State of Topaz: April 10th, 2009

Woo... a State of Topaz that's early! Well, it's been 13 days, so I thought it was important to update you guys on some of the very important news that's come to Topaz in the past two weeks.

Probably the most important piece of news I have to bring to you this update is the resignation of neon Barnacle as leader of the Pokemon Topaz project. As you might have noticed in the past while, neon's activity has slowly been dwindling, and now he's decided that he does not have the same interest in Topaz he had a year ago. I hope you can all give a big thank you to neon for sticking with the project as long as he did, and take a moment to think about how much he's done for us, along with his predecessors, Rent Cavalier, Falnax and Black Tigress, as well as Piro, of course. He has said that he'll still be checking the forums from time to time to give his opinion, so I hope those visits start becoming frequent again so he can keep helping out!

This brings us to the sobering prospect that I might one day lose interest too. As such, I will be looking for active and dedicated people to possibly promote to moderator status, to help with a bit of the management and to promote activity. I hope you guys will judge me as perceiving enough to find someone who truly is dedicated.

Which brings me to a small plea. New guys, don't worry that you're not "good enough" or "experienced enough" to contribute! Though some of us older members can get a little harsh on you guys, as long as you show commitment to the project and don't hesitate to give your informed opinion from time to time, we will accept with open arms into our project! For those such as Outlaw Gryphon and Pillowrath who have previously felt as outsiders, not welcome here, I ask you fervently to come around and post! Active members are the lifeblood of Topaz, and though I'm sorry to see that people like TehLurker haven't been around for months, I'm glad to see fresh new faces like MeekRhino and Pika-Freaka wanting to keep this place alive and kicking!

Now for non-community side news:

Last SoT, I announced that Fangking Omega was back from college. Unfortunately, it's just until April 26th, then he will be back in college until July, I think. Sorry for the mistake!

The Caldera/Kirant Pokedex is still looking for one person with some knowledge of HTML to help with its creation! Those who believe they can't help out with Topaz due to a lack of skill in spriting, composing, and whatnot, this is a place that you can help! It'd also help share a big burden that's been largely on the shoulders of Pheonixsong and I for the past while.

Dunsparce and Flygon have finally finished their revamps and I have opened the two new revamps, the Eeveelutions and the Slo Family. Hopefully these will receive more attention than their predecessors.

It'd be nice to have a few opinions on Wild Encounter Rates just so that it doesn't seem like I'm alone in liking anything? This is a super-important part of any Pokemon game so I was hoping that it would interest people. Don't be afraid to try making some lists, and please don't take any offense if we heavily edit your list! We're just trying to make Topaz the best it can be. Note that this is also quite important for OI.

Pokedex Entries are moving along, thanks to Pika-Freaka for a literal WAVE of posts, we've sent quite a few to either 4 votes or done. Since the last SoT, specifically, Whispaw, Tellure and Sirene have been finished, and a couple of new topics were started due to Malphis' awesome inspiring fodder.

NPC Lines </sneaks away>

Finally, on the OI side, the Topaz TRPG is up to Laysan Town now, so it's progressing along nicely. I'll keep you guys updated as it goes along. I've finally gotten confident enough to start making some sidequests and events that aren't necessarily going to be in the game itself, like one where you open trade routes and another one where you fish for prizes.

So, thanks for your time taken to read this SoT, and let's keep this place alive!