What a year, huh? All sense of time has become muddled in this pandemic. I hope you all and your loved ones are safe and comfortable and things will look up in the new year.

I also have an actual update for you: my 2012 fanfic short story Butterfree has finally been updated with extensive revisions, after I've been kicking around changes to it for more than a year. It's still basically the same story, and you will recognize a lot of it if you read it before, but it's been fleshed out considerably, and the ending in particular is a bit different in tone.

It's also, of course, time for my traditional New Year's Thanks. Have these gotten redundant over the years as the important people in my life tend to be largely the same from year to year? Is it maybe even a little weird when I don't use the site updates as pretty much a personal blog the way I did back in 2004? A little, but shush, it's tradition you guys.

For 2021, I would like to thank...

• elyvorg, for endless Skype chats, giving the Thousand Roads community a chance, continuing commentary on fiction, and Foregone Conclusion, which may be eleven years old but I still love it just as much.
• Jackie and Chibi, who I will meet this year if it's the last thing I do, for all the great times, talks, voice chats, roleplaying, and friendship in general.
• Cupcakedex, who's been through so much this year and come out on the other side still making adorable Pokémon food creations and hosting streams I wish I could watch more often.
• Negrek, for good talks, excellent goofy RP interactions, continuing to make Thousand Roads a lovely fanfic community, and writing Salvage.
• Everyone who helped test game mechanics with me this year.
• Telecod, for being lovely and interesting and all in all an essential part of my day.
• My patrons, for enduring support through a strange time. (I remind you all who have pledged to a request tier to message me your requests if you want them!)
• Namohysip, for hosting the Blacklight Eternal RP, and everyone who played it, for some of the most fun I've had.
• My husband Shadey, whom I have adored for fifteen years now and only love more as time goes by.
• My cool parents, who've both had pretty cool accomplishments this year even if they should remain anonymous. Proud of you.
• Our cat Birta, who recently had to endure weeks in a cone of shame.
• Everyone who still regularly visits this website, now in the age of nobody regularly visiting websites anymore. I will be doing this forever but it's always nice when somebody's there to witness it.

Here's to 2022, when this website will turn twenty years old! Hope to be able to do more updates this year.

Comment on this - View comments

I've been grabbing what chances I've managed to test a claim made by speedrunner Werster, namely that Dusk Balls don't get a bonus in lit indoor areas at night. As best I can tell, from in-game tests as well as looking at the code where I had it on hand, this is true in Gen V (for which Werster made the claim), but not in either Gen IV or later gens. I've updated the Gen V Capture Mechanics and the text of the Dusk Ball activation option in the Gen V Catch Rate Calculator accordingly.

Comment on this - View comments

Happy birthday to you,
a tough year, but we're through.
You're nineteen, dear website!
Just look how you grew.

The Cave of Dragonflies is nineteen years old today, and to celebrate that milestone, it now has a proper dark mode in the redone Roar of Time style. The old one still works, but the new one is mobile-friendly and uses dropdowns. I tried to strike a bit of a balance between retaining the general aesthetic of the style and updating it to look a bit nicer; I'm not entirely sure I've struck the correct one, but hopefully it's at least usable as a dark mode style. I may fiddle with it more at some later point; right now I just need it out.

Comment on this - View comments