route_006 | HMD | May 2012

Entry tags:

how's my driving

HMD | May 2012

EVALUATE MY BATTLING!

TRAINER TIPS:
→ This is encouraged, not mandatory. We will not penalize you for not using it.
→ Feel free to link your personal HMDs if you would like, just in case someone doesn't want to use the mass HMD post.
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→ Don't take this all too personally! Remember that roleplay is a game, and crit is supposed to help, not make you feel horrible. No one is perfect, we've all got room to improve. Please keep that in mind.

→ MOD/GAME HMD

NOTE: we've seen and are discussing all the issues brought up on the HMD! Thanks for your input, guys. We won't be commenting until we have some kind of concrete solution lined up, just letting you know!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I believe the idea is to make missions required INSTEAD of stealing instead of just making it an alternative.

Why can't we just have both to choose from?

That's a good question. Ask the mods.

What? I'm confused. Don't we already have both as an option? You can either do required missions or capture required Pokemon.

Um... we don't need to ask the mods, because that's what it IS right now.

We're asking YOU, because you seem to think that this isn't adequate and needs to be changed.

I responded already below. That's not how it is now. If that's how players are treating it now, they're not following what the mods have said. Weekly Pokemon or full time missions.

They also never specified what 'full time missions' were, exactly. I know they said 'like lab work' but I don't think it's restricted to only lab work. (And for the record, I don't think lab work needs to be someone sitting in a dark lab forever and not doing anything else.)

From the interactions I've had with the mods, they seem very willing to come up with custom missions as well if the current ones aren't doing it.

But if you chose the missions, then you're making the choice to have them be the required thing for your character already, aren't you?

As things stand now you would have to do a LOT of missions to make up for the insane amount of Pokemon characters are supposed to be stealing.

that wasn't how I took the change to mean. If you sign up for lab work, it's on-going. Your character will have a full-time job to do, so they won't have time to go steal Pokémon. You do not have to thread out every single thing they do in this full-time job, but it's assumed they have it and they're doing it. Just like the Pokémon stealing. I'm seeing them basically saying that stealing Pokémon per week is the default full time job you're given but you can opt out for another job if that doesn't suit your tastes. I don't see anything wrong with that.

But that is a FULL TIME mission. The regular missions are one thing but that way, forcing characters to constantly do that takes away all possible playing freedom. Doing all this just to not have to steal?

That's just as silly.

How does it take away all possible playing freedom? There are so many different missions, and I'm sure you can arrange with the mods to have them do some small missions and steal once a month or once every few weeks, too. The point is that they're in an organization and they have duties. I think the mods are doing a good job of trying to give you a wide variety of duties to choose from. I'm pretty sure people can find ways of playing around their duties.

That sounds good but that's not what's listed. It's full time job like being cooped up in labs or mandatory weekly catching and to be honest neither are appealing OR allow for freedom. One would interrupt traveling and trying to anything constantly if players were even remotely decent with it instead of handwaving it and the other would mean they COULDN'T do any of that.

I'm almost starting to think the mods actually made things worse for the Rockets by putting all of these inane restrictions on them.

But... they're not restrictions.

Many, if not all, characters have picked up jobs and the like. Rockets are free to do whatever they want when they're not actively working. A character does not need unlimited free time in order to do what they want in this game.

The things the mods introduced for the Rockets aren't restrictions, they're PROMPTS which were in response to everyone complaining about the Rockets having nothing to do, nothing required for them. Players whose characters were previously forced to stagnate due to nothing being offered for the Rockets now have a variety of options for their characters to choose from and work with, in addition to whatever general Route-y things their characters would otherwise do.

I don't mean to sound dismissive of your concerns, but having watched your comments show up throughout this thread, I have to say that I think you're SERIOUSLY overthinking this.

Team Rocket right now is more active than it's been in MONTHS, because the players are plotting with each other, taking advantage of event activities and mission work. Many of them clearly do not have a problem with their characters having lots of options. That's not to say that there aren't still problems that need to be addressed by the mods, but based on the concerns you've been expressing here, it sounds like apping a Trainer or a Breeder, which do not share the same responsibilities as an organization, may be a better choice for you.

I don't think that's very fair. Team Rocket, in no form of media, has had such restrictions forced on them. And that is a word I will use.

I think that the majority here are UNDERthinking it. Characters must either work or steal weekly. A person upthread said it clearly, the implications of all of this handwaving are pretty bad.

A prompt would be optional. Why does it need to be weekly? Why not once a month or more? Or why NOT make it optional? As long as the characters show up for events, does it matter what they do otherwise? If it's an issue of having something to do, it would all still be there, but it wouldn't be forced on people who feel it extremely restricting. There are people who are NOT willing to apply for Rockets with these things in place that might want to otherwise.

Imagine for a moment if it were optional. Maybe with rewards! The prompt would still exist and there might even be more incentive to do it if there's something in it for characters ICly other than a scary punishment. Without rewards, it would still be there for those who want it and not forced on those who don't.

What is wrong with this scenario?

So, then, for the hypothetical Rockets who don't do any missions or capture any Pokemon for the Team, and only show up for the events. What is the IC motivation for the Executives to keep them on? Why would they want these people in their organization?

They show up for events, perhaps do other crime as they must have been applied as a Rocket for a reason, or maybe they just simply take up missions or the stealing when they feel like it. Or even more simply... not once a week. Without the threat of a punishment on their shoulders.

And what about this? If the Team gave incentives to do that kind of thing, rather than being dictators about it, you might have characters doing it MORE than the once a week.

And I'm sorry but WHY do executives need IC reasons to keep likely very competent characters who would at least be required to show up for event missions on when, in the games, a guy with a level five Rattata could be a grunt as easily as anyone else?

That is insane.

It's great that Team Rocket isn't a joke anymore but now it's going into the opposite extreme and I can't say that's any better.

Let's step away from IC reasons though. IC reasons are not the issue here. OOCly, these things aren't getting played out. They are prompts, indeed, but they're not prompts that are getting used and they're not prompts that are realistic to BE used.

In that respect, they're bad prompts as they are.

It's starting to sound like you just want the mods to do your job for you and plan Rocket things for you.

The stealing may not be used yet, but now that they've added the missions, there are many prompts to choose from and at least one or two of them can be realistic for every character. If the grunts aren't doing anything outside of events, what reason would executives have to assume they'd be all there for the event missions.

Not... at all? I'm saying they're forcing TOO MUCH not that they should force MORE. The selection we have right now is fine, even perfect. All I'm saying is that it shouldn't be forced on players week after week after week. It means players HAVE to apply for very specific types of characters as Rockets.

Look. Why do the executives matter here? Why is that such an issue?

To be more blunt, who cares what they think? If they don't show up for an event, they can be dealt with like any non-conformist Rocket is dealt with, like was originally in the past. Punishments ahoy. That would be a good reason for a punishment.

But there's no reason to FORCE mundane things like this that don't get even played out most of the time.

So, your solution is to make... nothing required? For it to be entirely possible for someone to play a Rocket but do absolutely nothing for the team, ever, except come to the event posts? Is that what you want?

This is an honest question here, I'm really not entirely certain what you want.

First, as I can recall, myself and others have suggested to just decrease to a more managable and realistic number, like monthly or even bi-weekly thefts.

Second, I'm saying to make it optional not so that a character doesn't have to do anything period, and perhaps this is where all of this fighting and confusion is stemming from, but so that a character is not required to do it EVERY SINGLE WEEK. I've talked to others about this, and you're free to not believe me as I'm anon, but I know I'm not alone when I say that that is just a really frequent pace to force onto characters.

And that's all.

That truly is ALL.

If you want, take out the optional and just make it so that Grunts have to catch once a month and Execs stay once a week. Characters could be Rockets and the ones who are really gung ho will get the promotion and do it.

Also, thirdly and not entirely related, I think having it be optional with rewards would have a much better turnout while leaving the optional to not do it available as well as make it an option for Trainers or Breeders to be interested in joining.

I do not think the Rockets should do nothing outside of events. I want to make that clear. I don't think that being an option is wrong, especially when that was essentially what being a Rocket meant for a good year, but I like what we've been given. I do. I just find the forcing of it to be too extreme.

As I said way down low though, I think I've stated what I believe more than well enough, not to mention completely scared off the player who was thinking of applying here who started this to begin with, so I'll take my leave.

I apologize to all of you, to unlosing, and lastly to the mods, though I do hope you all take our side into consideration here. With that, good night.

I'll just put up my final thoughts on this matter into a little thing here then.

When it comes to the timing of the theft/missions/what-have-you, I honestly have no opinion. Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, they all sound good to me. So if you and those in agreement with you convinced the mods to back off to monthly, I'd be fine. So I can agree with you, or at least be neutral on the subject, there.

That said, though, I do think that it needs to be a requirement, an IC one if not an OOC one, to do at least something for the team on a regular basis. If everything was made optional ICly, there would be nothing to stop a character without much (or any) loyalty to the team from basically waltzing off, doing their own thing, and ignoring all the responsibilities that come with being a Rocket member. It's what Illidan here would do in that situation.

As for rewards, they already exist. Promotion opportunities, trust for more important and interesting missions, and networking within Team Rocket itself are all things that the more diligent members can look forward to under the current system. That might not all be spelled out in the FAQ, but it can be reasoned out pretty easily, I think.

And that's pretty much everything I have to say on the matter. I'm sorry we couldn't come to an agreement on this issue, and that you had to leave feeling upset and unlistened to. Good night to you.

Presented like that, I personally don't see the big deal the people "defending" it are making out of it. I admit, I've stated openly I would not apply for a Team Rocket character if I had to deal with stealing characters' Pokemon week in and week out.

Optional theft would leave it there so if I wanted to do it occasionally, I could, but otherwise I could play the type of character I want to play, who would be a loyal Team Rocket member otherwise. I would even say who it is, but I don't want to out myself right now.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

HMD | May 2012

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