126th moon [video]

[paladinlost]

I've discovered something... interesting, concerning one of our newly-received species. And the ones we met after that airplane crash, for that matter.

[The Rookidee snoozing on Cecil's lap cares little for the PokéGear pointed at him, but he does lean into his trainer's gentle scritches. Said trainer carries on, his frown hidden by the camera angle.]

Though they are compatible with TM and HM moves beyond the ones they also learn naturally, they cannot learn Return. It's the first time I've seen this happen. Has anyone else witnessed similar oddities? I doubt it is a symptom of a deeper issue, but it may still be worth noting.

Comments

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[quizzak]

I've never heard of that move before. Could you explain what Return is, exactly?

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[paladinlost]

Return is a Normal-type move that depends on the strength of your bond with your Pokémon. The more you love each other, the stronger it becomes. It's also nearly universal, and can be transmitted to almost every egg during the breeding process... or at least, it was.

[quizzak]

Wow! That's incredible, isn't it? A move based off of your bond with your Pokemon...

[ though she does have some doubts about certain team members of hers using return effectively. namely her scizor... ]

What you've discovered is strange, though. You would think such a move would be universal...

[paladinlost]

It's very satisfying to use, even in situations where Normal-type moves are resisted. As long as you take good care of your Pokémon, it can easily become one of their best offensive options.

[The power of love has never been so literal.]

It was, almost. Barring a few early stages such as Caterpie, Ditto was my only Pokémon that could not learn it, as it learns no moves other than Transform... Yet that's two in a row that are incompatible with the TM. It seems to be a widespread issue, too.

[quizzak]

It certainly sounds like it. I suppose it's a TM that I'll have to pick up for myself, thank you.

[ the power of love and friendship... straight out of an anime! ... wait. ]

A widespread issue among those with new Pokemon, is it? There's so much mystery surrounding them; a friend of mine who's been here for years hasn't seen anything like them before. We theorized that they're from a different region we haven't discovered yet.

[paladinlost]

You'll not regret it. Unless you forget its type and waste an attack against a ghost, of course.

[Which is not, technically, an issue with the move itself.]

That's the most likely option, yes. It's happened before; new Pokémon species hatching from eggs, swarming certain cities, falling from the skies... I've no doubt we'll learn more about them soon enough.

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[tearsofademon]

Ahh, Return's doing that too? The new kinds can't learn Hidden Power, somehow.

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[paladinlost]

Return and Hidden Power cannot be learned, yet Round works as usual... I wonder what makes those moves behave differently?

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[tearsofademon]

Who knows... Maybe this world just felt like throwing something different at us this time around, to remind us not to take anything for granted, or something.

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[paladinlost]

An important lesson, but one that will complicate matters if I ever need to calculate their children's potential egg moves.

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[tearsofademon]

Ahh, yeah, guess they can't really just be assumed to be there for all of the children that can learn TMs anymore...

I'll have to ask Sion if he's noticed any other ones.

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[paladinlost]

Ideally, we'd try every near-universal TM on each of those new Pokémon species... But that would be very expensive, unless they've all been received in their reusable form. Which ones does Sion own?

and then I disappeared off the face of RP for a week and a half, oops...

[tearsofademon]

None of the kind that every Pokemon out there can learn, but he might have a few of the single use ones still around.

[video]

[yousayyes]

[Winston's own Rookidee is perched atop his head- and unlike Cecil's, it's staring intently into the camera with a robotic stillness about itself, only occasionally tweaking its position to allow its eyes to keep track of the Pokegear screen angled below.]

Can confirm, I was able to put Protect on her without any issue... but I borrowed a Return from Ray to test this out and she didn't take to it. That wouldn't be too strange on its own... [Since he knows there's a small handful of species who don't respond to the disc the same way others do...] ...but, just to be clear here- you're saying that this isn't just limited to Rookidee?

[video]

[paladinlost]

Round, Protect, Fire Blast and Fly work as usual, Return and Hidden Power do not. Interesting... I've had the same issue with my Scorbunny, now that he's agreed to learn a few TMs. Once they've both reached their final stage, I'll try again with Hyper Beam and Giga Impact. Perhaps there's a pattern yet to be found.

[Unaware of his trainer's future plans, the Rookidee rolls in his sleep, nearly falling off Cecil's lap along the way.]

Do you have access to any other TMs or HMs, by any chance? I intend to visit both Department Stores soon, but any information would be helpful.

[yousayyes]

Personally, I only own a Protect disc, but I've got access to some other TMs and HMs from my partners... While I was at it, I tried out Attract, Double Team, and Toxic since all of those are pretty universal moves that a lot of pokémon are able to learn from a TM. Seemed better to test those out instead of, say, Stealth Rock, which doesn't feel on-brand for a flying type anyway.

So with that said: I can tell you that Attract works, but... no luck with Double Team or Toxic. [Honestly, Winston would be more wary if the latter did work, because it's disconcerting enough to think about how nearly every other pokémon has the potential to become venomous if they're exposed to the right CD.]

[paladinlost]

Stealth Rock is the sort of move that'd be unlikely to work in the first place, yes. I've not bothered to try Blizzard, either, and I doubt any evolution could make that happen.

[Even if a Fire-type bunny throwing ice would be a lovely surprise for Gym challengers.]

That's... somewhat disappointing, but I suppose that Toxic's widespread compatibility was odd in the first place. Still, it's a shame; it did make for easy egg moves.

[yousayyes]

Gotta say- you're one brave man to breed poison moves into your eggs on purpose with how big your clutches get. [A short burst of breath somewhere between a sigh and a laugh passes through his lips.] I'd just love to get into the head of the programmer that thought "there's just not enough opportunity to get poisoned in nature, how about I fix that with science". [It's a joke, but that line of thought is a reminder that these are man-made machines... Winston scratches behind his neck, pondering it for a bit before lifting that hand up above his head to give his Rookidee a few scritches behind the wings.]

...do you think the issue has less to do with the pokémon or the moves themselves and more with the actual TMs? Like, it could be there's a quirk in the code of some of these discs that's made them less compatible with the new guys, because they weren't made with them in mind. Hard to design for something that hasn't been discovered yet, and all.

[paladinlost]

Poison-type moves are far less alarming than, say Earthquake. Or Blizzard. Thankfully, the species that can know them upon hatching are far less common than the ones that can learn Toxic, but those specific clutches are always a... delight to raise.

[His delight sounds very much like 'pain in the ass', somehow.]

That's a tricky question. I received my Return TM long before species such as Honedge or Popplio found their way to Johto and Kanto, and the local professors could not identify Kalos-native species on sight. However, it is possible that the TMs we have were still created with those other regions in mind, and that Rookidee comes from even farther away. It's difficult to tell, without knowing more about their origins.

[islandshore]

Didn't have much luck with Hidden Power either. Tried teaching it to my Sobble and, well...

[He shakes his head, sighing.]

Wonder what the deal is. I've never had trouble with these TMs on any other Pokemon before. Maybe it's got something to do with the region they're from?

[paladinlost]

Considering that both Round and Fire Blast worked normally for me, I wonder if your Sobble could learn Blizzard? There must be a pattern here.

[The scritching stops. The Rookidee does not react.]

It is possible that they'll be able to learn those moves upon evolving, as I suspect is the case for Hyper Beam and Giga Impact, but the region theory is also worth investigating. Unless we are dealing with a widespread technical failure, somehow...

[islandshore]

Yeah, but I wonder why evolution would matter when those movies work just fine on baby Pokemon. Not that I'm counting it out- this whole thing's just strange.

[Riku grumbles a little. It's probably silly, but...]

Kinda was hoping to bolster some type diversity with Hidden Power.

[paladinlost]

At this point, I'm willing to consider every option. Even those that may seem unlikely by this world's admittedly odd logic.

[Like a bigger bird suddenly realizing he can be powered by love.]

I was under the impression that Hidden Power could be of any type. Is there not a chance that it might match one that would be covered by its natural moveset?

[islandshore]

...Point. Not like this world's got a history of making sense.

[He rubs his temple. After all this time, he's gotta stop overthinking this.]

I guess that's possible. Makes me wonder what determines the type they get in the first place.

[paladinlost]

Do you happen to know if Pokémon of the same species are assigned the same type? It might also be related to the TM's time of use, or another external factor. ...It could also simply be chosen at random, but that'd almost be disappointing.

[And would make it impossible to aim for a specific type, which is even worse.]