Galar! Galar?

Yeah, I was thinking about that comment I made for a while, and how I was some ways off on it. I didn't expect that I would keep getting hit with several types of news that would heavily affect me and my work flow and attention. Nor that where I'm currently living at would have me not actually working on site most the day. It is my fault that I gave everyone a round about time and, while we are nearly just about done, its not the time that has been quoted several times already. And for that, I'm sorry for my mistake in estimation. To answer "what happened", a fair bit of is very personal and I'm not all to comfortable giving out so much as its been very painful, stressful and overwhelming for majority of 2020. There is a lot of other details to it, but the most I will give is that I've had a couple of close relatives be in an out of the hospital, some of which have been very serious. And I'm currently living elsewhere for my own health safety due to the pandemic, which has been a thing for over a month an a half. I miss my mum and family, so being forced away from them for so long hasn't been the best for my mood, even though it's the best for my health. Where I'm living at right now has helped a lot with my mental health and even got me back into working out. But with living elsewhere, I didn't think I wouldn't be working on site as often, but also didn't think I'd not be home still. But more so before, I've been very stressed and had days where I've gotten overwhelmed and had little to no work done where an there. I still have trouble sleeping, but its been doing better recently Being stressed an all that jazz didn't help when I happen to do a lot of work when critiquing the artist's sprites and assist them where I can. So, the other artists have waited on me time to time, and have been grand with baring with me. Some days, I did take assisting others over working on my own Sprites. If not that, I would play something to try relax. Believe I said this previously, but Eternatus, Zacian and Zamazenta have been an absolute nightmare. I underestimated them, during it all. I did have an idea when I took working on Zacian from PK, having both dogs have 2 poses that interchanged between their formes. It was a decent idea for 1 artist to work on them, because they were very similar to one another. I didn't ask for help until that evil, Many Battles Zacian came around to be worked on, and I asked Shazi to help me. Who also is helping me by doing the recolours. When I was working on them, I had to study and work on them, cause maned wolves are a killer to make sprites for. But when 1 sprite was worked on and finished, I believe I said before, I had to go back and do edits to make sure it worked on the previous sprite. There was a LOT of tweaking. A lot of frustration, a lot rage quits. Only ever to make sure they come out right. With the complexity of each one, it would take a few days to a couple weeks to finish them and go back to do tweaks on the previous. After awhile, even Eternatus had to get a few other tweaks, despite being 'finished' before the dogs. Also Many Battles Zacian. Even those these were being worked on, other projects still needed to be pushed out, which I mainly did critiques, assistance, and collabs for. Other Artists have been hard at work with these side projects as well as getting around with the DLC Pokemon. There's still work to be seen on the DLC Pokemon, but hopefully will be coming around more smoothly than that of the Main game's Legendaries >> I do appreciate just being poked and asked about it, and others just stating they're fine waiting. I'm sorry again that this wave has been taking so long as well as taking a hot minute to reply. I try a bit too hard to think about how to reply. So many unforeseen things were hit from left field and it did delay us. And while it is January of the new year, right now, after that estimate date I previously gave. The Eben call is finished an was given once over critiques. Eternatus was given once over edits once again, as well as tweaks for their alt. colours. And their colours will be checked again for finalising. The Doggos are primarily done, just getting their icons done. All of their summons are finished. Galarian Weezing was given a once over, after so long being on the shelf, and been checked for its colours as well

I'm sorry to disagree, but no. That's actually not what happened. After Novie told us it would be January there were 4 1/2 more pages full of anger and frustration before the thread went silent. Honestly, I can completely understand why someone on the receiving end of all of this might get frustrated themselves. Even without communication issues. Anyway, thank you Garthic and Novie for your replies. I feel like they help a lot. And Novie, you mentioned before how much bad news kept coming up for you. I'm so sorry to hear about all of this and really hope that 2021 will be a much more pleasant and happy year for you. For all of us. Edit with an afterthougt: I appreciate very much that Niet actively faces his struggles to communicate and tries to improve. That's extremely admirably in my eyes! I know so many adults who just try to avoid their personal weaknesses and never try to face them at all. So I really want to acknowledge that and applaud Niet for his efforts. I don't say he didn't do poorly and the criticism wasn't justified. Far from that. But I DO want to say that it just feels wrong to read that some of us, the userbase, are so bold to straight up demand Niet to step away from communicating with us at all and let someone else do that for him. That would be the easy way, but I don't think it'd be the right path to take.

Thank you very much for the updates, this is very good to hear. I wish that all staff and artists a restful holiday. It is not the fault of anyone that this update is delayed. In particular Novie-Chan's update of why the delays were is very reassuring... it explains the problems of the update in detail. Where things have gone wrong, etc. I do not speak for everyone, but I am much happier waiting knowing particular reasons why delays have occuring. You do not need to vaguely say 'some of the userbase'. You can name me, I am right here. It is good that Niet is now try to work on communicating. This is a good effort and healthy for him. However we are not his therapist, and neither should we just roll over when he is outright rude. Besides not helping him improve communication since he should be told when a tone is not acceptable, a type of professionality is needed for a site such as this. In his place, I would expect to practice on people who are not my userbase, while allowing people I trust in order to talk to my site. While he is working on himself, this is not an irrational decision for the site, and many such petsites follow procedures quite like this (a staff member as a 'bridge' between public and private workings of site). I am happy that Garthic will speak to him, and I look forward to Niet speaking more with the site as he imrove.

It was not my intention to be vague about you and I am sorry for causing that impression. I admit that I skimmed through a major part of the most recent posts. Because of that I came up with the impression that there were more than one person to vocalize that demand. I should have checked that before posting my edit. Sorry about that. Other than that I do agree with you that we, the userbase, should tell Niet when he communicated badly. Justified criticism is important. I just think that sometimes, especially in situations where emotions are boiling over, it's also important to still acknowledge what someone is doing right. Because that's what I'd wish for if I were in a situation where I screwed up. And little bit of empathy can go a long way. That's all I have to add.

Just wanted to pop in and say thanks so much for the update, @Novan-chan. I'm so sorry to hear about your relatives and the difficult times youve been having lately -- you don't deserve that at all. I hope youre able to relax and have less bad things happen to you in 2021 now!! Good luck with figuring out the sprites, sounds like they were / are a real challenge.

Also 2 more things, 1) What does everyone been by transparency? You want an update log? Or a rough work timeline? What happens when/if the timeline isn't met? Look at the 'Sprites should be done by January' stuff. If you want something like that I think it's just gonna put more pressure on the art team, which really isn't fair. If you mean something else please tell me. 2) This is going back to the 'there's only 4 sprites, what's taking so long' comment. I'm sorry but that's wrong, there's 6 sprites, 7 if Eternatus has it's alt form as well. But there's 4 colours for each sprite, that's 24 sprites, 25 if we include Eternatus' Eternamax form..

Hey - so I'm just going to run through things step by step since I think that's easier to follow. So, the first thing I see mentioned is the radio silence. It's okay to ask, I have no problems with that. The reason for it, and the reason why there's "no transparency" outside of us saying vague things is because the delays are being caused by peoples' personal lives. As you can see, Novie has chosen to open up (vaguely) about what it is that she is having to deal with. Of course, she is not the only staff member, but neither is she the only person having issues to deal with. The thing here is I am absolutely not okay with providing users with details as to the personal lives of our staff members. That's their lives and their choice, not mine - so the best I can give is vague reasons that people are having problems and it's causing delays. I understand that having transparency and details is nice - but some details you're simply not entitled to have. The issues we're dealing with boil down to someone else's personal life and they deserve their privacy if they wish it - please be respectful of that. This doesn't mean that something couldn't have been said though. It's just been so hectic that it admittedly escaped from us. There's no fault on anyone wanting an update, there, that's on us for not providing one even if it was a vague one. In regards to the "not going to be taking until Jan" - I misread it. That's where my initial misunderstanding came from - to feel as though that was being twisted in to something it wasn't is a big no-no for me. I do want to say that I understand the frustration but I outright acknowledged that 'the wording kinda seems that way doesn't it?', to explain, that was my way of saying 'oh yeah, my bad, I understand now' and owning it. That was then dismissed in short order for something far more negative. If you want to cause me frustration, dismiss me in that manner. I'm not saying that my response was in any way acceptable as a result of that frustration, but there is a visible cause and effect here -- The thing is, I feel it's caused more by my misunderstanding and miscommunication than the feeling being had by another person itself. Since that isn't what I intended to convey but it is what was seemingly taken, I can only assume the message I relayed... Well, failed. I'll take that on-board and try to do better (presuming there is a) next time. To explain, from my perspective, I got accused of "covering up" in essence, rather than admitting wrongdoing, despite that being what I did (per my intent, but seemingly not my wording) so I then admitted wrongdoing... Well, much too aggressively. The final note I wish to talk about is the general frustration that I am having as a result of the issues causing the post-poning. In vague, but blunt terms, the loss of loved ones, people being in danger themselves, or people being outright displaced so they aren't placed in danger while their relatives themselves are in danger. Place this frustration on top of people, in some cases (not all, and not here recently!) outright demanding to know the reasons behind the delays and you've got something that comes across, from my perspective, as extremely disrespectful. Like... For those people in particular who cause that frustration (aka. not everyone!), I just want them to have some respect for those who didn't make it to 2021, and for the ones who did make it here, but their loves ones did not. This hasn't been brought up before now because it's not our place to say it but there's a constant demand for transparency and while we certainly want to provide that... The truth of the matter is some things aren't yours to know. If the person going through the situation wishes to open up to you about it? Then that's their prerogative, but it should not be something that I, for instance, bring up without consent. And consent, I both did not, and do not, have. Still, going back to what I said before, that doesn't mean that there was nothing to be said. Even a vague 'there's going to be delays' would've been better than nothing. That all said, I do want to finish this off by moving away from explaining myself to just saying this directly - I am sorry for my outburst. I didn't react to the frustrations presented in an appropriate manner. I do wish to maintain the core of what I was trying to say in that I am trying to do better, but I ask for your patience and understanding that this is a big challenge for me... As evidenced. x: There are going to be places I do screw up and I'm okay being called out on it - thank you to those who did. I'm not saying it being a challenge excuses anything, by the by, it doesn't. It was inappropriate of me to do that. End of.

1.) Response; When I talk about transparency, I personally mean increased communication. My idea set up would be for them to let us know what they're planning (if it's not a secret / surprise), then give us an idea of when it should be coming out. Then, if any issues arise in the process that will delay that date, let us know as soon as possible. If possible, let us know why. If it's too personal, then just stating that would be enough for me. It'd be cool to have progress posts by staff members discussing how its going and maybe showing wips, but that's extra. 2.) I agree, I think that line of thinking is crass. It is quite a few sprites, which are notoriously difficult, and the art staff deserve our patience on that. Though, they did say that dynamaxing wasn't going to be included, so I don't think that there will be an Eternamax forme.

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@Niet Thanks so much for your update and apology. It takes a lot to admit that you messed up, and then admit AGAIN that you messed up WHILE admitting you messed up. I'm glad you did that and it means a lot. I completely agree that the personal and private lives of the staff are their own, and we are not entitled to the details of that. I'm also really glad you included this part "This doesn't mean that something couldn't have been said though. It's just been so hectic that it admittedly escaped from us." as it does mean a lot. Just saying "there will be delays due to personal issues" would be completely fine with me. Thanks so much for this update again. I really appreciate it and look forwards to being able to see more like this in the future. Happy 2021! Sorry it started off a little bumpy like this, but I'm going to have faith that we can smooth it out.

Ok I was literally gone for a day and all of the sudden this thread has exploded. Y'all seriously need to chill the staff is trying their best. I get if you're frustrated but this is kinda getting outta hand in my opinion.

I understand everyone’s anger with 2020 being a ... difficult year. I believe Personal Life should come before this game, but it’d still be nice to give small updates on all your progress. It doesn’t have to be time estimations, it could just be how many sprites you completed and how many are left before the new batches. I doubt any of us users are in a dire need of these Pokémon being added, so take as much time as you need, but still we’d prefer if you gave us more updates. :D happy late new year