Update #47 - A Lengthy Rant and a Legendary Christmas? Also, a History. (Patreon)

Good morning everyone, time for another SMALL preview of things to come, but first a little history!

Things have been a bit hectic with "themed" releases over the past few months, where we focus on grouped up thematic releases like Ghosts for October, or Summer surf/water/island bois, whereas before we would do releases in order, like we did with Gens 1-3. I thought about doing the same this winter with Ice types, but I quickly realized there aren't actually that many I could do to fill the month. Besides the ones we've already released, there are a few Ice-types that haven't received new sprites or even their first sprites (particularly later gen mons) yet, or whatever. Generally there's not many to begin with, as Ice is one of the rarest types.

There's also the problem with the spritesheets in general. If you don't know the history behind the Moemon art/romhacks, it actually goes back quite a ways, starting with a group of Japanese modders/artists maybe 15 some years ago. Technically, the idea was "stolen" from them by some Westerners who used their sprites temporarily while making their own new ones, because the Japanese didn't like them stealing their work. Things get a bit confusing beyond this point, but IF I'M CORRECT on my understanding, this is where Moetel's FireRed Revival project came into being. That is, until there was a quasi-mutiny of artists about 2 years ago, and the team of artists/modders left the project to work on Septentrion's Mega Moemon FireRed project.

Because Moetel was a dick, apparently? or maybe they meant dictator?

Well, doesn't matter. The point is, since then lots of sprites have been getting replaced, resulting in sporadic, random updates/polishing or entirely new sprites being thrown into the mix. While we were just getting into Gen 4 - which, by the way, I had always stated from the beginning was missing many sprites - the team left Moetel's project and started replacing several of the old artist sprites, as to not use or claim them. Which is fair, but it was a big hit to progress being made. 

As an example, here's a look at the spritesheet for Gen 4 before the split.

Then the sheet AFTER you remove the old artist sprites.

Needless to say we've taken quite a hit and it'll be a long ways on the road to recovery. Still, it doesn't mean we can't release new stuff. There's actually still plenty, between later gens, trainers, reworks, etc.

The only difficulty here is finding a "set" of things to do. For instance, there may be a random Gen 8 family completed on the discord, and that's cool. But then the next day, randomly, Tentacruel/Tentacool will get updated (which they literally just did, btw).

It's like, that's cool, but how do I just jump from those two releases? especially when it isn't guaranteed they're "complete" or "finished"

But! There are some that are mostly finished and haven't been updated in forever and I'm looking forward to doing. Specifically, a bunch of Legendaries.

While still being tinkered with, there will be an initial "small" update to the three Legendary birds, Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres as they actually have been out for almost a year now and there's some improvements that can be made to them with all the new mods out as well as techniques learned. And yes I'm thinking of Articuno's and Moltres' wings.

I don't actually want to reveal the other Legendaries however, since plans may not work out and I don't want to let anyone down - but if things go well we're looking at about 12 Legendaries this month - and if we continue into January, an additional 6-8.

There's also some stuff in the background I'm working on like the above screenshot shows - a Christmas themed Phantump (Trevenant as well!) that I'm slowly working on - just an original design that I wanted to do. Also, for some reason I really want to update the Lass trainer, specifically from RSE. Maybe a small release here and there of a single-release Moemon? We'll see.

So, unfortunately, no MAJOR previews with this update with cool little sprites and things. Although I should also mention, I did update the Mega with a few old and new cards if you are missing them.

Updates to the MegaPack:

• Team Rocket Cards
• Team Aqua Cards
• Team Magma Cards
• Woobat / Swoobat
• Yamask / Cofagrigus (Updated!)
• Drifloon / Drifblim
• Mimikyu (Disguised / Broken)
• Phantump / Trevenant
• Litwick / Lampent / Chandelure (Updated!)
• Spiritomb

As mentioned, a few cards were updated before moving them to the Mega: Cofagrigus has some makeup changes, and the Litwick family has updates/improved hair and flame effects (similar to Ponyta). I recommend checking them out, if you like.

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I'm pretty sure that's all I wanted to really cover for now. It's been a few days since the last release and the next release is still a couple of days away. Unfortunately I was set back a whole day with SCE shutting off our power for a day for so-called maintenance, again, and also general holiday-busy-ness with family and other emergencies popping up.

But I am working in the background and can't wait to see how these girls look once they're ready. Until then, see you on the Discord!