meet your other Pokémon, and ride on your shoulder while traveling will draw its interest as well. Once cocooned, a Kakuna is content to sit in the trainer's backpack during travel, peeking out. If raised properly, the freshly-evolved Beedrill will be as warm and friendly as ever, and will retain its sense of curiosity.

It should be noted that upon evolution, a Beedrill will have a very large appetite for the next day or so while it recovers, and can strain traveling supplies. If a trainer expects a Kakuna to evolve soon (the cocoon will grow warm if evolution is imminent in the next day or two), it's a good idea to stay in town to tend to this.

A Kakuna nominally evolves after two weeks, though variance of a few days is typical. Should the specimen remain in this stage for three weeks, however, a trainer should take it to a Pokémon Center immediately. Failing to evolve prior to expending the food accumulated as a Weedle is fatal, as Kakuna have no way of eating — it may require emergency parenteral nutrition to complete the process.

edited 17th Dec '10 2:28:00 PM by Pykrete

Well, by "gauntlet" I really meant the gym puzzles. What's up with those?

The entry loks pretty fine to me. Of course there had to be a TTGL reference and kudos on the particular detail with Legend Of Thunder which I had forgotten... I was expecting a No Antidote reference too, but... nevermind.

Of note: what is a Weedle's lifespan? The entry only details that they spend a couple of weeks as Weedle, at most; I'd expect that whatever the lifespan is, the other stages (in particular Kakuna) get to live a lot longer in captivity). The habitat section is fine, though I'd expect to see some minor details on the distribution of the colonies with regards to geographical landmarks — I don't think that colonies would be much easier to defend and supply for in the middle of the forest (where other Pokémon are not going to respond nicely to the foraging) than in areas closer to the forest borderline, which provides Beedrill with better range to look for supplies and defend roaming Weedle. I'd expect Weedle to migrate to the core of the forest before evolution, as a large cluster of Kakuka is easier to defend as well.

Also good job on noting the "acceptable loses behaviour of the colony.

I don't think too much can be contributed to the diet - then again, I do not know too much of insect diet so I guess someone else can provide better commentary there. Who wrote our Wurmple entry...?

Finally... on server accommodations: my LUG provides web services to sibling associations. I can work something around that starting with a level two subdomain (ie.: a subdomain under mine; we'd have to talk to the provider to see what do we need to offer full domain). No direct filesystem quota. Quick installs of several CMS (mediawiki and dokuwiki among them) available, SSH access, cronjob services, and our own (but only one) IRC channel.

I'd have to check when does the board meet to discuss anything beyond that though, and I know it won't be before Xmas.

but a large concetration of the future members of a species in one place makes the species easier to wipe out. Regardless of how easily defensible it is.

I'd imagine that Beedrill would also go hunting occasionally in addition to scavenging, if RL wasps are anything to go by. Mostly smaller pokemon, like caterpie or pidgey. Maybe something bigger if they're traveling in a group.

edited 28th Nov '10 10:39:47 AM by Blissey1

For some reason, Weedle's curious nature brought a smile to my face.

I have to say, I'm a bit surprised that Beedrill turn out to be one of the safer species in this project. But yeah, I like the entry, particularly the Weedle-on-shoulder and Kakuna-in-backpack bits.

Poke me for an indexing run in around 48600 beats. (~8:00pm California Muggle Time )

@Silent: I actually registered tropi.us on a lark about a month back, thinking it'd be handy for projects at the Troper-Pokémon confluence. Not pointed to any NS servers yet, but we could probably use pokedex.tropi.us or something, right?

While one-click CMS installs are quick, I tend to prefer homegrown systems for flexibility.

edited 28th Nov '10 11:48:30 AM by Tangent128

Do we have to include Anime information? Some of the articles on legendaries feel convoluted and awkward trying to tie in their respective movies with their in-game appearances.

Yeah, I made an effort to make them a bit cuter than one might expect. No Antidote was indeed quite responsible for this, as are my personal fears and tastes (see avatar :3).

I'm not sure I'd go as far as to call them safe, as they are fiercely territorial, attack in numbers with little/no warning, and punch with frigging 18-inch sharp chitinous cones — though yeah, I'd imagine with the kind of mind-bending horror and superpowers this world deals with on a daily basis Beedrill are lower on the threat chain than they look, and dispatching a pair of wild ones wouldn't exactly be insurmountable to even a novice trainer.

I don't think that colonies would be much easier to defend and supply for in the middle of the forest (where other Pokémon are not going to respond nicely to the foraging) than in areas closer to the forest borderline, which provides Beedrill with better range to look for supplies and defend roaming Weedle. I'd expect Weedle to migrate to the core of the forest before evolution, as a large cluster of Kakuka is easier to defend as well.

I thought about that, and I'm not sure what to do with it. Kakuna really don't need much protection from what local predators are able to dish out as they're essentially hanging bricks with impossibly hard shells. Leaving Weedle in the open with no tree or shrubbery cover is asking for trouble from bird Pokémon, but going deeper into the forest opens them up to bigger predators.

Ultimately I decided to cut the difference and went with low-density forest.

Lifespan, I'm not sure what to do with. I know wasp queens tend to live about a year, so I guess the analogue would be about 15 years for a Beedrill.

We're kind of picking and choosing based entirely on Rule of Cool, really.

edited 17th Dec '10 2:32:33 PM by Pykrete

It kind of says something about the Pokemon world when the giant bees/wasps are actually some of the safer Pokemon to have.

edited 28th Nov '10 2:35:01 PM by rmctagg09

Yeah, but it makes articles for the legendary birds, legendary beasts, Groudon, and Lugia feel really clunky and shoehorn-y.

Anyway, I think I'd like to tackle the Skorupi line.

edited 28th Nov '10 2:44:09 PM by Anomalocaris20

What issues, precisely, do you have with my articles  ^!

edited 28th Nov '10 3:34:52 PM by SullenFrog

It's just that the references to the movies feel shoehorned in. I dunno, maybe it's just because I'm not that fond of the anime. If you don't want to change it, you don't have to. I was just stating my opinion.

Then I will not change it, especially since I spent most of two days doing the research on my Lugia article, writing it, tweaking it and making sure that everything in it—and those of the three legendary birds—would mesh and fit together.

I understand it's your opinion, and had there been legitimate concerns I would have been happy to hear them out and attempt to reach a suitable compromise.

After my finals are done, I can finally start on making some new entries.

Unfortunately a virus ate my Zubat and Luvdisc entries. I'm putting it on Rolling Updates with some barebone notes.

I was thinking of making the Skorupi article.

I think we're waiting until Black and White comes out before we move on to those Pokémon.

I'll be able to continue Rolling Updates in my entries in a while. I mean, I still receive collabs and notes for those interested, it's just I won't be able to push them upstream as fast as before.

And no pic for Lileep yet...

EDIT: checking for small font

edited 16th Dec '10 1:07:24 PM by SilentReverence

Skorupi's a Gen IV Pokemon.