#this gym of mine

[legitimatesatanspawn]

Pokemon fangame: "You're the gym leader and these are the t-"

Me: "Okay yadda yadda I get the deal, where's the Fairy or Steel gym picks? ... fine I'm a Ghost leader. At least I can surprise people with Honedge and stuff."

Pokemon fangame: "Everyone hates you because the city's previous gym leader was a loser and the city's in ruin so you gotta fix it."

Me: "... Hypnosis + Lick + Shadowball for everyone! Got a Zorua and taught it Shadowball too! Surprise, it's not a Ghost! Oh, a Psychic type in the wilds nearby? Yoink, teach it Shadowball and make sure it'll learn Dream Eater. When I get a chance I'll get a Jigglypuff for rollout! If everyone hates me I'm gonna give them reasons to hate me!"

[magnetictapedatastorage]

been really enjoying "this gym of mine". it has absolutely ZERO polish though. like. whenever the music changes there is a Loud noise where the game has no idea what track to play. this happens with... every battle. also level 38 wild kakuna because the encounter levels scale but the species do not...... it's worth it though to run a team of fully evolved bugs and lose to the third bird catcher in a row. also heracross literally sucks

[crystalelemental]

Tumblr’s still horrifically broken today, but just in case this actually posts: finished This Gym of Mine.

It’s fine.

There are some things I do like.  The fact I can get a Braixen with Quiver Dance, for instance!  That rules.  But...

I talked a lot about the issue of random encounters scaling to you, but trainer battles not?  Yeah, that...never goes away.  To compound, gym battle levels start to scale REALLY sharply, and their solution was a single trainer you can battle repeatedly in front of the gym, who has six Blissey with no damaging attacks, all holding Black Sludge.  It is a very rapid leveling system.  But it turns the game entirely into this odd back and forth between slow grinding for levels, and then rapid-fire battles.  I think I had like four consecutive days of event battles for rank boosting.  One of them happened after going to the Badlands, clearing it out, coming back to the event starting immediately.  It was supposed to happen after sleeping, so I missed all the characters.  Their dialogue showed but I never saw the people involved.  Which was great.  Then we had to deal with the leader of the riders and couldn’t do other stuff until then, then we had the champion show up, and then...it just keeps happening.

The added frustration is that, eventually?  They catch up.  By level 50-55, you’re just on-par with trainers again.  Which isn’t so bad.  Except they very clearly are EV trained, and have moves that aren’t typically learned, and you...do not.  You do not have access to basic moves.  I could never find the TM for things like Ice Beam (Jynx had to use Powder Snow), Dazzling Gleam (Braixen is now hard walled by Houndoom), or Earthquake (eat shit, Metagross).  So a lot of fights that should’ve been cleared with little issue wound up being incredibly frustrating because suddenly, Braixen is hard walled, and they have something that instantly kills it.  Which is very, very frustrating.  There were other options I could consider in the type that would cover things, but to my knowledge, Slowpoke and Exeggcute aren’t in this game.  So there goes a lot of my counterplay.

On the plus side, money stopped being a problem like...instantly.  Once I opened the commercial district and had a bit of money?  I went from 6k a day to over 11 million a day.  Money cap is 1 million.  I did this in like two days.  It explodes open, and suddenly you can afford infinite items with no issue.  Which...trivializes a lot?  It’s hard to care about the fight when it’s either getting stomped, or you’re able to just spam items infinitely.  Also this game fucking LOVES spamming Zoroark to throw you off.  When you’re unfamiliar with the team, and don’t see it there, it’s a lot more effective.  It’s completely fucking obnoxious, I kinda hate it.

Moreover, a lot of areas lack any kind of interest?  When you do have Repels, you start to realize, there’s like nothing in here.  It’s very short stuff with nothing going on.  So I don’t really know what to say about the region itself.  There’s not much there.  Story is similar; there’s too little going on in the broad scale to be entirely interesting, and they don’t have much engagement with your gym trainers like I expected.  I know, I know, fan game.  For what it is, it’s fine.  But it’s not doing much for me as a result.

I think that’s the ultimate takeaway I have.  It’s a very cool idea, that I would love to see in like...an actual official game, with a budget behind it.  Having something where you engage more with your gym trainers could make them interesting.  Having a more dynamic system of building the town that isn’t cracked open instantly for max money every day would be engaging.  Having a more dynamic region with more options and less frustration over the encounter levels being scaled would make it flow a little better.  It’s an under 10 hour endeavor, but I’m not sure I want to play it again with a different type.  It’s interesting, but not super engaging.

[birdkittenn]

IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR A DREEPY AND THEN THE FIRST ONE I FIND IS SHINY????

[nerdomlover]

I started playing This Gym of Mine. A fun pokemon game on computer. Im a bug gym leader. This is my current team

[forestwhisper3]

So I'm playing a fan-made pokemon game called This Gym of Mine where, instead of being a trainer, you're a gym leader. It's kind of fun, and I've played it a lot more than I thought I would. Only I'm a bit confused right now...

I think I somehow managed to get a shiny?

I'm not sure if it's a glitch or if I genuinely caught one because I haven't run into any other shiny pokemon to compare. When I first caught it, it looked normal and it looks normal in the stat screen as well, but...Well. take a look:

When I send him out, he's shiny.

This is the stat screen, so I'm sure you can understand my confusion.

This has to be one of the most unexpected shiny pokemon I've ever come across, but I'm going to go ahead and count it. This means Goomy has been added to the list of shinies that Amy is going to have in my pokemon fic. Lance isn't going to leave her alone when he finds out, that's for sure, ahaha.

[zorquil]

Gonna stream for a short while! Playing Pokémon: This Gym Of Mine!

[lordmaddie]

tbh I admire the balls on this man

[all-purpose-dish-soap]

02 / 627 words

You challenge Gaz to a pushup competition. And lose. What did you think would happen?

He keeps at it, though, maybe as a flex. Half-envious and half-curious, you lay on your stomach with your arms folded under your chin and watch him go. Gaz pushes himself up and down at the same even pace. You could always saboratge him, shove him over, but the satisfaction wouldn't last. Especially with his self-righteous ass taking it as permission to be a martyr about it. Wouldn't be the first time.

"Can you do those one-handed?" you ask him.

He glances at you. "Doesn't do much good for my triceps, but yeah, I can handle it."

"So what? Triceps, pff. The point of one-handed pushups is looking cool."

"If you can pull it off."

"Can you?"

"Obviously."

Gaz pushes up a little harder, repositioning one hand so it's centered under him when he comes down. The other hand he puts behind his back. To your disappointment, he continues with ease. He holds his body in perfect alignment despite the sheen of sweat glazing his skin.

"Wow, fine." You make yourself sound as unimpressed as possible. "Of course you can do it with your dominant arm. What about the other one?"

Gaz switches sides without missing a rep, making it look just as easy. You frown.

"That what you meant?" he asks.

"Yeah. Yeah. Okay, that was smooth," you admit.

"It's all in the form. Keep everything straight and taut. Can't do it properly if your body's all loose and jerking around."

"Uh-huh," you say absently. "What about weighted pushups? Like what if there were something on your back?"

"I've done it before. How come you want to know?"

"Just wondering what if I, like, sat on your back while you did it. Do you think you'd be strong enough?"

"Ah, is that it?" Gaz grins. He pauses his reps with his arm taught but slightly bent, bracing him in a plank. "Try it."

"Really?"

"I can take it."

"I'm heavy."

"Mmm, sure you are. Come on."

Gaz lowers himself to the ground. You hesitate, but he's not letting you back out. He's calling your bluff and he knows it.

"Chickening out?"

You huff and push yourself to your knees. "You wish."

You feel like a ton of clumsy bricks, lowering yourself down onto his back. You really try not to think about how your hand lands right above his shoulder blade or how his tank top leaves so much of his muscled back and shoulders exposed or how your ass slides against the firm curve of his lower back. You pray you're not too heavy. But Gaz either doesn't notice or doesn't mind. As soon as you're situated, draped over him sort of on your back and sort of on your side, he resumes his reps. Slower. Like he's accommodating you as you adjust.

You keep as still as you can. Gaz is as focused and professional as ever. But this is a bit more intimate than you anticipated. Damn him for forcing you to contend with the consequences of your actions. It's impossible not to notice and feel his back muscles at work. His strength is impressive. You're dismayed at the very idea that you thought you could beat Gaz in a test of arm strength. Hubris, that's what it was.

"Is this... helping? The weight?"

"Helping my training? Yeah, it seems to be working. You're good resistance."

"Oh. Thanks. Glad to be of service."

"Yeah? You feel alright on top of me?"

Your cheeks go a little pink at his phrasing. "Yeah. Best seat in the house."

"Is it?" Gaz wears a cheeky smirk, though you can't see it. "Keep it there, then. I like a little extra motivation."

...

[part 1] / part 2 / part 3 / part 4 / part 5

more Gaz / masterlist tag

[petricorah]

i think korra would really like climbing [ids in alt]

[reimidy]

iono in classic indigo league style

[crystalelemental]

Alright, day 2 of This Gym of Mine.  I don’t know how I feel about this game.

The Gym Team is Bronzor, Metang, and Smoochum.  I’m considering Drowzee until Smoochum can evolve, but eh.  If I need it, I have Butterfree too.  It can learn Psychic so it’s legally allowed in my Psychic gym, and more importantly, it’s fast and has Sleep Powder so it can fuck with people.  So we have a decent spread of options.

The main issue I take with the game is that wild encounters scale to your level.  I understand that the point of this is to minimize grinding to catch up with newer Pokemon, and to offer means of grinding levels as needed to over-prepare your gym.  But it’s unnecessary.  The areas you can travel have a pretty clear method of progression, if you mess around in the area.  Like, level 13 or not, a Stunfisk is going to be a problem due to stats early on.

Trainer levels, however, don’t scale at all.  So when you go somewhere, they’re kinda piss-easy to take care of.  I have encountered one (1) trainer that scared me.  It was a dude in the Cold Steel Cavern, who had 5 Pokemon all in the mid-20s.  I was maybe 20-22 at the time.  He had a Mawile.  It knew Sucker Punch.  I am a Psychic type.  We still won first try, though, all my Psychics still alive.  Thanks, Shroomish.

This is meant to be offset.  Having seen it, I now understand that progression is supposed to be show up in town, do two days immediately, and then move forward, because Leader Rank 1 is level 15.  Okay, great.  Problem: there’s no indication of that anywhere prior.  When you show up in town, you have no idea what you’re in for.  Moreover, when you show up, you probably don’t have three Pokemon with your type, or that know your Gym Specialty TM (in my case, Psychic).  I had to level up for Butterfree to qualify, and by then we’re already massively over-leveled.

The next phase feels like there’s some clear progression.  Going right out of the city is really high level, so I’m likely supposed to do more gym stuff before going over there.  But I could.  Nothing stopping me, really.  And going left, there’s now the really long road to the Badlands.  I assume that’s my next destination, since someone asked about it there, and if there’s sidequests, it’s probably an intended option.  But to get there, I have to go through two zones of constant random encounters, and fight exactly nothing.  Because every encounter scales to my level, and I can’t one-shot anything.  So it’s just getting into constant battles and running, to get into trainer matches with no teeth because I over-prepared.

The game just feels very...odd.  Despite the level scaling being intended to save time grinding, it actually is worse than usual.  Because again, every encounter is a threat, and you’re constantly hauling your broke ass back to the center.  It would honestly be a lot better if they didn’t.  If you needed to ensure new stuff was caught up, there’s this super neat modern mechanic called EXP All that I know people shit on, but that is in fact it’s intended use, and you could make a good case for it in a shorter game like this with Gen 5 style EXP scaling.

I dunno.  I’ll keep going but I can’t say I love it yet.  I think I’m just antsy for new options, and to not feel like exploring is such a chore.  The curse of Quiet Bronzor is never being able to run away successfully.

[birdkittenn]

i accidentally started this game being overlevelled for my first gym day and i have not stopped being overlevelled since

[queerdiazs]

Shannon, Eddie, Christopher, and Buck + parallels

[felixlefebvre]

NOAH BECK on INSTAGRAM.

[she-wu]

"don't i look like a gym teacher?"