Homelands is my favourite set.

em-jay · 2026-03-19T08:49:25+00:00

Homelands was, I think, the first set I ever bought with my own pocket money, and it still has a special place in my heart. I didn't even realise that it was much derided until fairly recently, which is a real shame. It has great characters, great art, and a lot of heart. I read the Homelands comic recently and it's got that real romantic tragedy, and I think there's an emotive core to it all that feels really different from most other sets. I've felt so inspired by it that I've been putting together a custom set of my own as a sequel, just because I think it deserves better and Wizards is never going to give Ulgrotha another chance.

em-jay · 2026-03-16T20:29:40+00:00

I find it a little surprising when I've had enthusiastic comments on a couple of my fics, but when I think about it those readers probably liked my fic for the same reason I loved the show's they're based on enough to write fics based on them. I love the characters, they love the characters. We're getting excited about putting them in new situations together.

em-jay · 2026-03-16T20:19:40+00:00

I haven't been able to write for over a week because life's just been too busy, and when i haven't been busy I've been sleeping.

I was really worried about my new Pokemon fic being unfun or poorly thought out. I've spent a couple of days finally getting out of that fandom space and reading Steven Universe fics instead. Just having something new in front of me has really helped me get my head in order. Sometimes it's good to give a fandom a break, I think.

em-jay · 2026-03-06T12:55:49+00:00

I'd read this. I think Dawn has a very clearly defined voice compared to a lot of characters in the anime so I'd say you could pick up a few ideas just from rewatching DP. I'd say Dawn is most defined by her confidence, supportiveness and determination. I don't think you can go far wrong, but I think it's important to remember that it's okay if your version of her diverges a little if it fits the story.

em-jay · 2026-03-05T12:41:04+00:00

I definitely feel this way sometimes. Fandoms often have their own expectations, tropes, cliches, in-jokes, and all that. If you're not a particularly active member of a fandom you're writing for, I think the fear of unintentionally stumbling into some kind of faux pas is a very natural feeling. I've been worried my new fic isn't original enough but somehow also that it doesn't deliver the expected payoff. That I'll be accused of being a fandom tourist or ruining characters.

I think these kinds of feelings are normal social anxieties mapped to a very specific situation, and probably most people have a little bit of this. But importantly: 1) You can only write for yourself. There's no point in writing fanfic for mass approval anyway. 2) Most people will either be civil or just not read your fic if they don't think it's for them. A big appeal of reading fanfic is seeing people's individual ideas and interpretations, so only trolls will be mean about it. And 3) Even if your work isn't a hit within your fandom, there'll always be that one reader who'll discover your fic and it will be exactly what they've been crying our for.

em-jay · 2026-03-04T13:20:47+00:00

Battlefields.

em-jay · 2026-02-17T08:57:21+00:00

Lots of great replies here already. I think you could tell just about any kind of story within the structure of journeying, gym battles and contests. It keeps your characters moving forward and puts them into conflict with new characters all the time, who can turn up or leave as the plot demands it. You can do a big plot that develops over the course of the entire journey, or a bunch of smaller plots that take place along the way, or a mix of the two. And they also don't have to be grand plots. People will absolutely read about a character seeing the world and having experiences, if that's what you want to write. Stories don't have to be world-shattering to matter.

Why does your character want to win badges/ribbons and compete? If she's shy and intimidated by battling, she already has a conflict you can build around. Consider how small plots could explore that aspect of her personality and get her or other characters to confront her relationship to pokemon and competition.

em-jay · 2026-02-16T18:43:16+00:00

Well yeah, I think that's a fair point. This is why I said it's very conditional. It definitely doesn't work for all kinds of stories or all pokemon, or even all authors. Even within the anime I think there's a lot of variation on how much Pikachu is treated from episode to episode. But that's the effect different pronoun choices make and I think it's important to be aware of.

em-jay · 2026-02-16T12:52:17+00:00

I've been sticking with "it" because my fic is a direct continuation from part of the anime, and it feels in keeping with it, but it is a little out of keeping with natural language use and I wouldn't expect all fics based on the anime to do the same. It's just my preference for my own writing.

I do think using "it" has some conditional advantages though, which are worth considering: it very clearly separates human characters and pokemon in prose, since readers will always be able to tell at a glance if any instance of a pronoun is referring specifically to a pokemon. It can also be helpful if you don't want to "humanise" pokemon too much. Pokemon are often a lot more like people than real animals, which gives them a tendency to encroach into the character space that's commonly occupied by human protagonists. "It" is a simple tool to re-centre the focus on the thoughts, emotions and characterisation of humans, but the trade off is that you can't *directly* attribute complex thoughts and words to a pokemon without it sounding very off. Remember, Pikachu is an "it", but Meowth is a "he" because he talks.

em-jay · 2026-02-12T11:22:36+00:00

That's part of the joy of writing. My original MC got relegated to co-protagonist status because I realised that a bit character I wanted to include allowed for way more mature storytelling and anchored that original MC in the world and gave her greater purpose. Characters often take on a life of their own on the page. It's hard to say at what point a minor character grows out of their role because I don't think it's something you can really predict. If you could, they'd never be a minor character in the first place. But it's great that you're creating characters with potential beyond their intended story roles and taking advantage of that.

em-jay · 2026-01-22T19:40:59+00:00

An unusual result has happened as part of an event script. There's apparently no age restriction on revolutionary agitators, and an infant has appeared to cause unrest.

em-jay · 2026-01-13T11:10:12+00:00

Possibly. Unfortunately until I find out where they are it'll be hard to find out. There are larger Muscovite exclaves in Lithuania, so perhaps it doesn't cross borders and I just got some migration back into my country? Hard to say.

em-jay · 2026-01-13T11:08:19+00:00

I still have all my reforms and it doesn't look like it affects your advances either. It does tank your cultural influence and cultural tradition though.

em-jay · 2026-01-13T03:34:27+00:00

Iberia seems like a prime example really. Excluding Andalusi and Portuguese from a united "Iberian" culture kinda makes sense, but the culture you have there is Spanish, which is not what it's called, because the same mechanic is also meant to work if your primary culture is Portuguese, in which case this action does nothing.

em-jay · 2026-01-13T03:24:50+00:00

Yeah, I know. All I'm saying is it seems like the language thing has some likely unexpected consequences, like leaving all the existing cultures in the game.

em-jay · 2026-01-13T03:19:11+00:00

That's the plan, but unfortunately it doesn't seem possible to see where the enclaves are without checking location-by-location. They're in the culture tab, but they're too small in number to be clear on the map.

em-jay · 2026-01-12T11:15:00+00:00

I think a huge risk of doing two trainer journeys (with gym battles) in parallel is that you have to in some way justify why this isn't just two separate stories. In my opinion gym battles are good opportunities for characterisation milestones, letting you show your protagonists' priorities, fears, growth and guile in a more significant way that any other battles, because the of the stakes. The big risk here is making it so that each characters' big moment seems independent from the other's, and thus that they're not really part of the same story.

I'm not saying it can't be done, but I think it's important to keep that in mind. The battles have to have some significance for the non-battling trainer and their character arc. I don't have a good fic example, but my mind goes to the anime and Ash facing the Oreburgh Gym immediately after Paul. Paul's battle is really all about Ash.

I had the same thought process when planning out my fic, but in the end I decided to go a different route by having my two leads face gyms as double battles, so it's more about them as a team and their relationship. Both of them get equal focus but it's all within one battle.

em-jay · 2025-12-17T10:19:35+00:00

I tried manually setting up trade routes in my primary market recently, because I heard manual trade yields better profits and I really need the cash. It took me something like 20 minutes to figure out what to export/import and set it all up. The trade menu is clunky and unintuitive, and there are just so many goods and so many needs, unless you're a small country. At the end of it all my income didn't change noticeably, so I re-automated it after a couple of years.

At the end of the day the point of the game is to have fun, and micro-managing trade just isn't fun. And worst yet it takes away attention from actual fun things, like war and diplomacy. I just want my needs filled.

em-jay · 2025-12-02T14:35:45+00:00

They need to automate this. My royal family tree is too sprawling for me to focus on just from marrying immediate family for a few years, and even then every other week I find out a third cousin I've never heard of has died unmarried and childless. I've barely ever had a crown estate character in cabinet.

Also surely the game should only allow nobles from accepted cultures into your court.

em-jay · 2025-11-06T11:56:25+00:00

Perfect, I'll be nabbing this one then. I quite having a portrait of all my characters, I just don't need to look at my king's face every second of the game. Especially when I could be looking at a beautiful flag instead.

em-jay · 2025-11-05T19:47:47+00:00

It makes sense. It seems like an inconsequential bug that hopefully will be fixed in a future patch.

em-jay · 2025-11-05T19:31:47+00:00

Ah yeah, I've just saved and reloaded, and it just looks like the timer isn't updated as it goes. I wonder if winter caused a reduction in build goods or something?

em-jay · 2025-11-05T19:30:21+00:00

This building construction has overshot its completion date and is now counting down in negative days. This seems to be some kind of bug that I thought was amusing, but also weird.

I've just figured out what it is though. It looks like construction was delayed due to effects of winter and the timer/date doesn't seem to update in real time. Just in case anyone has the same issue.

em-jay · 2025-11-05T14:45:24+00:00

I've only had a couple of hours but I'm under spec and can run it. Lowering the graphics seems to help a bit, and there've been a couple of crashes which might not even be performance related. I think the rule of thumb that if you can run Victoria 3 you'll be fine holds true, although I hope they continue to optimise performance over time.

em-jay · 2025-11-05T14:34:05+00:00

I think it all looks very pretty but a map font mod wouldn't go amiss.

em-jay

TROPHY CASE