Welcome to Gaia! ::

To avoid page-stretching on the front page, old updates will be added to this post with the newest updates on top and the older updates towards the bottom. Why? Well, because I'm lazy and don't want to scroll down to the bottom of this to paste the update.

Date

The Actual Update

3/2/10

Today (well yesterday now) I spent a few hours finishing up that soon-to-come "Plot" post only to have my mouse fall and somehow manage to hit the back button which erased all my work. Looks like it's going to take a few more days before I finish that and probably another week before I feel the need to post it and go through the hassle of changing all of the "footers" (you know, the list of links at the bottom of every post?) to be up to date. Hopefully then I can start brainstorming on that other post before I get too wrapped up in cramming for the ACT and such.

Also, I've been thinking about getting this guide a spot in the Minishops and Resources thread. Tell me what you think in the poll. Or maybe even a post!

1/18/10

Wow, it's been a long time since I updated. I'm still here though!
For some reason my view counter stopped working. It looks like that entire site is being weird so I'm looking for a new one. Also, believe it or not, I /am/ working on the missing posts. The old characters one is being changed to a new plot-overview post and I'm still lost with the special one.

9/1/09

Well, my summer is over now (or rather two weeks ago) and I hardly touched the guide. Oops!
I have a few things on my to do list for this guide right now: change colors to match new (suspected) site scheme, add in new posts from reapursun and pepper-tea, actually work a little bit on those two missing posts, write a few more FAQs and then reorganize them all, and last but not least, to come back more often to answer questions posted. I've kinda been slacking on that last one recently. ^^;

7/30/09

Finally got a new banner for the guide! Thanks much to SacredDemon17 and everyone over at Living Avatars. Link: http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.51161841

7/24/09

Gaia's new FAQ launched awhile ago and the EI pages were launched earlier today! If you look under the How To section, you'll see it. You may notice some of the questions were taken directly from my FAQ. Hopefully this guide won't be needed as much in the future. :D

7/9/09

Been busy with Summer School, but now I'll pick back up where I left off for a bit. I've had a good excuse for waiting this long to finish though! I've been helping write the new FAQs (the /actual/ ones). I'm happy to say that the new FAQ not only looks better, but it also contains a few more questions (useful ones). It's supposed to launch sometime today~

6/16/09

Did major rewrites and recoloring for the first six posts. I'll finish the rest later... and then maybe I'll actually start working on rewriting those two posts that have been moved to page 2. ... maybe >.>

5/19/09

Set my computer back up; unfortunately I have finals to study for, so don't expect me to fix any of those problems I mentioned in the last update anytime soon. I still plan to do them eventually, just not right now.

4/18/09

I finished inserting the new colored layout into all of the posts I plan to keep. Yes, that does mean that both the Special Items and Character posts will be completely re-done. I still have to finish resizing the text in some of the posts. The resizing brought up the problem of my sloppy BBCoding when it mixes with my decision to try and hide the blue underline in my hyperlinks (as can be seen in multiple ways in the FAQ post), and then after that, I'll go back and fix a few things I don't like about some of the posts (see: some FAQ answers and a couple definitions in Key Terms).

Of course first, I had better go ahead and take a break from editing in order to study for my AP test and the state's Plan test (I still don't know why they call it that)

4/6/09

Well that was fast, anyway, I have my computer back, so I'll finish updating... sometime later. >.>

3/31/09

Computer was broke last night when I got home. Don't know how frequently I'll be able to get on until it's fixed.

I decided to go with gaia's purples from the navigation bar as the new color-scheme. I only did the first two posts because it's early in the morning right now and I should really go to bed. I'll have to find/make a new divider, but that won't be too hard. Feedback on how it looks so far?
Still looking for banners though...

3/18/09

I still haven't done anything from 3/4's update. Musical practice is keeping me busy. Don't expect to see any major changes anytime soon. ^^;;

3/4/09

I've made the random banner thing using tektek and it's finally working (for the most part)! It /seems/ to not be balancing one of the images evenly with the others. However, the fact that it only has three images made me want more... anyone want to make one?
**Note to Self: To Do list is on 29[

3/2/09

Finished the big reorganization a few days ago. Next few things I have planned include making the Key Terms post more appealing to the eye somehow and setting up a random banner generator (probably with the help of tektek).

2/23/09

Finally getting around to that major thread reorganization I promised. Today I'll move posts around and try to finish updating the indexes to the new thread format. Tomorrow will be when i actually try to compress some posts (especially the giant TL;DR of the Understanding Generations post) and edit links in them to make sure they all go to the correct posts within the thread. Hoping to have it all worked out by the EIR on Friday!

2/13/09

I'm going to start re-arranging the thread today so don't freak out if parts go missing/aren't where they "should" be. Depending on how things go, I hope to have it done by Monday.

2/03/09

I re-organized and cleaned up the Item List post so it makes a bit more sense now while using less characters so I don't hit the 50k character limit per post.

1/28/09

It's been awhile since the last update... Well, the BBC titles flopped due to some constraints, mini-descriptions will be in blue, and I'm currently swamped with school and such.

1/14/09

Found a new symbol to use instead of those annoying/ugly "note"s. Also, I plan on changing the BBCode for the titles of each post later in the week/over the weekend along with a mini-description of each post.

1/3/09

Timmy came back AND there's a new cheap EI HOORAY!!!
Anyway, I finally moved that FAQ post up to the front page and edited the indexes(?)... If anyone has any questions they want to see added, feel free to post them.
My computer is still being repaired sadly.

1/1/09

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
My computer is currently out for repairs, so i might miss a few weeks updates until it's fixed.

12/25/08

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!
Okay, now that that's out of my system... I plan to move the FAQ up to the front page sometime later this week.

12/19/08

Special post still being worked on, same goes for FAQ. Hopefully Timmy will come back into the reports soon! It looks like things are headed that way!

12/5/08

Big week this week! The pose limit glitch has finally been resolved!!!
Decided to bring back the "Special" post because of the twopence, and a FAQ post is in the making. Feel free to suggest any questions you want to see on it.

12/1/08

Well, that whole languages thing backfired. It just stopped translating it correctly, so i removed it. Still need new staff list thing and to figure out if the Equipping glitches are still around. New EI today, and from what I can tell, it will be the most complicated to explain and might even be worthy of its own entire thread! This one might take me awhile to figure out how to explain fully despite the seemingly simple concept.
Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving!

11/14/08

Finally decided that finding a creative way using starts, many colors, and BBCode wasn't worth it and just updated the Banners (now 'Links') To Other Guides post. Also, I used Yahoo! Babel Fish to translate the guide so that others will be able to use it easier - or maybe even just use it at all so long as they speak one of the other three languages.

Okay, it's all updated as far as I can get it on my own. However, I need the help of some people with recently evolved items to help me figure out if the no auto-unequip glitch was really fixed or not. Any offers?

10/28/08

I decided not to do the special post unless there is a new situation that makes a type of item "special"... just didn't seem worth it for so few items (half of which are done evolving anyway).
Soon, I will come up with a better layout/plan for the Banners to other Guides post that uses links instead of images. I'm trying to keep the guide as dial-up/slow wireless friendly as possible.

Oh, and one last thing, according to Gem2niki, CP is training more staff to update the older EIs, I don't know who, but I need to remind myself to look that up later.

10/4/04

Happy (late) Halloween and US Election Day!
Okay, to the point, just found EI museum and will link it throughout the guide, New EI, still have to update from last weeks report. Still trying to find a decent BBCode layout for the Banners post

10/16/08

Well, the weekend went by and still no special post. I've been busy and finding sources for that post is hard enough as it is. I'll put it up as soon as I finish it.
On the plus side, I got Titan's Legacy confirmed by Lanzer at the last ATA!

10/8/08

Okay, so the poll pretty much told me that people wanted it. I'll start working on it over the weekend or so.

10/6/08

Titan's Legacy is being tested and figured out on a mule.

10/2/08

Adding the link to the official FAQ in a few more places, fixing that link in the EIR post, and other basic dumb stuff that I normally wouldn't put an update for...
Wait, what was I just doing?

9/22/08

I added a glitch notice to the equipping post.

9/17/08

Poll's over, and characters is getting it's own post! I'll start working on it as soon as I hit submit, go back to page 1, and start editing in the new post. Thanks for voting everyone!

9/13/08

I moved the list to the 13th post. No real reason other than how often I used it for a quick link and how annoying it was for it to be so easy to scroll past...

9/12/08

I added [NPC] Prakash Singh, the new NPC for the "Celebrity Snare" reports, to the EIR post. I did this because he is related to Dr. Singh, his character reminds me of old-Timmy, AND I suspect that the stories may cross paths. The problem is that now the EIR post takes up a lot of room vertically and the part I consider to be important (the 'how to read them' part) takes up the same or less room than the characters part does. What do you think, does 'characters' deserve its own post?
*adds poll*

9/11/08

That list is getting to be a hassle. I'm just now finally getting around making sure that everything is in the right place and finding out that there seem to be quite a few glitches in some of the first items... and I've still only tested 1/2 of the old ones to make sure all generations were completely finished as I had been assuming before. After that, I'll go back figure out which items have "show unlisted items" selected and get rid of that part.

If anyone wants to help me by clicking those pictures and figuring out which items have the "show unlisted items" thing, that would be great! *wink*
Actually, there is a large list of things that you could help with for that post... Anyone interested?

9/4/08

I finally managed to track down who wrote those amazing EIRs and have added it to the Evolving Item Report post.

Also, I have decided to create an 'old updates' post to keep these things from page-stretching

8/28/08

Wow, I had no idea so many people wanted the list! So I added it
Results for the poll:
[28] Great idea
[10] Wouldnt use it, but good idea
[01] Bad idea
The list is up now, so you go check it out.

8/23/08

I was thinking about making one of the reserved posts into a list of evolving items with links to when you search their names in the market. Any feedback on the idea?
*Adds poll*

procrastination girl's oh-so-helpful quote was added!
(I've been meaning to do that for awhile now)

8/6/08

I have added a new semi-feature to the guide! Now, if you click any of the post names in the index section on any posts, it will direct you to that specific post (in a new tab)
As simple as it seems, it took a long time for me to figure out how to make it work but still look nice and that's why I didn't make it when I made the guide.

Also, I have started adding color to the guide so it isn't a wall of black text anymore.

7/9/08

Guide pasted from word document and opened!

-----------------------------------------

Old Polls

This is to keep track of some old poll's I did in the thread. It may not be important to you, but I wanted it for me.

8/23/08 - 8/28/08

Should a reserved post be used for an evolving items list?
[28] Great idea
[10] Wouldnt use it, but good idea
[01] Bad idea
TOTAL VOTES: 39
DURATION: 5 days

9/12/08 - 9/17/08

At the bottom of the Evolving Item Reports post, there is a characters section. Should this get it's own post?
[16] yes, as it is adding unnecessary length to that post.
[06] maybe, but only if you add a more in depth description of each character.
[03] no, it's a minor thing and is not important/helpful enough to warrant having it's own post.
TOTAL VOTES: 25
DURATION: 5 days

10/2/08 - 10/8/08

Should there be a Special/Exceptions post? ~ [see 10/2/08 posts for more]
[11] Yes, that kind of thing would help me greatly!
[12] Maybe, I honestly don't know exactly how useful it would be, but /someone/ could probably get some use out of it.
[01] No, it's a bad idea / not worth effort / would end up unused for the most part.
TOTAL VOTES: 24
DURATION: 6 days

12/24/08 - 1/3/08

Merry Christmas!
[25] YAY! PRESENTS!!!!
[00] b-b-but I dun celubrate christmas ;-;
TOTAL VOTES: 25
DURATION: 10 days

1/17/09 - 1/23/09

what color should the mini-descriptions for each post be?
[06] red
[11] blue
[06] green
[00] other (please post)
[08] none! they should be bold!
TOTAL VOTES: 31
DURATION: 6 days

2/26/09 - 3/4/09

Do you like the new post order? [thread reorganization]
[14] Yes
[00] No
[05] IDK my BFF Jill?
TOTAL VOTES: 19
DURATION: 6 days

3/2/10 - 3/8/10

Should I sign this thread up in the MRC? (http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/t.28686045)
[07] Yeah, I'd totally give this thread some mad props!
[03] Yeah, I wouldn't give kudos, but I'm sure someone else would.
[00] No, I hate this thread and everything in it!
TOTAL VOTES: 10
DURATION: 6 days

SPECIAL ITEMS

There are a few items that are exceptions to the rules stated above. This post is here to help you understand what these exceptions are, how they work, and why the artist decided to do make their item an exception to one of the rules.


ONE MONTH EVOLVERS:
This started with CP's Pora Ice. One month evolvers are EIs that usually come out around specific "big" holidays on Gaia and evolve for the month in which that holiday takes place. When a monthly evolver is introduced, you will be told that it will evolve fully in under a month.

MINI-EVOLUTIONS:
This exception started with pepper-tea's Picolitrosso's Urn EI. She wanted to give users as many usable poses as possible and since her item evolved every other week, she decided to have the actual evolutions be poses geared towards the story the item told with accessories being added every week in between evolutions. This exception basically means that the artist plans to add poses in between evolutions. You will not be warned when they do this though, so you will have to remember to check on your own every Friday.

superphi, the creator of the Fallen Wish, has defined mini-evolutions like so in her journal:


NO GENERATIONS:
These are Items that do not have generations for one reason or another. The first one was Titan's Legacy which was released from the Overseer in aquariums. Because it could potentially be released for all of time, the developers decided it would be easier just to have everyone receive the same item and not to be bothered to make a potentially infinite number of generations. The next one to come out was the Black Drome Egg. It came from the EI bundle and was simply a re-color of the White Drome Egg. Because of the fact that it never evolved, it never had generations. Mercury's Moon was released as a prize from the Famestar 2000 item and has a similar situation to the egg because of it.

CHOICE ITEMS: → /
Choice items are a kind of EI that works similarly to a Monthly Collectible in the fact that it not only appears in the special tab in your inventory, but also in the fact that when you "use" it, you will be given the choice of which item you receive.
pepper-tea and reapersun were the artists who brought this idea to life with the copper twopence. Fleep is the developer responsible for making this possible as he confirmed in his journal.

source
»ĘмǿЯέжĨç~ÞĨмþ«


Lets take a look at this important choice, shall we?

Thanks go to crystal_raye for getting these images for me! They seem to be useful for explaining. Also thanks to Dinala1641882 for the image linked to by the bard.


The center image is of the Bard, he is the one who you are giving your twopence to in exchange for a song. He has two options for you to choose from.
The first song you can ask him to sing to you grants the Carol of Nick to receive that item. (click left picture) Alternatively, you can request that he play you the Carol of Ebenezer for the other item. (click right picture)



I HAS AN AUTO-FORMAT TOO! SEE?

For anyone who looked here, I want to make it clear that none of these are promises sweatdrop


SOON / IMPORTANT:

• Finish up the Plot post and get it up in the thread
  

"SOON" / UNIMPORTANT:

• Update footers
  
• Make absolutely sure all links and such work (especially images)
  

SOME TIME OVER THE RAINBOW, WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE:

• Change Color Theme to that blue one in test thread
  
• Find/Make new divider to fit those colors
  
• "Side-Images" using those colors
  
• Find way to encourage posting more
  
• More banners
  
• Community Spotlight (not sure if want) NOT YET
  
• Cross everything off this list
  

-




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CREDITS:

Dijubre (inspiration)
gaia staff members (items and all they did)
procrastination girl & Mugetsu Ookamiza (letting me use thier posts)
Kiei Sadame (banner)
mange de la merde (banner and keeping me from going insane)
other guide makers/maintainers
everyone who asked questions (inspiration)
Jeboo (sending) & Novocain (taking) Copper Twopence image