#split evo project

[catgirl-soup]

Drawing a new split Pokemon evolution every day in July -- Day Five

Motheon

Bug

Evolves from Eevee when levelled up in a "magical/bright forest" area:

Berry Forest, Sevii Islands

Ilex Forest, Johto

Mirage Forest, Hoenn

Wayward Wood, Sinnoh / Hisui

Dreamyard, Unova

Pokemon Village, Kalos

Poni Wilds, Alola

Glimwood Tangle, Galar

Area Zero, Paldea

Levelling an Eevee up in a particularly bright forest triggers an evolution into this Pokemon, whose biology is very similar to other insectoid Pokemon. Their bodies are covered in a fuzzy fur that repels dirt, letting them always be perfectly clean. They also have a glowing light on their tail that they use to attract fellow Motheon. As a result, any bright lamp will completely enamour this Pokemon, and they have been noted staring into artificial lights for hours on end, much to the amusement and slight concern of their trainers.

[hermitcraftheadcanons]

For backstories:

Grian, as a recognized master builder, has a team of people who work with him when he’s making larger off server projects. These are people who are typically going to school to become master builders, who then graduate and do their own thing, kind of like a mentorship program.

Pearl is one of these people! Her and Gem were both in a master builder program, but while Gem was placed with someone who specializes in organics, Pearl was placed with Grian. While working together, their styles meshed so well that when she did graduate, he invited her to come to Evo to help him beautify the server there. After that ended, she split off to go work with Gem some more and to bring her work to places like Artisan and Legacy SMP. She still did some work for Grian, including judging some competitions he put on, where she met Mumbo, but mostly she did her own thing.

Her first entrance to Hermitcraft was actually a season before she officially joined. Hermitcraft is known to be a kind of prestigious server, master builders would kill to be invited. Grian can’t have his usual team of helpers on the server due to X wanting to keep everything safe, but he was allowed one person to help with a mega build. He, of course, chose Pearl!

The intent was that she would just come in, help him with his build, then leave back to what was her home SMP at the time, Legacy. But X, Impulse, and Joe wanted to meet her first, just for screening purposes. They were impressed by her skills and found her to be shy and kind (little did they know the kind of chaos she would unleash once she was comfortable with them). She helped Grian out with his build and hopped off the server, and truly thought that would be her last brush with Hermitcraft.

That was until Grian gave her a call one day and told her that he and Mumbo had put her name up to become a resident of the server next season. Pearl, of course, was overjoyed. Even more so when she found out that Gem would be coming with her as she had been voted in as well. It was everything the two of them had dreamed about when they were going to master builder training!

-whereispearlescentmoon

.

[dromeoraptor]

Birds-of-Paradise feel like some speculative evolution project. Once upon a time, a bird found itself on an isolated island continent (most of them live in New Guinea, but some live on Australia, and New Guinea was connected to Australia during glacial periods), and it evolved into a whole family of birds with crazy sexual displays. But not just crazy, but with multiple genera all crazy in different ways. It really does feel like someone wanted to make a spec evo project showing off how sexual selection and display structures can be, but it's real!

This is far from a comprehensive list, but we have:

The one with a trombone windpipe: Curl-Crested Manucode

This is a bird that looks pretty normal, it's from the first branch to split off from the others so it's still monogamous unlike the more extravagant ones. It has a cool sound, but not something you'd expect to need crazy internal workings.

But it does have crazy internal workings, with this super long trachea (windpipe) that bends 4 times before finally getting to the mouth. I'm honestly not sure why it has this windpipe, it's not particularly loud or anything as far as I know.

The "King of the Dance": Western Parotia

Parotias already have complex dances for birds-of-paradise, but the Western Parotia is the one with the most complex of them all. Each Parotia's dance has multiple steps, in a specific order. This one has 6 steps.

Perch Pivot- the male pivots back and forth on a horizontal branch above the display court, a little patch of forest floor that he's cleared out

Head Tilt- the male goes up to a female on the branch and flops his head from side to side.

Court Hop- The male hops across the court, (not one big hop, multiple smaller ones like a sparrow or kangaroo), pauses, and then hops the other way.

Swaying Bounce- The male bounces up and down and side to side as he flutters his wings, moving his head in an infinity sign. He also has a variation on this where it closes its wings and bounces more vigorously

Ballerina Dance- has four parts to it. He does a bow, he walks a bit, he pauses, and then he moves flares those shiny neck feathers while hopping side to side.

The one with wires coming out of its head: the King-of-Saxony

This one has two really weird feathers called "head wires". Twice as long as the bird's body, and he can point them backwards, to the side, or even forwards! They're not just long too, their structure's all weird with the barbs fused into these plasticy tabs.

The one that likes it rough: the Greater Bird-of-Paradise

While showy for a bird, they're nothing too special for a bird of paradise. The main special thing is their big plume of feathers on their back, and their display is basically just running along the branches showing off their plumes and making a racket.

But once he's got the female's attention, he shows the underside of that plume on his back, and then he starts flapping his wings and basically hopping backwards and touching her with his rear end.

Then he starts clapping her with his wings, and kinda pecking at her head. I don't think he open his mouth but he's not exactly being gentle with that beak. And then comes the sex, both seconds of it. Well 2.5 seconds is what I counted in the video, but yeah. Bird sex in general is really short with few exceptions.

The bald one with a Yoshi saddle: Wilson's Bird-of-Paradise

For these birds, the height of male sexiness is a bald head, it seems.

Wrinkly, pale blue bald skin on the head.

Even the females get in on the bald action, it seems.

There's also this thing on his back that he can open and close, this time made of feathers and not bald skin, that I think looks like a Yoshi saddle thing. Also that bib thingy is green, but only at a certain angle.

The one that sings like a cricket: The Black Sicklebill

Crickets sing with their wings, and so does this bird. One of the things he does is rub his wings either against each other or the base of the tail (we're not sure), and it makes this knocking or "distant machine-gun" sound.

The one that sounds like a Machine Gun: The Brown Sickebill

His display is impressive, I showed off his relative's display in the images of the previous part. But the more interesting thing to me is that he sounds like he's imitating some sorta rapid-fire ray gun. I don't know how true this is, but supposedly, during WW2, Japanese soldiers mistook their songs for gunfire.

Credit to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's YouTube channel being my main source for this post!

[palossssssand]

If you're interested in more then one, vote for one and shoot a reply for any others! I've been rattling around some ideas and would love to see the ballpark of what people are interested in.

Some notes:

-Fakemon: Definitely Pipeye and Dipsco(with holographic effects!!), would be fun to have sticker sheets of the Gnourly and Trollicious line (cake troll line) or Grambler, Chalciduel, Ulidiiva, Curculixie, and Saturnoct (card suit bug split evo line)

-Slug city: I have icons of each of the characters that would be really cute as little mini stickers! Definitely in the future I'd love to make fullbody stickers of them.

-Splatoon weapons: Sticking my head into a niche here, would definitely be difficult since there's SO many weapons, and every weapon has a dedicated hardcore fan, but it would be fun and also I just want to see more bloblobber merch in the world

-Spyke: Obviously...I want more merch of my favorite guy, I think it'd be really cute to have a matching pin set of his icon + a sea snail. I'm totally open to other characters though BUT I wanted to see specifically if people wanted more Spyke. I actually have a pearlina sticker design that I collaborated with flintjupiter on twitter that I have to list once we decide on a pricing LOL

-More eldritch angels: I have a bunch of sketch ideas sittin' around! Stygiomedusa angel has been extremely popular and I'd love to make more designs along those lines. There's a few upcoming Ultrainfinitepit kickstarter campaigns that I'm keeping some secret ideas for but perhaps more deep sea creatures or bugs. I actually have a full set of sketches for angels based on the solar system, it would be a long project but ideally I would love to have a pin set and a looping pattern to make cool stuff out of!

-Nuclear throne: This game is still so near and dear to my heart, I'd like to do small icon stickers/pins and also make a looping pattern!

-Realistic bugs: Specifically, I want more stickers and designs of fly diversity, as an entomologist I feel like I don't see nearly as many cool flies! There are so many cool ones!

If there are any other themes/ocs/fandoms you'd like to see merch in, feel free to let me know in the comments! I listed these things above because they're things I personally think I'd enjoy working on, but I also never know what people would like. Currently, the only things in my shop are angel pin designs leftover from a collaborated campaign, and I'd like to expand to some more things!

[axl-ion]

Can't wait for something like #wipednesday am too excited because I have a bunch of ramble in my mind, but I have this Pokémon OC region project containing of multiple regions that were artificially made and have their own regional variants instead of unique Pokémon species (these would in the distant future become their own distinct species tho) so here are my sketches for Poison type Skitty and Poison/Fairy type Delcatty based on Wolfsbane/Monkshood more leaning to the lore of being used in medicine, meanwhile the split evos Wolcatty and Lykatoi are gonna be based of the werewolf aspect (and Lykoi cats!)

Now for their sort of lore/rough Dex entries:

These were found in the Region VII, where the prevalence of Grass/Poison Pokémon caused the soil to grow these Poisonous plants. To escape their enemy Seviper, Skitty evolved in a way to deter Seviper, by bathing in the flowers, which caused the poison typing.

Delcatty who shown hospitality to those poisoned evolved the Fairy typing and a generally caring, but still avoidant personality. They use the flower on their tails to lure away enemy Pokémon and then force them to a chase where the chaser will be left with nothing.

[teratocrat]

ive been thinking of doing a little speculative-evo project a la Alien Biospheres for a while now but im very stupid and know shit about fuck. also maybe more of a hurdle i don't really want to put in the effort for the like 'map of continental drift and splitting and rejoining and shit over millions of years' that is kind of essential for that project

[poolheaterintheaustralia]

Evo Heat Pumps Installation Cost: What to Expect

Understanding the true cost of installing Evo Heat Pumps involves more than simply looking at the price tag. Homeowners exploring this efficient climate control solution are increasingly drawn to its long-term benefits in energy savings, durability, and sustainability. However, making a sound investment requires a clear overview of what installation entails financially.

Why Evo Heat Pumps Are Gaining Popularity

Evo Heat Pumps are widely known for their energy efficiency, offering a modern alternative to traditional heating and cooling systems. Unlike conventional models, these systems transfer heat rather than generate it, making them significantly more energy-efficient and cost-effective over time. Their application is versatile—perfect for residential pools, homes, and even commercial environments where consistent heating and cooling are essential.

The ability of Evo Heat Pumps to function in diverse climates makes them attractive to property owners seeking dependable performance year-round. With their reputation for reducing energy consumption, these systems are becoming a preferred option in both new constructions and retrofitting projects.

Initial Costs: Equipment and System Type

Installation costs begin with the choice of the pump model. Evo Heat Pumps come in a variety of capacities and configurations depending on the specific needs of the property. Larger properties or pool systems typically require models with greater output, which naturally increase the upfront investment.

The cost of the heat pump unit itself generally ranges from $2,500 to $7,000 depending on size, performance, and features such as inverter technology or smart controls. Premium models with enhanced energy ratings or hybrid functionalities can push the price even higher.

Ducted or ductless installations may also affect the overall equipment price. Ducted Evo Heat Pumps are more suitable for whole-house climate control, while ductless mini-splits may serve targeted zones more efficiently.

Installation Expenses: Labor and Materials

Professional installation is critical for optimal system performance. The cost of labor can vary significantly depending on location, the complexity of the installation, and existing infrastructure.

Basic installations may range from $1,500 to $4,000. This typically covers labor, mounting, refrigerant line setup, wiring, and the system's integration with the home’s existing electrical network. More complex installations, such as those requiring new ductwork or electrical panel upgrades, can escalate the cost by an additional $1,000 to $3,000.

It’s important to note that many professionals offer a site inspection prior to quoting the final cost. This helps account for property-specific variables, which may include the home’s insulation, space layout, and local climate conditions.

Additional Costs That Influence Pricing

There are several factors that may influence the final installation price of Evo Heat Pumps beyond equipment and labor. For example:

Permit and Compliance Fees: Local regulations often require specific permits for HVAC installations. These can cost between $100 and $500.

Electrical Upgrades: Homes with older wiring may need upgrades to safely support a heat pump system.

Concrete Slabs or Wall Brackets: Mounting hardware such as slabs or brackets may be necessary depending on the installation site.

Refrigerant and Line Sets: Depending on system capacity and distance from indoor to outdoor units, additional line sets and refrigerant may be needed.

All these elements must be factored in when budgeting for a complete installation.

Maintenance and Long-Term Value

Although installation may require a significant upfront cost, Evo Heat Pumps offer a strong return on investment through energy savings and reduced maintenance costs. Compared to gas heaters or electric resistance heating, heat pumps consume significantly less power.

Routine servicing—typically recommended once or twice per year—ensures the system runs efficiently. Most of the time, this includes checking refrigerant levels, cleaning filters, inspecting coils, and ensuring correct airflow.

The operational cost of Evo Heat Pumps is typically lower than alternative systems, thanks to their high coefficient of performance (COP). A properly installed unit can offer up to four times the energy efficiency of traditional systems, which translates to significant savings over time.

Environmental and Financial Incentives

One of the reasons Evo Heat Pumps are considered a smart financial choice is the growing list of government rebates and incentives available for energy-efficient upgrades. Depending on regional policies, installations may qualify for rebates that cover part of the upfront cost.

Energy efficiency certifications or labels such as ENERGY STAR also support long-term savings by guaranteeing the performance standards of the unit. Additionally, some utility providers offer discounted rates for homes using high-efficiency systems.

Comparing Evo Heat Pumps to Alternative Systems

To appreciate the cost of Evo Heat Pumps installation, it's helpful to compare them with alternatives such as gas furnaces, electric heaters, or solar pool heating systems. Gas heaters tend to have lower initial installation costs, ranging from $1,000 to $3,000, but much higher monthly operational expenses.

Electric resistance heaters are less complex to install but rank poorly in efficiency, resulting in steep electricity bills. Solar systems are efficient but often require ideal sun exposure and have higher initial costs ranging from $3,000 to $9,000 with extended ROI periods.

In contrast, Evo Heat Pumps strike a balance between upfront cost and long-term performance, making them a compelling mid-range solution for efficient, eco-conscious heating.

Evaluating Return on Investment

Beyond energy savings, the installation of Evo Heat Pumps can also increase property value. Energy-efficient homes are more attractive to modern buyers, and systems with proven longevity offer peace of mind.

The typical payback period for Evo Heat Pumps falls between 3 to 7 years, depending on usage and energy rates. Homes in colder climates may see even faster returns, as traditional systems consume more energy to deliver the same result.

A well-installed system not only reduces carbon footprint but also provides consistent comfort throughout the year. As energy prices continue to fluctuate, having a stable, efficient heating and cooling solution becomes increasingly beneficial.

Smart Planning Reduces Overall Cost

Proper planning is the most effective way to reduce total installation costs. A pre-installation assessment ensures that the selected unit matches the home's needs and avoids overspending on excess capacity.

Choosing an appropriately sized system, confirming compatibility with current infrastructure, and understanding local regulations all play a role in minimizing unnecessary expenses. Some homeowners even schedule installations during off-peak seasons when technician demand is lower, which can reduce labor costs.

Final Thoughts on Installation Expectations

The installation cost of Evo Heat Pumps varies depending on several key factors: model type, system capacity, home configuration, and local regulations. A realistic budget range is between $4,000 to $10,000 when all elements are considered. However, the investment pays off with superior energy efficiency, long-term savings, and reliable comfort.

Understanding these cost variables allows homeowners to plan effectively and enjoy the full benefits of modern heat pump technology without unexpected expenses. Evo Heat Pumps continue to be a forward-looking solution for climate control—delivering performance, efficiency, and value across a wide range of applications.

[pavanpj]

Raising Standards: Understanding Medical Lifting Slings Market Size, Share, and Trends

The global medical lifting slings market is valued at US$ 1.14 billion in 2023 and is predicted to expand rapidly at a CAGR of 10.5% from 2023 to 2033, estimates Fact.MR, a market research and competitive intelligence provider.

Patient lifting slings, Hoyer lift slings, and patient transfer slings are other names for medical lifting slings. People with mobility problems are lifted and transported with the use of a medical lifting sling, which is wrapped around and positioned beneath the patient. A medical lift sling is a device that supports the patient while they are receiving treatment in a hospital or other medical facility. Patient slings come in a variety of styles, including universal, full-body, and split-leg slings. When used properly, they offer several advantages, such as the lowered risk of damage to patients and caregivers.

Medical patient transfer slings are made up of nylon, mesh, and many other components, with a hydraulic lift, and are readily accessible in stores in the shape of a U or C. They are patient-friendly and simple to use. Rising prevalence of chronic disorders, the increasing number of senior population (as they are more prone to several disorders), and growing developments in healthcare infrastructure across the globe are boosting the medical lifting slings market growth quickly.

Download a Free Sample Copy of this Report –https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=8184?PJ 

Patient transfer slings are developing rapidly, but in several regions, it is seen that many caregivers are unaware of the functioning of technologically improved slings, which may hamper sales growth to some extent. North America and Europe are holding a strong position in the global medical lifting slings market. Asia Pacific market is expected to grow at the fastest pace during the forecast period.

Key Takeaways from Market Study

The global medical lifting slings market is projected to reach a valuation of US$ 3.11 billion by 2033.

China’s market is predicted to expand at a CAGR of 10% during the projected period (2023-2033).

Sales of medical lifting slings in Japan are expected to increase at a CAGR of 9.5% during the forecast period.

Demand for universal slings is predicted to rise at a CAGR of 11.5% during the next 10 years.

“Rapidly increasing cases of traffic accidents across the world are boosting the demand for medical lifting slings,” says a Fact.MR analyst.

Segments of Medical Lifting Slings Industry Research

By Product :

Universal Slings

Seating Slings

Transfer Slings

Hammock Slings

Standing Slings

Bariatric Slings

Toilet Slings

By Material :

Nylon Slings

Padded Slings

Canvas Slings

Mesh Slings

By Usage :

Reusable Slings

Disposable Slings

Full Body Slings

U-shape Slings

By End User :

Hospitals

Home Care

Elderly Care Facilities

By Region :

North America

Latin America

Europe

East Asia

South Asia & Oceania

MEA

Winning Strategy

Some of the key manufacturers of medical lifting slings are Arjo AB, ArjoHuntleigh, Inc., Bestcare, LLC, DJO Global, Inc., Drive Medical, GF Health Products, Inc., Guldmann Inc., Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc., Invacare Corporation, and Prism Medical Ltd. To increase their product offerings and sales revenue, several major market participants are introducing cutting-edge designs with advanced technologies.

Guldmann announced the introduction of a new sling strap using cutting-edge smart loop technology. The slings’ design reduces shearing pressures while boosting comfort.

Invacare Corporation, a well-known brand of patient lifting equipment, announced the launch of a cutting-edge patient lift solution for the American market in May 2022. The innovative patient lifting technology in the BirdieTM Evo XPLUS ensures the patient’s optimal comfort and safety when being transferred from a chair, the floor, or a bed.

AmeriGlide, a reputable stair lift manufacturer, announced the introduction of the AmeriGlide UP Stair Lift in July 2021. To ensure the highest level of safety when utilising it, the new stair lift is outfitted with advanced technologies.

Key Companies Profiled

Arjo AB

ArjoHuntleigh, Inc.

Bestcare, LLC

DJO Global, Inc.

Drive Medical

GF Health Products, Inc.

Guldmann Inc.

Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc.

Invacare Corporation

Prism Medical Ltd.

More Valuable Insights on Offer

Fact.MR, in its new offering, presents an unbiased analysis of the global medical lifting slings market, presenting historical demand data (2018-2022) and forecast statistics for the period of 2023-2033.

The study divulges essential insights on the market on the basis of product (universal slings, seating slings, transfer slings, hammock slings, standing slings, bariatric slings, toilet slings), material (nylon slings, padded slings, canvas slings, mesh slings), usage (reusable slings, disposable slings, full body slings, U-shape slings), and end-user (hospitals, home care, elderly care facilities), across five major regions of the world (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and MEA)

[catgirl-soup]

Drawing a new split Pokemon evolution every day in July -- Day 22

Flempire

Fairy / Poison

Evolves from Spritzee when traded holding the Potpourri.

Their feathers have intense medicinal properties, so they roam their local region to seek out sick people and Pokemon to share their feathers. However, due to their appearance when people fall ill, they are often considered a bad omen wherever they appear. To keep from becoming sick themselves, they use their long legs to hold patients at a distance during their examination and treatment. They hold a mixture of flowers, herbs, and spices in their beaks to distract themselves from the foul smell that comes with their healing duties.

[queensparklekitten]

Forgot to mention this earlier but: recently I've been getting into the concept of depicting Minecraft characters all black-and-magenta checkerboard corrupted due to The Horrors, appearing glitchy and displaying the missing texture in non-digital settings.

Another thing I've noticed: base game focused fanart (i.e. comics of steve and alex, or drawings of illagers) tends to depict cubic characters a lot more often than MCYT-based stuff does.

Also. I wonder if the type of Minecraft-based fiction I'm into had an effect on my perceptions of the game? Like when I was in elementary school I was always watching, like, machinimas and whatnot that often had talking mobs being silly and devs being shown making changes by repeatedly flipping a Minecraft lever. I had a few of those "Unofficial" Minecraft books with a title in block font and mobs on the cover, and a lot of those books feature someone getting isekai'd into their video game thus going all-out on the game mechanics, and also I would at times take "adventure quizzes" on Quotev with similar premises.

And I still watch those videos and I don't lore them at all. But in high school I was really into reading -and writing- stories set in Minecraft that were less likely to have it as a major plot point that it was a video game. You'll often find them on Tumblr and in YouTube comments sections.

Since they were text-based it was easier to envision a more realistic appearance to everything, which got so ingrained into my mind so fast as I read these and got way into lore that I soon began doing the same when looking at blocks, and now I watch SMPs and mentally project the appearances of their insane renaissance painting fanart over the squares on my screen, before even seeing any of said fanart.

The vast majority of these stories, as well as the really dramatic comics made by other lore-crazy users that I was also obsessed with, were far more player-focused (or piglin or enderman or villager), as opposed to the books and skits and what have you that were usually evenly split between players and sapient mobs. They were also much more likely to be the kind of thing you can divorce the story of from the fact that it's based on a video game.

That's another thing: with the base game, sky's the limit (specifically, Y level 320's the limit), Minecraft-based stories can go anywhere on the scale and sometimes you can interpret them as anywhere on the scale and sometimes they make the range smaller. The aforementioned "person from the real world transported into cubeland" premise Will use at least some game mechanics and words like server by its nature, but I've seen instances of all the NPC villagers being very much alive or of design details existing on the blocks that players in our world don't see. There's also a fic I read that went all-out on the Minecraft game mechanics but also had some objects that don't exist ingame. On the flipside sometimes something will explain a game mechanic or certain term in-universe in a way that makes it much harder to make it a digital world. And then you've got things like EvoSMP where at first glance it looks like you can't split it from being in a world with code and server-hopping and release versions, unless you combine their premises with the right lore theories such as, to follow the Evo example, that the world is slowly coming back to life after the apocalypse. Incorporate that into your belief system, add in some time travel, and you've got a thing going.

Anyways all this to say that one of my favourite things about Minecraft -and a lot of Minecraft-based fiction- is the amount of space it gives you for creativity and wildly different interpretations of things and one of the forms this takes is that of whether or not certain game elements and mechanics are appearing in-universe, and if they are, how they're doing so, if it's in practice or in theory

I've been scrolling through minecraft worldbuilding and lore posts and it's got me thinking about like... the sort of scale a lot of it exists on in terms of treating it as a digital world in-universe?

Like. You've got people who approach it as closer to a fantasy world, whose lore is full of in-world explanations for game mechanics, everyone is flesh and blood unless they're like a ghost or something, the world existed long before the player(s), and there's little to no video game terminology because that's not relevant here. For all intents and purposes, this story does not take place in a computer.

And then you've got people who use terms like code, server, admin, etc. but come up with their own definitions for them. Or when people make up a pantheon and call them the Devs, with that just being basically a synonym for "the gods" and leave it ambiguous as to whether these gods are actually real. And there's still in-world reasons for things but they'll at times involve, say, whatever mysterious world-forming element is referred to as code, just as often as they'll be indistinguishable from something you'd find in the above take on Minecraft.

And on the other end of the spectrum there's things like using code in worldbuilding without making up a fantasy definition, or outright using the term NPC, or players being able to see their health bar, or that fic I read once where the characters downright take off (and wash) their minecraft skins to reveal that everyone is some kinda humanoid-shaped featureless amalgamation of code or something underneath their appearance

like. the difference between referring to updates as such in-universe and using the version names for them (ex. minecraft people casually talking about how a world was created in 1.17), versus the "world is slowly healing" theories that generally involve it doing this naturally (instead of the Devs being involved), versus "updates aren't happening in-universe the bogged have always been here"

fanart that sticks to a blocky artstyle, fanart that's basically "what might this look like in real life", cube people with round elements in their designs

idk it's just. interesting to think about? the different ways people approach minecraft worldbuilding and how much meta stuff they incorporate into their lore. I've run the gamut of these over the years and i could do a whole separate post about how the area my creations tend to fall on this scale has evolved over the years and also observations i've made in regards to this scale and how other things that vary in minecraft fanworks tend to intersect with it

[go-learn-esperanto]

Evolutionists' first comments on Grian becoming a Watcher

[Transcript:

[On a black background there's white text that reads "Jimmy's Evolution SMP Episode #99. It transitions to gameplay]

Jimmy: Do we wait until we hear from someone? 'cause I haven't literally heard from anyone. Haven't heard from anyone to date. Uhm, so I don't know really what to do. Do they think I'm dead? Do they think the Watchers took me 'cause they took another person? I don't know!

[Cut. Jimmy is now in Downtown Evo, the last big project of Grian on the server]

Jimmy: There it is. The abandoned building. Right there look; it's been boarded all the way up, dudes. It's been boarded the way up.

Jimmy: He's gone. Don't know what the Watchers are gonna do with him. Well, he is a Watcher now, right?

[On a black background there's white text that reads "Martyn's Evolution SMP Episode #81. It transitions to gameplay]

Martyn: Oh my God!

BigB: What?

Martyn: That's- ugh... Not only have they split us for a dragon fight, not only have they taken Grian, we're now thousands of blocks from home!

[cut]

BigB: So wait; they took Grian?

Martyn: Apparently so!

Netty: Yeah, he's a Watcher now.

Salem: Apparently so! Do we really want Grian as a Watcher? (Laughs)

Martyn: He already had too much power when he was mortal!

Pearl: I think that's a bit explosive.

Martyn and Salem: Yeah!

BigB: He was technically always a Watcher with they way he always put TNT and pranked everyone.

End transcript]

[pokeology]

two questions. one. when'd you first get your partner? two... ive been interested in the solosis line, so. how's it been raising em/their evos? ^^

I hatched my partner from an egg in my first year of university as part of a project on pokemon development. He did not evolve the first time until a few months before I graduated, though, and the second time was a few years ago now.

They seem very low-effort, as they have very non-specific diets, but as psychic types they still require a lot of enrichment. Solosis is easiest to satisfy- mine would follow me around campus and hide people's erasers when they were not looking, haha.

Duosion is the most difficult of the three, in my opinion. It is much more active, and it is more prone to tantrums as it struggles to cope with its physically split brain. I admit I turned to rare candies for help during this.

Reuniclus is slower than its previous two evolutions, but it is also much more powerful and requires extensive training to avoid accidents. They do not require social groups, but it is good to let them communicate with others of their species. I take my pokemon to the pokepark regularly for this reason.

I love my partner very much. I think this is one of the most fascinating lines to work with.

[ptgigi]

Could you share the basic algorithm you used for the Bracket Fusion Project so others can try alternate fusion challenges involving the matches like you suggested?

First: I want to cry. I spent 2+ hours (didn't realize it was that long...) typing up a response and Tumblr crashed and deleted it all...

Feel free to ask for clarification if I missed something in try #2 at this.

--

Thanks for the interest!

Unfortunately, the algorithm isn't really shareable. It was made custom for this project and I don't dare touch it nowadays because it's some spaghetti code I wrote years ago lol. It also contains a lot of custom data that only goes up to Gen 7 and contains several errors (that I opted to ignore so I can actually complete this project in my lifetime...).

But! I can at least provide a guide on what I did to at least help push people in the right direction:

Get Data

Nowadays, I recommend PokeAPI for this, they have downloadable CSVs of plenty of data. You can also use any of the many Pokemon fansites out there with data. If you can get it as a list rather than hand entering, that's better as you reduce the risk of human error (like me, I was the human error).

For PBFP, I collected data on stages/forms, types, colors, and body shape.

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Modify Data

Your collected data may not be in the best format for your project, so you may need to tweak it.

For example, I converted all my data to numbers, as I found that the easiest and it eliminated ties.

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Stages/forms I changed to a list of the number of forms per stage per family. Examples:

Mew's list was [1,0,0] (1 base form, no alt forms or evos)

Mewtwo was [3,0,0] (base+2 Megas)

Pikachu was [1,1,2] (Pichu, Pikachu, 2 Raichu forms)

Wurmple was [1,2,2] (Wurmple has a split evolution)

Flabebe was [5,5,5] (each stage has 5 forms)

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Types was the percentage of each type was in a family. For individual forms, single types counted as 1 and dual types counted as 0.5 each. The form types were then added together and averaged for the family's types. Ex.

Mew is 1 Psychic (pure psychic type)

Bulbasaur's family is 0.5 Grass, 0.5 Poison (all grass/poison types)

Mewtwo is ~0.83 Psychic, ~0.16 Fighting (2 pure psychic forms, 1 psychic/fighting form; 2.5 Psychic / 3 forms = 0.8333333333 Psychic; 0.5 Fighting / 3 forms = 0.1666666666 Fighting)

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Color was part 1 of custom data. I didn't like the dex colors and was weird to compare as text so I grabbed a single RGB value from every Pokemon form (regret). I picked whatever color I felt like best summed up the Pokemon.

Because families, I averaged the colors of all forms in a family. So Latias for example is more of a magenta, because its base form is red but its Mega form is purple.

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Body shape was custom like colors. It was weird to compare as text, so I counted the limbs of every single Pokemon (more regret). The limbs I counted were head, body, arms, legs, tail, wings, and other limbs (like tentacles and fins). For odd cases (Pokemon who have limbs used both as arms and legs) I just did my best guess.

Again, because families, I averaged these values. So you get funny stuff like Tornadus has "1 wing" because Incarnate Tornadus has 0 wings but Therian Tornadus has 2 wings.

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Compare Data

Welcome to math time!

Here we're comparing all Pokemon to one another and coming up with a score we can use to determine which ones are the most similar.

For forms, colors, and body shape I used the distance formula. This gave me a "distance" between the two Pokemon families in the potential combination.

Identical families would be a score of 0, more different families would be a larger number.

To then make these scores comparable, I normalized them aka converted them to all to a similar range, in this case a number between 0-1.

I did this by dividing them by the largest score value. Ex. for colors Dewpider and any one of 12 pure white Pokemon were the most different color-wise (a distance of ~384). So all color scores were divided by 384, so Dewpider and any white'mon have a color score of 1 (384/384 = 1).

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Types I didn't like the results of the distance formula, so instead I used the percentage of similar types.

Plusle and Minun are both pure electric, so they are 100% similar

Zapdos is Electric/Flying, so Zapdos and Plusle are 50% similar (50% electric shared)

Plusle and Bulbasaur's family share no types, so they are 0% similar

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But you might notice now the best type score is 1 while the best distance score is 0. So I inverted the distance scores so a score of 1 = best and a score of 0 = worst. (so for Dewpider and Zangoose's colors, that'd be 384/384 = 1, then 1-1 = 0 color score; while Plusle and Minun would be 0/384 = 0, then 1-0 = 1 color score).

Then I averaged those 4 scores together to get one final score that is a number between 0-1, where again 1=best and 0=worst.

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Verify Data

I mentioned this a few times through, but you may need to tweak your data or formula to get the results looking nice.

Originally I had stages and forms as different data points, but didn't like the results I was getting. After combining them, I liked those results better.

Sawk/Throh's colors were originally blue/red. But I expected those two to pair up so I switched them to their white color.

Outliers, numbers that are outside of the normal range of the rest of the data, also presented an issue. I added upper limits to certain data to make the results nicer. I think I set those to 5 for forms and limbs. Ex. Arceus was counted as only having 5 forms, Vulpix's family had 5 tails, etc.

etc

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Get Pairs

The part where we actually get the fusions!

After you do the compare data step for every possible Pokemon combination (I highly recommend automating this as much as you can, spreadsheet software like Excel or Google Sheets can do a lot of this math for you in bulk) then you should have a list of every possible combination of Pokemon and a score for that combination.

How you go about this next part depends on your goal. Do you want Pokemon to only be used once? Do you want to pick by the best pair first?

Answering yes to each of those questions is what I did, but imagine the chaos of answering no to both?

So what I did was:

Find the highest score (for best score first)

Record that pair in the finalized list

Remove any other combinations that use one of those two Pokemon (each Pokemon is only used one)

Repeat steps 1-3 until you have no pairs left

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And that's it!

(I say like this isn't a huge amount of time or effort, it is, it really is)

Again, sorry my script/algorithm isn't something easily shared, but I hope this write up at least helps push people in the right direction!

And always happy to answer questions for anything I may have missed or skimmed over!

[rintezukas]

im gonna lay out basic ideas that ill flesh out and contextualize later also for spec evo project:

- snais get much larger and fill a lot of niches in a super super wet swampy biome - one of the most derived ones is a cursorial snai that has split its foot into two muscular legs possibly supported by a separate chunk of shell and can quickly sprint between patches of grass and outrun predators

- mammals or lizards or something have a dinosaur-type era, evolving into all kinds of scary forms before getting knocked down for a while

- previous alien ecology created a pretty earthlike, livable atmosphere and temperatures are tolerable and shit but the actual life was super different from standard pastoral earth shit, most of it (at least what the colonists encountered) was pretty simple and almost none of it remained bc the colonists largely didnt like it and had no tools or procedures to limit their impact on it. its not all gone though, especially on islands where they didnt really fuck around at all - itll show up and integrate w earth life later

[rxttenfish]

worldbuilding ramblings as i work on this spec evo project:

we really just. assume every species out there would have a human face/emote like people, huh?

NO MORE TIDDIES. NOT EVEN OTHER PRIMATES HAVE TIDDIES EXACTLY LIKE HUMANS, MUCH LESS OTHER MAMMALS, MUCH LESS NON-MAMMALIAN ANIMALS!!!

the same goes for the ass. really only humans have asses like... humans. we need less asses. ESPECIALLY for species with tails.

CHAIRS. THEY DON’T WORK IF YOU DON’T HAVE HUMAN HIPS. THEY ESPECIALLY DONT WORK IF YOU DONT HAVE HUMAN LEGS OR IF YOU HAVE A TAIL.

bipedalism is so fucking specific and specifically evolved for certain reasons and with very specific traits and im sick of it.

actually just get rid of everything about human hips. theyre so ungodly specific. and come with such specific drawbacks.

the human ribcage. the human ribcage is also stupidly specific and i think so much about ribcage shapes on different animals

people do not understand why animals have slit pupils vs round pupils vs All The Many Pupil Shapes.

i am 100% convinced that if lions werent real and were just a mythical monster, people would give them slit pupils. they dont have slit pupils btw. they have round pupils. most big cats (maybe all but i cant be certain rn) have round pupils. theres a reason for that.

actually i just want people to realize how much of a reason there exists for everything on an animals bodyplan

mmmmm the human arm structure is also stupidly specific but for my purposes rn im overlooking a lot of that so that i dont have to totally relearn how to draw arms. ill probably go back on this later and work out a way to draw those nonhuman arms but still.

also the human hand. so, so stupidly specific. 

STOP SLAPPING TEN THOUSAND BITS AND BOBS ONTO AQUATIC ANIMALS, THEY PRODUCE DRAG AND WILL IMPACT HOW THE ANIMAL SWIMS. MOST LARGE AQUATIC ANIMALS WITH ACTIVE LIFESTYLES DONT HAVE STRUCTURES LIKE THAT FOR A REASON, AND IF THEY DO, THEY CAN FOLD THEM DOWN/BACK. STREAMLINING. ITS YOUR FRIEND.

the same goes for flying animals. especially LARGE flying animals.

stop assuming every fucking sapient species is going to have the so so so specific patterns of human hair. or eyebrows. or hair at all anywhere

please keep an eye on what youre doing with tails. please. thats an extension of their spine. it needs to be treated as such.

START DESIGNING CLOTHING FOR NONHUMAN BODYPLANS AND STOP ASSUMING THAT EVERY SPECIES IS GOING TO DRESS LIKE HUMANS.

its such a pet peeve of mine when people just slap multiple rows of teeth onto an animal design without like, considering how multiple rows of teeth actually operate on a biological level or why animals have it or even how they grow and what benefits they get from those rows.

the same goes for split tongues. theyre doing things and are split for a reason.

also PLEASE consider what the shape of any animals teeth means and what they are adapted for and why they might have it.

not every vestigial organ is going to be totally lost. there has to be enough pressure to totally get rid of them. thats why the human pinkie toe isnt going away anytime soon.

PLEASE, PLEASE I BEG OF YOU. CONSIDER WHAT THE EVOLUTIONARY ANCESTORS OF YOUR SPECIES LOOKS LIKE AND WHAT NICHE THEY EVOLVED INTO. ITS SO SIMPLE, PLEASE.

STOP IT WITH JUST COPY/PASTING AN EXISTING ANIMAL. if i have to see one more merfolk thats just a human half slapped onto a pre-existing species adapted for a very very specific niche, i am going to lose my mind.

shut UP about top predators/apex predators/whatever. thats not how ecosystems work. its not a hierarchy, its an understanding of energy flow.

if one more person rips off the disproven alpha/beta wolf study again, i am going to lose my mind.