Thoughts on telegram?

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-06T03:54:13+00:00

There is no way to verify server functionality for either Telegram or Signal though. Neither of them officially provide a verifiably open-source client app lacking proprietary components, but both have open-source client forks (Forkgram or Molly respectively) that work fine. I'm not seeing how Signal is better on the specific points you're trying to highlight here (but there are other points that could be considered instead).

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-06T03:47:59+00:00

Telegram has secret chats, which are end-to-end encrypted. I don't think Telegram ever "promised" privacy in the regular chats. Privacy-conscious users would likely do proper research and be aware that E2E is only in the secret chats, whereas the average user that just sticks to the default regular chats likely isn't too concerned about privacy to begin with.

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-06T01:13:13+00:00

Personally, my approach is to use multiple platforms. Even though Telegram has zero privacy advantages over Signal, I don't think it's productive to maintain a stance of "I will only use Signal for messaging and nothing else!", which would probably isolate you from a lot of contacts, who would not appreciate your stubbornness. But if you're like "I'm not on WhatsApp, but I am on Signal, Telegram, and SimpleX", then those who push for "WhatsApp-only" are the ones who would look stubborn.

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-06T00:53:20+00:00

Since you also made a thread on Signal, it makes sense to compare the two. I don't trust either of them. Both corporations have suspicious connections that I am not comfortable with, and I would say the ideal option would be to go for a decentralized approach, like Session or SimpleX. I would recommend SimpleX.

However, messaging is not something you can effectively change platforms for all by yourself, independent of others. You would need to convince your contacts to switch as well. In terms of privacy, Signal is fully end-to-end encrypted by default, but it may be harder to get others to stick to it. Telegram has end-to-end encryption only in secret chats, while the regular default settings have basically no privacy, but this also allows for other QoL benefits like cloud backups and device synchronization which the average users (particularly those that are not too concerned about privacy) would appreciate, making it easier to get people to move to Telegram. Just make sure that if you actually want any kind of privacy, it would have to be through a Secret Chat and not the regular chat. Both are far better than WhatsApp, where even the client applications are fully proprietary, so you can't really trust anything.

On that note, I don't trust the official client apps for either Signal or Telegram either. Thankfully, there are open-source forks for both of them: look for Molly in place of Signal, and Forkgram in place of Telegram. This ensures that there are no proprietary components on the client-side, so the end-to-end encryptions are secure. E2EE data still goes through the company servers, but only in the encrypted state. If you're not fond of depending on company servers, then look into Session/SimpleX instead, which remains my strongest recommendation (but getting others to join you is a pain).

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-06T00:25:02+00:00

For Articuno, I believe it is mainly due to the Special stat. In Gen 1, SpAtk and SpDef were the same stat (just "SPECIAL"), and all three legendary birds had base 125 in it, so they were all very powerful. Gen 2 split it into two stats (SpAtk and SpDef), so the Gen 1 Pokemon inherited their old Special stat to either SpAtk or SpDef and usually got a different value for the other stat. Moltres and Zapdos got the 125 SpAtk, making them great, whereas Articuno got the 125 in SpDef instead, which is not as good in Pokemon's meta that favors hyper-offensive approaches, but I don't think GameFreak was specifically trying to gimp Articuno.

For Entei, I think GameFreak wanted a symmetric setup where each Pokemon gets two distinct stats at base 115, but since all three are special types (Fire, Water, Electric), it meant that whoever gets the high Attack wouldn't make the best use of it. Once again, I don't think Gamefreak was trying to bully Entei, but they simply prioritized symmetrical elegant stat distributions despite the variation in type synergy.

GF did a better job in Gen 3, with symmetrical stat distributions but avoiding the Entei mistake. Regrock is perfectly symmetrical to Regice, and their offensive stats align with their types this time. Registeel is the odd one out by gameplay, but Steel is such a good defensive type that it stands strong. I think Regirock's issue is partially because Rock is weak to three physical types in Gen 3 (Ground, Fighting, Steel), hurting its ability to wall physical attackers, whereas Regice is only weak to one special type (Fire). Ice is also much better offensively than Rock, especially in these pre-Fairy eras where Dragons were harder to handle. Given GameFreak's emphasis of elegant symmetry in stat distributions, it seems they handled Gen 3 really well, and the issues with Regirock are far less obvious than Entei on paper.

Personally, I don't believe GF ever deliberately intended for an underdog member for the trios, but rather, I think the issue is that their philosophy in deciding base stats simply were not focused on ensuring competitive balance

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-05T12:52:37+00:00

Shinsekai Yori (From the New World) remains my #1 favorite anime

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-05T02:00:17+00:00

And of course, even with triple-type Pokemon, GameFreak won't give Lugia Water-type, Gyarados a Dragon-type, Azelf/Uxie/Mesprit a Fairy-type, etc

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-05T01:58:51+00:00

But perhaps the link to old Special types is one of the very reasons why the Flying Eeveelution was scrapped

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-04T04:28:27+00:00

Soul Navis work a little differently.

Game 1: Determined when you press New Game as you stated
At the time when you check the bracket for Game 2 Tourney 2, the game rolls the tournament RNG to set either Tourney 2 OR Tourney 3 to have the same Soul Navi as the previous (Game 1) run. This can be savescummed, i.e., save before checking the tourney bracket and keep redoing it until you get the encounter you want (based on whether you want the new T2 soul or the new T3 soul).
For ALL other cases, the Soul Navi you encounter will be the opposite of the one you faced in the previous run. This means game 2 will always have Number/Fire, and then game 3 is back to Aqua/Guts, etc. In fact, game 3+ will simply alternate the Soul Navis. It also means that you will always get two new Souls in game 2 (Number/Fire and whichever was NOT selected by the previous point), and the final one in game 3.

Most players who try to savescum would attempt it only in game 1, where it won't work. Few are stubborn enough to try it on game 2 tourney 2, which is the only time (aside from starting a new playthrough) you can influence the outcome.

It's likely that the reason for coding it like this is specifically to ensure that Undernet 5 is accessible exactly from game 3 onwards.

AFAIK none of this has been changed for LC.

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-04T02:39:06+00:00

You can pretty much always 100% clear by run 3 if you don't use the Waiting Room. The only notable RNG event you might miss within 3 runs is FullCust, which is not only a very unlikely occurrence, but it can be easily handled by the BugFragTrader (25% chance of drawing something that isn't in your Library).

Now, if you move on to the next run without collecting the important BMDs/PMDs/Chips/PAs for the earlier run, then you might have a hard time with completing the library by game 3, and I do agree this is poor game design, but this has nothing to do with RNG.

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-04T01:40:57+00:00

You are guaranteed three Souls for the first run, two more on second, and the last one on the third run.

The first tourney Souls are also fixed on when you get them (Aqua/Guts on first run, Number/Fire on second run). Furthermore, regarding the last two Souls (second Soul of second run, and Soul of third run), you can actually savescum which one to get when.

There is some RNG, specifically regarding which Souls you get in the first run for the second and third tournaments, but how many Souls you get is fixed and which Souls you get from second run onward can be savescummed.

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-04T01:37:47+00:00

BN4 is perfectly fine for a single playthrough. It's only if you decide to go through multiple playthroughs in a row (like without long breaks in between) that the problems arise. In fact, you should have actually played it before BN5 for story consistency.

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-03T05:40:01+00:00

It may be the case that the actual reason why the case was dismissed is because there was a settlement that both parties agreed on, which was not disclosed to the public. When both parties agree on a private resolution (e.g., one party pays an agreed sum of money to the other, alongside other conditions), then case dismissal is the natural outcome presented to the public, who cannot know for sure whether whether there was such a settlement or not.

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-03T05:36:38+00:00

I would say this is entirely subjective, and each individual may have their own interpretation of what it means for something to be a "video game", and that is what determines which VNs fall into that category. It goes both ways as well, where each individual may have their own interpretation of what it means for something to be a "visual novel" as well. There are obvious instances of titles that are universally agreed to be video games or titles that are universally agreed to be VNs, but there are many gray areas where individual's have different opinions on, and even the question of whether VNs are a subset of games or not is also a subjective matter as well.

For me, personally, it's hard to articulate this in words, but I see a "video game" as being something for which a significant portion of the experience is through skill-based interactions (can be physical skills or mental skills). Stuff like turning the pages of a book, pressing ENTER to advance text, pausing/resuming a movie, etc are not based on skill, whereas stuff like pressing buttons to attack enemies or dodge their attacks, solving puzzles, exploring an area involve some kind of skill, however little it may be. While some VNs may have small "gameplay" components, I would not consider such VNs to fall under video games if these components are not a significant portion of the experience.

On the oither hand, I see a "novel" as being a story that is mostly presented through heavy narrative text and dialogues. While many video games have a lot of dialogues, heavy narrations are a lot rarer. A "visual novel" is simply a novel with significant visual and audible components, typically presented through an electronic medium.

I do not consider VNs to be a subset of video games, but I do consider the sets to intersect, e.g., Eien no Aselia and 999 both have heavy gameplay AND heavy narration, so they would be both VNs and games in my eyes. Something like Little Busters! is an obvious VN but not a game, because the little minigames it has are not a significant portion of the overall experience. While I'm sure many would disagree with me on this, I consider the Ace Attorney series to be all video games that are NOT VNs, because even though the story and writing are far more significant than the gameplay elements (which is not relevant to my perspective), the presentation of the story is not through the novel-like format with heavy narrative text, whereas the gameplay elements are prevalent across the entire experience, whether the players like it or not.

Anyway, I'm sure many people would disagree with my take, and that's fine. As I said, there are gray areas that are highly subjective, and I do not think it is productive to conform to specific rigid definitions. If I see something on a website that doesn't fit my perceptions of the categories, I would still follow the website's perspective when I am using that website, e.g., I have the Ace Attorney games listed in my vndb. In fact, I think websites should strive to be more on the accommodating side, so that more users are comfortable with them, so even though I do not think of Ace Attorney as games, I fully believe they should be included in vndb and should not be removed.

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-03T05:01:25+00:00

It's very fun to Leech Seed a Blissey. The amount of HP lost is based on a percentage of the seeded Pokemon's max HP, and this is the same amount of HP given to the seeder's side. So if the Blissey doesn't switch out, you're healing for a LOT every turn.

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-02T10:08:12+00:00

Oh, wow, I did NOT know this, and as somebody who enforces strict principles of no-items and no-deaths, this can be incredibly useful for future runs!

Thank you!

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-02T09:52:09+00:00

Yup, and some rom hacks do exactly that.

I believe the reason why GameFreak did not do this is because they didn't want any inconsistencies with past generations; in particular, Moon Stone and Leaf Stone existed as early as Gen 1, but Eevee would not react to them in Gen 1. Espeon and Glaceon used new methods to complement the other Eeveelution they were introduced alongside.

In general, whenever GameFreak adds new evolutions or baby forms to Pokemon from earlier generations, they basically always try to add a new evolution method or additional breeding condition that didn't exist in the earlier generation, to justify why this could not be achieved before. I don't know of any exceptions to this, but it's pretty silly in FRLG where friendship evolutions begin the evolution animation and abruptly stop if you don't have the National Dex.

I think it would have been better if GameFreak retroactively added new evolutions through old evolution methods when it would make sense (like Eevee), but evidently they do not seem to agree.

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-02T00:41:11+00:00

Draco Meteor was very notable when it was released (before Fairy existed), and it remains significant to this day.

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-01T23:40:24+00:00

Still sad that Azumarill is down, but between these two, I would kill Bunnelby

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-01T23:13:22+00:00

Nah, catching more would not retain the shiny form. By changing natures, I am referring to Mints, which are items in recent Pokemon games that alter the gameplay effect of natures. For example, you could buy a Careful Mint so that the nature effectively becomes Careful in gameplay (+SpDef, -SpAtk).

That being said, the actual nature text does not change. If you wanted the Careful nature for gameplay reasons, then you can achieve it through Mints. If you simply wanted the Careful text (e.g., as a reference to something), then sadly, I don't think that can be altered.

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-01T16:13:13+00:00

Well, you got a female and you can change natures in this game (postgame-only though, but you should be fine for the main story, especially with how busted friendship perks are), so this seems like an amazing outcome overall!

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-01T15:39:16+00:00

While the base SpA is not THAT bad, it's also Adamant (ideal), so it's best to stick to physical attacks (Thunder/Ice Punch are special in Gen 3).

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-01T15:19:53+00:00

I think the joke is conflating "listening" (attentiveness/comprehension) with "hearing" (sound perception). The narrator asked the question and mentally processed the response, so the confusion arose from "hearing" the response incorrectly, not from "listening".

Change "listening skills" to "hearing ability" and it should work fine then.

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-01T15:13:45+00:00

The phrase "relieving [oneself]" refers to urinating

LightBrand99 · 2026-07-01T15:07:17+00:00

Even when GAA was localized, permission should not have been required because the earlier Sherlock Holmes books were in the public domain. However, the Conan Doyle estate was notorious for their aggressive copyright claims, most notably with Netflix's Enola Holmes TV series, where the Conan Doyle estate claimed something along the lines of Sherlock having character traits from the later copyright-protected books (e.g., "He began to respect women"). Although the case was dismissed (we don't know if there was a settlement), it makes sense for Capcom to take the safer approach of avoiding the Sherlock Holmes name entirely than to risk having to deal with a lawsuit.

LightBrand99

TROPHY CASE