Post by Red on Aug 30, 2016 7:45:43 GMT -5
Hey everyone! So last night it was made aware to me that our current Pokemon rules are a little bit flawed and perhaps stifle creativity more than I had intended. While no set of rules is ever perfect this is certainly something I would like to avoid, and so I'm asking you the members what you think. Since the site just opened and we don't have a ton of members yet, there is the potential that rules can be modified relatively easily in order to make the site a better one. So I ask you, should we modify our Pokemon rules?
I fully admit that I originally set down the Pokemon limitations because I was worried members would potentially abuse a full blown open system. I now realize that this is a huge disservice to you guys, which I sincerely apologize for, and more so it doesn't really make a lot of sense and presents some real flaws. For one as I mentioned it stifles creativity a bit, and makes it so that any "experienced" trainer, despite their history, is left having to have a team composed of mostly 1st evolve Pokemon, when a trainer who's spent the past 10 years traveling Kanto could very reasonably have a team composed entirely of 2nd and 3rd evolve Pokemon. I also realize that with no battle system or experience/levels there isn't a huge incentive to really stack your Pokemon and make an OP team, unless said team makes sense with your character's history. Since Victory Road is an entirely member plot driven experience I'd imagine that plotting out Pokemon growth is more rewarding than just starting with the final evolve of all 721 Pokemon.
Anyway, there are three options that we can do:
1. Keep it the same - Pretty straight forward, we'll keep the rules as they are now. Characters can start with up to 6 Pokemon and 1 of those can either be a rare Pokemon or the 2nd evolve of a common Pokemon.
2. Make it more open - So this would potentially make the rules a bit more complicated, but we could open up the possibilities a bit for starting teams. Have it be say like, you can start with 1 rare and 5 common, or 2 rare and 2 common, or 1 2nd evolve rare and 2 common, etc. I'm not sure on the exact ratio's but it'd give more options while still putting some limitations.
3. Freeform baby! - This option would mean deleting practically all limitations on starting Pokemon. While legendaries would still not be allowed, members would be free to select their Pokemon teams entirely at their choice like Gym Leader's currently can, and make a team that fits their character/backstory entirely. Of course the staff would still have to look over character applications and make sure that a character's team properly reflects their history and isn't OP for the sake of being OP, but overall it would give members more creativity to make teams that are actually appropriate for their character. We could also keep the catching rules, i.e. only 6 Pokemon with 1 rare per month, but we could also get rid of these as well if members prefer. While I'm pretty optimistic that the vast majority of members will choose to be reasonable with a system like this, my only real concern is that it'll end up creating an over saturation of starters and other "special" Pokemon that would appear on the rare list, since these are generally the most popular. But perhaps that's the lesser of two evils in this case.
Anyway, I'd really appreciate it if everyone voted on what they think is best, and feel free to post below as well if you have any input regarding the matter. Thanks!
I fully admit that I originally set down the Pokemon limitations because I was worried members would potentially abuse a full blown open system. I now realize that this is a huge disservice to you guys, which I sincerely apologize for, and more so it doesn't really make a lot of sense and presents some real flaws. For one as I mentioned it stifles creativity a bit, and makes it so that any "experienced" trainer, despite their history, is left having to have a team composed of mostly 1st evolve Pokemon, when a trainer who's spent the past 10 years traveling Kanto could very reasonably have a team composed entirely of 2nd and 3rd evolve Pokemon. I also realize that with no battle system or experience/levels there isn't a huge incentive to really stack your Pokemon and make an OP team, unless said team makes sense with your character's history. Since Victory Road is an entirely member plot driven experience I'd imagine that plotting out Pokemon growth is more rewarding than just starting with the final evolve of all 721 Pokemon.
Anyway, there are three options that we can do:
1. Keep it the same - Pretty straight forward, we'll keep the rules as they are now. Characters can start with up to 6 Pokemon and 1 of those can either be a rare Pokemon or the 2nd evolve of a common Pokemon.
2. Make it more open - So this would potentially make the rules a bit more complicated, but we could open up the possibilities a bit for starting teams. Have it be say like, you can start with 1 rare and 5 common, or 2 rare and 2 common, or 1 2nd evolve rare and 2 common, etc. I'm not sure on the exact ratio's but it'd give more options while still putting some limitations.
3. Freeform baby! - This option would mean deleting practically all limitations on starting Pokemon. While legendaries would still not be allowed, members would be free to select their Pokemon teams entirely at their choice like Gym Leader's currently can, and make a team that fits their character/backstory entirely. Of course the staff would still have to look over character applications and make sure that a character's team properly reflects their history and isn't OP for the sake of being OP, but overall it would give members more creativity to make teams that are actually appropriate for their character. We could also keep the catching rules, i.e. only 6 Pokemon with 1 rare per month, but we could also get rid of these as well if members prefer. While I'm pretty optimistic that the vast majority of members will choose to be reasonable with a system like this, my only real concern is that it'll end up creating an over saturation of starters and other "special" Pokemon that would appear on the rare list, since these are generally the most popular. But perhaps that's the lesser of two evils in this case.
Anyway, I'd really appreciate it if everyone voted on what they think is best, and feel free to post below as well if you have any input regarding the matter. Thanks!