Recently in C&C
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Introduction
If you've been around the site for about the past year, you may recall regular C&C updates on the news feed titled, "Recently in C&C," and kept up to date by user Rising_Dusk. Unfortunately, we've stopped doing that, and if you haven't payed regular attention to the C&C forums, you may have missed some really cool things happening "behind the scenes." So, here's your update on what's been happening in C&C for the past ~6 months.
The BW Dex is Up!
Probably the biggest news story to come out of C&C in recent months, we finally have our BW Dex onsite and running! Now you can look at the strategies for most of the popular Pokemon and finally learn how to use some of the best available. This is still a work in progress, however, so not every Pokemon has a strategy available yet. This is particularly true for the lesser-used Pokemon, or those that are, well, competitively terrible. Don't fret though! We will eventually have strategies for these Pokemon, and we will soon be writing strategies for the RU and NU tiers when the time comes. In the meantime, if you feel you have a really killer set for any of the Pokemon that currently have strategies onsite, feel free to post your set, in the correct format, in the correct tier (either OU, Uber, UU, LC, or VGC 2011) and have it face the QC team. If your set is good enough, you will be approved and free to write the strategy for that set. Be warned, though; you should be relatively good at English before attempting to do so, and your work will have to go through GP as well before going on site.
The amazing software of aesoft!
Are you sick of reading logs to know what happened in that tournament's finals match that you missed? Are the tournament finals recordings posted on our Smogon Youtube page too bland? Well, no more! Thanks to user aesoft, you can now convert any battle log saved from PO and convert it into a real-time animated replay! It's like watching the battle as if it took place over Wi-Fi on the actual game cartridge, minus the lag! You can check out the replay player on the forums here. Fortunately for the Smogon community, aesoft has even bigger plans in store for us, including a warstory maker and a new Pokemon simulator called Pokemon SHOWDOWN!, so stay tuned for more amazing aesoft software!
Unfinished Business (The Unfinished Projects Project)
Started by your co-author Oglemi, the Unfinished Projects Project is designed to finish some of the projects in C&C that got lost in the dunes of time. Sometimes the original poster became inactive, or they simply lost interest in the project. I want to see all of these projects finished though, because some are really cool! So, if you have some free time on your hands and want an easy way to contribute, come check out the Unfinished Projects thread. On that note, for this project there are a ton of uncompleted programming projects. So if you're an aspiring programmer and want some practice with scripts and code, come check out the project as well. Sometimes the project might not be totally clear in its intention, but that's OK! You can always modify the original into something that's even cooler than the original plan. If you have any questions on how to get started in the Project, either post in the thread I've linked to above, or VM/PM me on the forums. Hope to see you there!
Getting Artistic (Art for Articles)
Writing articles for the site is some of the most pain staking and drawn out work that we have in C&C. However, we have a ton of contributors every day pushing through the grueling work to bring you some extremely outstanding and in-depth guides to some of the finer points of battling or aspects of the game cartridges. While the articles always look amazing, thanks to our HTMLers once they get put onsite, something always seemed to be lacking. Then, an idea hatched inside the brain of some of the Smeargle's Studio moderators, and they got in contact with the C&C mods. Together, they collaborated ideas to bring you Art for Articles. The idea behind Art for Articles is to give some of the awesome but aesthetically bland articles we have onsite a bit of pizzazz. We've already had some great contributions from our top artists, such as this stunning piece by icepick for the BW OU Sun article. We're still looking for artists to do art for some of the articles, so if you're a talented artist, come contribute and see your stuff onsite!
Get Involved in GP Checking!
Ever wonder how our Pokemon metagame analyses onsite always seem so grammatically flawless? It's thanks to our staff of official GP checkers who relentlessly scour over a never-ending amount of analyses to make sure they are as grammatically correct as possible and the prose flows naturally and smoothly. While the "common folk" have always been able to do unoffical GP checks to contribute to any analysis in C&C, recently we've made it possible for those unofficial checks to get the stamp of approval by official members to move the process along in a more timely manner. If enough of your unoffical checks get stamped by official members, you can apply to be on the GP team so that you can stamp your own checks for analyses. To get started, you should have a good command of the English language, and you should look over the Grammar Standards page so that you're consistent with every other analysis that we put onsite. From there, you just need to proofread an analysis and mark any changes you think should be fixed in your post of the analysis. If your check is good, it'll get stamped! Feel free to post just minor changes as well if you don't want to do a full check. Just be sure that the analysis is in the GP stage and not still in QC.
If you ever see something that should be changed with an analysis that's onsite, feel free to post in the the Small Objective or Subjective Changes thread. From there, one of our badged members will fix it through the SCMS. We want our stuff to be the best so be sure to report any and all errors! Be sure to follow the rules there when posting though!
The ItemDex Project
Though nowhere near completion yet, the ItemDex project aims to provide a comprehensive list of every item, move, and ability with an in-depth description and analysis of each! This includes the item's location in the cartridge games, competitive use, and threats that make good use of it. What's great about this is the fact that it is purely a user-driven project, so anyone can pitch in and help at any time. All you need to do is post a placeholder on this thread indicating which items you wish to write about, and you can just edit your post at any time with the completed description and inform the OP when you are done. Be careful though, as there is a specific format to be followed, so make sure you go through the rules and some of the completed write-ups to acquaint yourself with the style of writing used before getting started. Good luck!
The Honkalculator
Building the perfect team that can deal with just about any threat in the metagame might not be something that everyone can do, but it sure got a lot easier. Thanks to the Honkalculator, created by user Honko, it is now possible to gauge a single Pokemon's performance against the entire metagame! This amazing tool provides accurate damage calculations for every set in the Smogon database, and these take into account everything from Intimidate to even held items, such as Air Balloon and Eviolite. Thus, you can find out how much damage a Pokemon deals to or takes from other threats in the tier, all at just the click of a button! Little Cup players need not fret, either, as the Honkalculator provides damage calculations for LC Pokemon as well. Analysis writers also benefit from this tool immensely; it has become much easier to provide accurate damage calculations and list the best checks a Pokemon has. Check it out on the forums here.
The Finishing of 4th Gen UU (and the near completion of the rest of 4th Gen)
At the time of the release of BW in Japan, more than a year back, there was a large pile-up of unfinished work in C&C that never seemed like it would get done; many analyses and articles were in desperate need of updates, particularly in DPP UU, and interest in the new generation naturally meant that there was less activity than usual. Still, over the next few months, even as BW analyses were being written, our QC and GP team members hacked away at this mountain of work, relentlessly reviewing and proofreading analyses around the clock. As a result, thankfully, by the time the flood of written BW analyses came in, 4th Gen was as good as done. So, if you ever feel like getting back into DPP you can be sure that our onsite Dex is almost completely up to date!
C&C Scripts and the Best of C&C
IRC is not just a powerful communication tool, as evidenced by the highly useful scripts that can be run on it. Sets in analyses follow a particular format, and errors from C&Ping them, often directly from PO, arise fairly often. But thanks to this script, such problems become a thing of the past, with minimal effort! All you need to do is open up the remote tool on mIRC, copy-paste the script, paste the set from PO in the space provided, and voila, you're done! HTMLizing sets and Speed tiers can prove to be a massive headache for many people, and IRC scripts come to the rescue here as well; user firecape's scripts automatically convert the input to HTML! Visit this thread for a more detailed run-through on using these scripts.
C&C is the lifeline of Smogon for a reason, and it is thus no wonder that threads such as the ones above are merely one of many. Over the years, our users have contributed many fantastic applets and calculators, as well as exhaustive guides, which haven't all gone on-site for various reasons. Thankfully, the Best of C&C thread contains a comprehensive list of all such useful stuff, ranging from chaos's quirky guide for making a (read: successful) website to even this innovative IRC battle simulator created by MewMaster! Recent projects, such as aesoft's PO battle replay player, are included as well, so do take a peek when you can.
Get out there!
C&C is a place of constant motion and work, so there's always something to do, and it is one of the few places on the site where you get to see your work get put out there for literally thousands of Pokemon fans to see and read. So, if you're looking for some way to contribute to the site, like the great people above did, don't hesitate to drop by! Just be sure to read the rules before posting!
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