You emerge from your home on PokéFarm Q to find a crowd of players gathered around the central area of the Farm. It's difficult to get around, but you eventually find your path to the Noticeboard. There is a banner there, prominently placed in large text: Looks like you're just in time! You manage to shuffle your way to the front of the crowd, not wanting to miss anything of this important announcement. The Lab door opens right on time with Sally emerging first. You and the others at the front of the crowd move back hastily to make room for the Salamence. However, she then flies off. With the space cleared, the real announcers can fit. Niet is there, of course, looking rather exhausted. Holly and Laurel can be seen in the Lab, they seem to be... packing? What's going on here‽ The doors promptly close, as if that wasn't meant to be seen - but a few people have already noticed, causing a spark of concerned voices. Garthic also emerges from the Lab, though instead of addressing the crowd, he places a paw on Niet's shoulder before a concerned voice escapes him, "Go get some rest, Niet. You've been working your goofy butt off and I think you need it. I'll take care of telling people." The Absol nods, and his body glows blue as he opens a Dark World portal. He calmly steps through and it closes behind him, leaving the Riolu alone in the cleared space with a slightly disgruntled expression. The portals still kinda spook him out, let alone large crowds of people who are bellowing questions. Worried mumbling goes around the crowd as more and more voices start questioning what's going on. He tries to answer one individual, only to be cut off by another, leaving his train of thought in the dust. After several occurences of this, and a very agitated looking Garth, an attack flies up into the air and explodes, catching everyone's attention. "Oh... Lookie! That made everyone shut up! Haa... Now you can all stop interrupting the guy who's trying to answer your questions and making him all huffy!"states a voice that is momentarily later discovered to belong to Sei, who is now happily prancing through the crowd towards Garth. "Ain't exactly smart to irritate someone trynna help, no matter how adorable he is when he's all huffy."she grins and laughs a bit, before continuing on. "I've seen him punch people's face in the face with bricks! Think he also smashed a house like a muffin. He's crazy, I tell ya!"She nods enthusiastically, and turns her attention to Garth. Sighing gently, both in delight at the reprieve and in amusement at how silly Sei was being, he decides it's time to stop, he raises his paw and waves at her, saying her name several times - but she carries on and on about how Garth had done these amazing feats to people who had annoyed him. Some were true, but they're definitely being somewhat overplayed. A line of confused "Huh"'s, "Ow's", "What"'s and "Oof"'s are suddenly heard - which manifests itself as Ledah, jumping atop the crowd's heads to get to where the announcement was taking place, she promptly lands atop Garth's head, which leads him to raising his arms and yelling "HAT!" "I ain't yo' hat, ya dummy. You're MY pedestal!" Ledah retorts at Garth, who's still laughing at what's going on. It's all rather silly - but an announcement needs doing, not a story-telling session. Ledah promptly speaks again, "SEI! Get your butt over here! You can gloat about how amazing this fruit loop is later on!" Sei fakes being upset for a moment, "Awwww... But I wanna gloat about my fruit loooooop~" she whines, grumpily plodding her way beside Garth and Ledah, before they both start laughing. All the... madness aside, Ledah taps Garth on the forehead, "Well, go on. Announcement, dummy. Oh! And if anyone starts pushing forward, crowding and being unruly, I got a diamond-studded friend who'll happily take your number!" she clarifies her point by swinging her shiny, oversized Banhammer in front of Garth's face a few times, before holstering it at her side. There must be some hammerspace trickery here... Banhammerspace... Garth is a little taken aback at the hammer swinging in front of his face, but manages to stay relatively still. Banhammers always get the point across, and the crowd calls silent. He clears his throat once Ledah had finished. "Right. So... Yeah. Here's the announcement. If you have any questions, we suggest that you ask them after reading what the announcement is. And if you ask silly questions that are clearly already answered, Ledah'll be introducing people to her little friend. Also, Sei will eat bones." "and babies!" Sei hastily blurts out. Garth lightly taps her on the head, proclaiming it is his job to eat babies. Not hers.

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PokéFarm Q's Big Update

PFQ has been in Open Beta for a few months now, and Limited Beta for a little longer, and Private Beta for quite a lot longer. The point is, people have been playing and it's time for some big updates. First and foremost, PFQ will be getting a new server. Currently it's running on one of the old PokéFarm's servers, a machine that is now four years old. A new server has been set up and is ready for action. Here's how the server transfer will happen: 1. On Thursday 15th, PFQ will be taken offline. 2. I will then copy all of the data from the old "absol" server to the new "hyper-absol" server (isn't naming servers fun?) 3. The new server will be brought online. However, I am taking the opportunity to make some big changes to the site. Some of these are updates you've been waiting for, some are things that need doing (but you might not like - sometimes we have to do things we don't like, okay?) and some are brand new features filled with awesome. Obviously, this will take time! As a result, I'm planning for PFQ to be offline for a full week, but this time could be extended if necessary. You will of course be kept updated. But oh no, what will you do without PFQ for a week? Not to worry! I have plans! While the site is offline, there will be a minigame for you to play: Voltorb Flip! If you play Voltorb Flip, there will be rankings and leaderboards and prizes! The top twenty players in each ranking category will receive a Sylveon, and the first place winner will receive a Shiny Sylveon! This will be the only way to get Sylveon for quite some time, until the required features for its natural evolution from Eevee are added, so definitely worth going for! The categories are: - Most total Coins earned - Highest Level reached - Best win/loss ratio (requires minimum 25 games played)

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With all that out of the way, just what updates will be made to the site during this downtime? Where to begin? There's so much!

Boxes

Yeah, yeah, I know, you've been waiting for them for so long! Well, all the numbers have been prepared, there's just a few things to finalise and then you'll be able to open them, so sit tight!

Summon Items

Part of the Boxes update, technically. There's some interesting plans here, so there'll be an Announcement made to explain how PFQ's system works.

Fishing

A number of Water-type Pokémon, mostly fish, will be available from a new Fishing feature. You will be able to buy the Old Rod for Credits, and upgraded Rods for GP and ZC. The upgraded rods provide better chances of finding rare stuff, more tolerance for error, and (for the ZC Rod only) the ability to Chain Fish for Shinies!

Underground

Remember the Underground from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum? I'm bringing it back! You'll be able to explore the maze and dig for items and Fossils, the latter of which can be revived into the Fossil Pokémon!

PokéDex

The Dex will be redesigned into a more usable format, and the EggDex, PokéDex and ShinyDex will be separated so you can determine more easily what you have and what you need - this is particularly important for the Fishing and Fossil update, since these will give you already-hatched Pokémon which you'll have to breed to get the EggDex of! Also the Search feature will finally be added.

Shiny Charm Box

If you have it, you'll know that you can only use the Charm once - there's no way to recharge it yet. This will be put right in the update.

Forme-Change Items

Items will be added for the Formes of Rotom, Darmanitan and Aegislash.

Dex adjustments

PFQ will have its own Dex order, just like each individual region does in the games (except that this order will include all Pokémon). The two main differences are: Evolution families will be grouped together, and Nidoran will be merged into a single species with distinct Male and Female forms (similar to Frillish) and diverging evolution (like Burmy).

Dex Reset item

In response to multiple requests, an item will be added to reset your Dex so you can collect them all again. You will be able to choose to wipe your EggDex, PokéDex or ShinyDex individually or in any combination. This will not cause you to lose any of your Pokémon, but you will have to re-obtain them to have them registered in your Dex again.

And more?

There are more updates lined up besides the ones here. Which ones get added depends on how easy things are! IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to the changes brought on by the Dex ordering, Fishing and Fossils, everyone's EggDex and PokéDex will be reset. This does NOT affect Pokémon you own, only your Dex's recording of them. You will need to re-obtain them to have them registered. ShinyDex will NOT be affected. Also, I have been keeping track of Unown being hatched for when I get to adding the Unown Report - your progress towards this is hidden, but it will not be lost. If I have time, maybe I'll add the Unown Report in the big update. We'll see.

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So there you have it. Lots of updates as PFQ's development continues!

Niet, I am a happy farmer.

Wait. So I'm going to have to re-hatch all of my eggs and re-evolve all of my Pokemon..? Are the Pokemon we have now going to be automatically added to the Dex? (Sorry if these are stupid questions... :p)

That's exactly what the announcement said.

Okay. Sorry about the idiotic questions =u=' Can't say I'm too excited about starting over, but it is what it is. At least there's boxes, and the other features sound cool.

It's that or lose every single 'mon.

This sounds great! I love the new updates! But I have a question. While our EggDex and PokéDex will be reset, will this affect our rank as well? (Sorry that this is a small post, I am not good at typing out huge rants like other people are able to. Looking forward to the mini games! :) )

Do you know if there going to be any changes to themes and, if so, will current user-made themes need to be adjusted for it? EDIT: skins, I mean skins. whoops

Kind of pointless to reset the Dex if it wouldn't, don't you think?

Question! While trying not to sound like a complete fool here. Anyway, for those who have Hypermode, will it be "paused" while the updates are going on seeing as we wont be able to access the game or will it not be affected at all? Don't mind me if there's an answer somewhere and I missed it.