HMD: May 2012 response!

[these_balls]

Hey, Route people!

So, we've assembled most of the stuff brought forth during the HMD. We know we've got our work cut out for us, but we've gathered some potential solutions that we hope will satisfy. That said, it's all a work in progress—it always is, and hopefully always will be as we continue to grow and learn—so we hope you'll give us your input!

Anonymous is enabled for this discussion, but we'll admit that we thought the HMD discussion got more than a little heated in places, so if we find things are getting out of hand, responses will be screened outright. Please keep discussion productive.

GENERAL MAINTENANCE

Availabilities definitely needs some doing. We're planning on getting together, possibly on Tuesday or Wednesday, and getting all of this done in one shot if we can. Since Sunny and I have so far been ineffective in getting this done, we're counting on our lovely techs. We'll be including more Gen 4s and 5s, especially in Kanto where we're hoping more people will roam to.

Unfortunately, starting in Kanto will not be possible at this time, nor will we be introducing any new regions. Two is already enough of a headache, haha.

Starters will be getting a complete overhaul, but we haven't decided how to go about this quite yet. It's likely that we're looking at a case-by-case basis, with every not-fully-evolved or single-phase pokemon available to every character (except Rockets, who will continue to have IC restrictions, and dragon-types and other powerhouses/rares will continue to be limited). We're just looking at a way for that to happen without a giant table or image(s) that will lag every computer that isn't running the newest hardware or doesn't have a high-speed connection.

Contests and Coordinators will not be an official, mod-run class for the time being, at least not until we get everything else looked at. However we'd be happy to allow players to coordinate [/rimshot] events if they'd like! We've gotten some suggestions (looking at you, Kev), so we're offering that as a stopgap for now.

We're working on a list of previously-asked Inquiries questions, but at six pages, we're asking for your patience.

We'll also be reinstating Police Bulletins, courtesy of Sunny. Thank you, Sunny! Which brings us to...

TEAM ROCKET

Firstly, PC rockets feeling like they're being treated as NPCs. That was wrong of us—of me, Ara, since it was my plot—and I apologize for anyone that felt like they were being used. Some Rockets enjoyed it, which I'm happy to hear, but we're not here to lead anyone around by the nose. With that in mind, what we'd like to propose is the creation of a Rocket Community to serve the interests of Rocket muns.

The way we'd run it would be thusly: while everyone would be asked to subscribe to the community, only Rocket players could become members. That way all players could be invited to plot with rockets, while Rocket muns (and the mods) could continue to organize nefarious things in secret, behind the scenes. This way, Rocket players could be forewarned about mod-run plots while keeping things a secret from the players at large for suspense. The missions post would become missions-only, not to mention we'd have a clear list of in-game Rockets at any given time. We already have a comm for breeders, so we figured, why not?

So, Route: ROCKET COMM, YES OR NO? Please let us know your opinions; unfortunately, DW doesn't allow polling from non-paid accounts, so we'll have to ask you to leave a comment. For the purpose of this exercise, only logged in votes will be counted as we would like a clear headcount as to what our current players want.

The theft requirement was another pressing concern: we had no idea people felt so strongly about it! When we introduced it, we were met with quite a bit of approval, so we were surprised to see so much ire. What we'd like to do is to make it A) biweekly, and B) less demanding. What we propose is that from now on, any pokemon above level 15, or even lower-leveled rare pokemon, can be brought in to the Team to make quota; however, extra monetary rewards (P5000 and +) will be offered for pokemon above lv 30 or of uncommon rarity. Like right now, larger, 'full-time' missions can replace the theft requirement (the FAQ has been edited to reflect this tidbit).

All Rockets will be required to have a mission as soon as their training is over. Speaking of which, we'd like to make Rocket training one week instead of two. (We'd also like to remind people that characters can post and interact with others during their training! They can use the network as anyone would, they just might be a little tired, haha.)

Rocket secondary starters will be expanded on to include Zubat, Woobat, Scraggy, Murkrow, Croagunk, Stunky, Vullaby, Drowzee, Vulpix, Houndour, Skorupi, Seviper, Trubbish and Spinarak. Any other suggestions are welcome!

Rockets of rank Beta or above can request transport by helicopter to any destination they require, provided they can claim 'Team business' (...this is flexible, cough) to do it.

We'd like to add that Rockets also have the bases in Goldenrod and Celadon, as well as Mahogany (emptied, but currently undergoing renovations and downsizing), with new facilities being built in Saffron and Lavender. The facilities are pretty swank, all things considered—TVs, leather couches, rec areas, showers 24/7—and you don't have to pay to sleep there.

Of course, cross the Team and you'll still get your butt handed to you, just saying. Failing to occupy oneself with a mission, or failing to bring in any pokemon, will result in punishment, with repeat offenders being punished more harshly. Scratch their back, they'll scratch yours, but the hand that feeds is also the one holding the rod.

Again, everything here is changeable if enough people want it. These aren't 100%-satisfaction-guaranteed-or-your-money-back solutions, and we're not trying to pretend they are. They're just the best we could come up with with regards to what was brought to us, so if anyone has any solution more viable than what we have here, please let us know.

Comments

ROCKETS, GET IN HERE

[these_balls]

Hey, Rocket muns, get in here! We want your opinions with regards to the current Team, as well as the solutions proposed above.

What do you think?

[best_laid_plans]

I have nothing useful to add atm aside from a great big +1 for the idea of the Rocket comm, assuming non-Rocket commenting is enabled: we're going to need victims/heroes/etc sounding off once plots are ready to be announced. Probably goes without saying, but I just wanted to check. <3

(I'd also like to propose, with all the new improvements and additions to the way Rockets are set up here, that Route run a specifically Rocket-based ad in the next ATP. I'd be happy to type something up myself, but I'd also love to see Rocket muns chatting with potential applicants. There's a lot of different jobs to fill, now - let's try and find more teammates to fill them!)

Dr Kato-mun here!

[sculpted]

I just want to say that I support the idea of a Rocket comm 100%!

[determinator]

A Rocket comm sounds excellent! All of these changes work for me as well. Thank you guys for putting so much time and effort into making this game the best it can be. \o/

Also can Archer just have the helicopter, come on that would be awesome!!!

[cobraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

I don’t really have much to say besides +1s for all the Rocket stuff. A separate comm similar to the breeder one sounds pretty neat.

Would there be a chart or something working out how the bonuses are handed out for thefts?

And, YAY POLICE ALERTS.

Helicopter access, whoa. Cobra’s going to be so jealous when he finds out about that.

[weaponry]

this is the mun of licentious! This is kind of sort of a placeholder in case I have like, any reservations about anything.

But I do fully support the idea of ROCKETCOMM.

[havemercy]

Not a Rocket mun, but very interested in apping a character myself, so I wanted to pose an idea that's been bouncing around in my head. I know one of the heated features of a Rocket was how much the theft requirement was handwaved, so perhaps if there was a character that could be an assistant or three to the NPC in charge of it, then people would have a reason to take advantage of it more often.

This could be more than one player (I think a group that gets along well together would be ideal) and it could be set up identical to the Breeding Centre audio post (the post for reference). With people offering to help out both IC and OOCly, it'd be easy to track which Rockets have been 'successful' and which ones have been 'slacking', which means the potential for promotions and punishments!

Additionally, it could be a sticky post or one of the easily found ones in the potential Rocket Community. Tracking a post for all replies would be easy for those who volunteer and it opens up potential opportunities for Rockets who aren't violence-heavy.

Sorry, needed to edit for clarity.

[thetruehistorian]

Ok, I think I might be getting confused by the wording of the paragraph explaining the Rocket comm, so let me see if I've got this straight.

OOC, everyone can read all of the TRComm posts.

OOC, everyone can comment to OOC TRComm posts.

OOC, only the muns of IC Team Rocket members can create an OOC TRComm post.

IC, only Team Rocket members can create, read, and comment to an IC TRComm post.

Is that what was said?

[these_balls]

You are correct! It's primarily for the rockets to communicate with one another with the IC communication, but for the OOC most plotting will be open to everyone unless it's something that will involve the rockets first.

[(Anonymous)]

All I can say is I'm really excited for all of this. Please don't let us down with availability!

With starters, would one giant picture with all of the basic stage Pokemon be a lot easier to load than a ton of smaller ones? I'm not sure but I'm sure there's some kind of fix for this out there.

[these_balls]

Well, with making one large picture, it'd be harder to link the info pages for each pokémon next to it. And that would just be given people could load such a large image, or if we could make one with the names easily readable that wouldn't be some over-1000px in dimensions. My main concern with one large picture is making sure everyone will be able to load it, or that it can be not-as-large and still capable of being read.

I'm honestly not sure how we can really change this either, unless we divide them into common groups. We'll still play around with it, though! If all else, we could switch to purely text lists.

[these_balls]

We'll get together this week and get started if it kills us, anon!

As for using a picture (or multiple pictures), we did discuss this but the concern was that A) it might be really hard for those with slower connections to load and B) we wouldn't be able to link to each Pokemon's page for easy access to those without much Pokemon know-how.

That said, it's still a possibility!

Currently, we're leaning towards our codewizard Mei coming up a table that won't be too unwieldy to edit should we need to.

Availabilities will have to come before that, though!

[legendoflove]

Hmmm-- For Rocket Starters not that I even imagine anyone would use these but Stunky and Croagunk maybe? They seem pretty... Rocket-y. Maybe Scraggy, Murkrow, and Vullaby too, with Rufflet (Vullaby's super manly heroic opposite and all) being a not-allowed-for-Rockets starter?

Otherwise I can't really add much other than this all looks super awesome! Looks like I picked a good time to come back.

[libellule]

These are good suggestions and you should feel good. I didn't even think of Scraggy!

/adds to the list

I won't remove Rufflet from potential Rocket starters, though, since it's badass enough to pass inspection.

[(Anonymous)]

I just have a few things I would like to say. I'm very pleased overall.

Unless you have some guidelines for us, I think you should just leave coordinators and contents as a nothing for now. I know you don't mean to come off as telling as that you're too busy so do it yourselves, but since that's something that was "coming soon" since the game opened, even before Gen III became an issue, I would like it to get proper attention from mods first and foremost whenever the time comes instead of players doing whatever.

With availablity, you won't ONLY be doing Kanto over though, am I correct? While understandably it needs the bigger overhaul of the two regions, Johto still needs it just as badly or even more since that's where players actually start out.

For future applicants for the next round, will you have starters finished by then? If not, can you at least have a written list prepared in the meanwhile?

Last... Rocket Bases. Can players choose which base they start in with new characters or is this just for reference?

[dreamship]

For the first two:

Well, for Coordinators and contests, we do want to implement them someday soon, and Kev's pitched his idea at us before. The reason it wasn't implemented earlier was actually my doing - with how many errors Okami and I had on our own plates, I knew we'd be biting off way more than we could chew if we opened coordinators. It was more or less an idea that we shelved for a while to make sure we could fix the other errors. And while we're on the right track of getting the Rockets moving, coordinators and contests are a new and open possibility. But do take our word for it that we're definitely not going to rush into this as well.

And no, for the availability, we'll be overhauling Johto's as well! We're just working on Kanto's first because there's a concrete list for the Johto region, while there isn't one for Kanto yet. We've been slowly adding to that one (pokémon or three at a time), but we haven't flooded it with a ton of new things. But we will once we have a Kanto list down as well.

As for the last two questions, I'll leave those for Ara to answer seeing as I'm not quite sure myself. We're currently in the process of fixing up the starters, so I don't think that's too impossible of a request, but we're currently still in the middle of deciding.

[libellule]

Ara here!

With regars to Rocket bases: everyone will start in Goldenrod for now, since (spoiler!!!) that's where the machine is. Sorry, anon!

We're gonna try to get the starters out this week--I'm working on a written list as I type this, if only for our own reference as we code.

[dreamsofahero]

For what it's worth, I would be entirely happy to help with the grunt work of compiling all the miscellaneous inquiries into one big comprehensive list or such. I mean, it's not like I haven't been keeping track of all sorts of trivial details like that already for my own purposes... >_>;;

[libellule]

Careful, we might just take you up on that.

[enjoymyatelier]

These ideas sound pretty good to me! I have to admit, I'd be totally down with helping out with a contest event of some kind.

Also, regarding the hugeness of the Pokemon starters page-maybe split it up the way the Taken Lists are? It would be a little less convenient, but it'd be more accessible for people on slower connections.

[these_balls]

We were debating something not unlike this, actually--I was thinking of divvying them up by type, since that seems to be biggest choice motivator besides possibly color.

[ex_aeroga402]

I'm cool with the Rocket comm. Might make it easier to coordinate some plots between TR and any of our characters who're trying to thwart them. It'd be nice to have more player-generated little events between our big cool plots.

[(Anonymous)]

You guys did everything and I live you all the more for it. Left a comment suggestion on the HMD about availables if you want to look.

Also how about Ghost types for rocket starters? not cuties like drifloon but ghastly or duskull seem scary right?

[libellule]

Save your love for when you see results, but if you're willing to part with it early, we'll take it. ♥

Duskull I'm not sure about, but Gastly are pretty common around Violet at this point, so they'd be a good candidate for farming. Thanks, anon!

[combat_butler]

uwhoa being called out on coordinator stuff

I know it's a future thing since there are much bigger other priorities, but I would happily help run the contests when they become a official thing if you guys ever need help with them. I already submitted so much stuff for it I wouldn't mind whipping up more, haha.

On other stuff;
As was recommended a few comments up, splitting up the starters into different pages might make things easier, but perhaps splitting them up based on Generation might be a good alternative to by type if you don't want too many different posts for them.

And I'm glad we're sticking to just Johto / Kanto, but out of curiosity, will starting in Kanto be a possibility for the future? I'm just wondering if that's just a "at this time" in the for now sense...

I also like the idea for a Rocket comm, but I feel the actual Rockets are better suited to commenting on all the finer details haha.

[libellule]

You gotta take responsibility for your brain baby, Kev.

WRT: starters--considering there are types like Dragon and Ghost that have maybe 6 or 8 starters apiece, we're probably going to group them into 50 sprites a post or so.

When we introduced Kanto, the idea was to eventually make it into a starting point, but we can't promise when--or even if--that will happen at this point, so I wouldn't get my hopes up.