So, New Site. Let's Get Some Ideas Pumping!

With the decision that we'll migrate into a brand new site, it is giving us not only a fresh start but an opportunity to make some changes to improve things quite nicely. Have you ever had a suggestion to add to make things easier? Now's your time to speak or forever hold your peace. Of course, the new place will have a Suggestions and Ideas section still, but we mine as well make some changes right away instead of later. Posting your ideas here will not guarantee their addition. We also need to come up with a name for the site!

That being said, I'll update this post with the ideas posted here, maybe add some comments, and we can all discuss them.  

Most Likely to Be Added:

*What's written aren't the words of the member, rather than their idea(s) and my comments about them.

Kitty - Mod Me becomes a topic rather than a section. That way, users can post a reply if they need modding. Mods can then pick up the topic and delete the request from the board. This way, it is known if it's been handled without needing to reply and we can be more on top of things. This also prevents the clutter currently within the section with unmoved threads and the useless storing of past mod-me threads. I'm currently unsure of which section this thread would go into, however.

Nishwishes - Starter Pokemon can be determined after reviewing applications and basing them off of various aspects including quality, personality, or other interesting aspects. There will be a choice of around three. I really like this one, as it gets rid of one of the most irritating aspects of PW (for me personally, anyway. There were restrictions for a reason :p): people constantly asking for more from the starter restrictions. No matter the member or character, everyone should start off on the same foot, though greater quality could lead to better starter choices considering there's a ton more to go off of.

=My own potential addition to this: When Moderators reply to character applications, they will reply in a similar style to the Mystery Dungeon beginning quiz narrator. 'I am trying to determine more about you... but there's not enough to your background for me to get a clear grasp...' Least something like that. When finding out starters, Mods could go 'Your happy, go-getting attitude gravitates others toward you. Because of this, Happiny may be a perfect choice for you!'

Avaritia - On the topic of improving character applications, separating posts into character information, items, then Pokemon can improve several complaints. The member may post their character application, however the Moderator posts the items and Pokemon info. With this, the member may edit personality and history as the character develops or edit anything about their character that they find necessary while leaving the items and Pokemon still untouchable to them. Instead of locking the Approved Character section, we just change permissions so new topics/posts can't be posted in them by normal members. If this is the case, it'd be best to delete Moderator critiques and comments so nothing is separated. We can then add a post at the end quoting all of the critiques that were deleted so they're still noted and can be looked back on.

Needs More Elaboration and Discussion:

Discussed - HP and battling, should there be changes made to make this more prevalent in Roleplay?

Discussed - What is the fate of the use of Legendaries? Obtainable or unobtainable?

Discussed - Should our standards be raised?

Discussed - Less reliance on Moderators, how can this be done?

Will Probably Not be Added:

Discussed - Custom Pokemon will not be coming over to the new site.

---------
I'm still working on ideas for improving current systems as well as adding new ones, so I'll post when I've thrown something new into this ideas thread. Now, I'll be happy to hear what you guys have to say!

On a final note, I expect discussions of ideas to be HELPFUL. If your comment is just 'don't add this it's stupid.' It will be ignored. Give us the 'why', not just the opinion.

I can't remember who I heard bring up the idea (Maybe Aito?) but I take no credit for it and simply wish for it to be discussed because it sounded like a good one. That idea was to add numbers into things such as power of a move and HP, this would obviously avoid the awkward mid fight decision of if a pokemon should have fainted or not.
As for what Nish said I think we should keep Legendary Pokemon as achievable things. Obviously they should be at the very least incredibly hard to find and possibly only/mainly available through site wide events. Since they are dubbed with the "Legendary" title the staff could perhaps keep tabs on who owns a legendary Pokemon and make sure not to have two across the site. It's been shown in the games (I think it was with the three dogs?) that Legendary Pokemon only reveal themselves to those they find worthy. Perhaps we could have some kind of system where when a Legendary Pokemon no longer finds its owner worthy they just leave them? (Such as the person no longer being an active member or perhaps losing privilege through poor behavior.) Obviously this is all just me spit balling a few ideas to keep legendary's around and needs to be expanded on through conversation.

I think having legendaries shouldn't be completely banned (since character like Tobias have them) but I think it should be almost impossible to catch them. Since it is shown that their capture is possible, but extremely difficult. Maybe you would require 8 badges and still have to defeat them in a battle, in which they could easily wipe out your team if it's not really strong (since they're pretty much the Pokémon version of Gods). I do agree though that they should be severely limited, but hopefully if you added a rule like the 8 badge thing I said or something similar it would filter out the kind of people that would godmod... Maybe more restrictions could be added to further avoid godmodding. Although perhaps I'm overthinking this, maybe straight up banning them could just be an easier and better idea.

As for the HP thing, I think stats should be taken into consideration but only to judge the power of attacks rather than having formulaic posts, otherwise you might as well just play the games.

It's not a very huge sort of idea I've got. I feel that this site has relied quite heavily on rules. For the new site, I think there should be more lenient of a system. What do I mean? Well, to address one of the the main reasons that we've had a hard time (no thanks to me ;-;), I think we should find a way to lower the need for moderator intervention.

For example, when they create a character, we have them in charge of keeping track of their characters. Have the character's main profile in one thread, and keep track of progress (pokemon obtained, items found, experience, etc..) in a separate topic.

Also, we should put something somewhere obvious that says "Hey, we're moving sites soon!"

Well the modding process itself is something I was grouping into the things to potentially change for less moderator intervention. The training topics go along the lines of what I was thinking.The more effort they put into it, the more they can get out of it, while copy/pasting baloney wouldn't count.

Lesser moderator intervention could allow more flexibility to do things while the said moderator(s) aren't currently on line. Of course this would be a bit different to adapt to, and I really haven't found a way to fully articulated the idea.

I was using the training topics as an example for what I was suggesting.

In the sense that in training posts, you'd be calculating experience, you'd be doing be sort of reading what they've done in their topic and deciding whether their topic is acceptable for what they say they've gained from it. This what completely trash the element of random, however (which is a big part of this site), and I made this suggestion knowing it may be rejected immediately.

And now, because I forgot to comment on the other suggestions above,

• About custom stuff, I sort of agree. Even if it is a shame to say goodbye to some of the custom Pokemon here. Legendary Pokemon of course shouldn't be easily obtained, if obtainable at all. And if they are obtainable, there should be a more profound way than simply rolling a lucky number with some RNG. Also, despite the increased base stats compared to other pokemon, I don't think legendaries should be considered that much stronger than any other Pokemon. (I don't care if the Temporal Tower collapses for that opinion~)
  
  
• As for combat, giving moves powers and Pokemon HP sounds like lots of work. I also feel it may take away from the role play element. I like to think we make the Pokemon more than just numbers when putting them into role play. Unlike in the games, a heavily experienced Croagunk may choose to give a "poison poke" instead of a poison jab for not taking a battle against the dope bidoof seriously.
  

And as for a name to the new site, I put in to the pot
"Pokemon World Rewritten"

While I thank you Sora for both getting the ball rolling and providing a very good and very possible new name, I can't say I'm entirely for "Pokemon World Rewritten". while I'm not proposing any better alternative I would much prefer this to be what we were aiming for it to be. A new site, not a revamp of what we are leaving behind. I however, wholeheartedly agree that we should put a sign somewhere! Even in our current state I still see the occasional guest float in.

@Nish: I agree that expectations should be heightened a little bit I don't think we should really go beyond that. While I understand that no mod wants to be stuck with modding the person who posts one liners about their cyborg trying to attack a Pokemon there are plenty of reasons we should keep the requirements at a somewhat low basis. Our target audience is that of Pokemon fans/Nostalgic's and while I hate to admit it as much as the next teen and up person on this site, that means that we are getting mostly younger fans or people who are brand new to the roleplaying scene. With this having been my first Roleplay site I know for sure that I either would have been scared away by a higher requirement or (As I have gladly stated many times) would have been such complete trash at writing that I would have been shot down and given up. Even with our lowish standards its not like we don't attract any skillful Roleplayers, off of the top of my head I can think of three of the best RP'ers (Being Sora, Fenn, and you Nish) I've ever seen who are still fully committed to this site.

(Apologies ahead of time if any/much/all of this is complete gibberish as I have just gotten off work 30 minutes before writing this at 5 in the morning.)

For the name, what about Pokemon World Online? I feel like we should name it after Pokemon World RPG, something along the lines of Pokemon World Online or Sora's Pokemon World Rewritten.

I guess I should help with as much as I can, or in other words, the little I can... but anyways, I may suggest that we don't put a RPG part in it at all, seeing as how that is what confused most guests, if anything, RPF would be much better suited. As for a name suggestion, I don't have much to work with but I guess Pokemon Alive RPF or something like that... sounds interesting right?

I like that too, only some people might not know what it stands for. What about if we just put the word "Forums" at the end of the name (for example Pokémon World RPG would become Pokémon World RPG Forum, although obviously we'd give it a different name than Pokémon World RPG), or mention that it's a Roleplaying Forum in the description?

Okay, time to throw some stuff out here~

Custom Pokemon
I agree with not bringing them over as well. They're fun and different, but it's a function that causes more trouble than good, and most Moderators don't introduce customs into the typical roleplay regardless. There are 721 cannon monsters already, that should be enough to keep everyone happy! RIP Kyansei and Teneror. My babies. Since this seems like a general consensus so far, I'll edit it into the first post.

Legendaries
I think I can offer up this as a happy medium between the opinions:

Legendary Pokemon cannot be owned by one particular character, and aren't able to be captured because of mystical means or the balance of the world being at stake. That being said, there's nothing against a character jumping through hoops in order to befriend a Legendary or gain a favor from one (including it fighting for them on occasion- such as with Tobias). This could be done through a very long plotline and through defeating the Legendary in battle. We can elaborate on this if it's a decent compromise.

Combat
HP and stats may be interesting, but I agree that they should be used sparingly. Instead, perhaps we'd be better adding some more logical rules: such as 100% accuracy moves unable to be dodged more than a certain amount of times in battle. A lot of members do seem to tend to making their Pokemon last more than they logically should through multiple battles, so some sort of loose HP gauge may be good to apply somehow, I'm just not quite sure how as of yet.

Moderation Dependence
I'm not sure what to do about this one. Since we can't have members creating their own battles, encounters, and item grabs, Moderators are pretty necessary. Training topics are kinda there to alleviate this (for when a member wants to grind exp without needing to wait on battle posts), and group threads can last as long as all involved are still active in them. The only thing I can think of to help lessen the Mod load is finding some skilled, active users to sometimes fill in with basic encounter or NPC interaction posts. They wouldn't drive plots like a Mod would, and Gym battles would be left in Mod hands as well. These users wouldn't have Moderator ability (so a Mod or Admin could then get on and make sure the encounters and actions were justified and unbiased), but at that point those users could probably just be Moderators :/ I'm super open to any ideas for this dilemma.

Another Idea: Topic Tags
Okay, I was mulling over some stuff that I thought this site lacked, and one of the things that came to mind was a disconnect between what the Mod offered and what the member wanted. Because of this, I think it may be a good idea to have users tag their RP topics with certain things depending on what they want for their character. Some tags would go as followed:

[Group] - Implies that they'd rather RP with other members more than a 1 on 1 with a Mod.
[Closed] - A group thread that has its fill of people and isn't looking for any more.
[Training] - These mostly consist of training posts, or wild training encounters.
[Encounters] - They want mostly just wild or NPC encounters.
[Plot - PG] - Plot, plot is good. They're okay with plot, but want to keep it friendly.
[Plot - Mature] - Death, violence, questioning morality... my kinda roleplay thread! They're open to plot that covers just about anything. So long as it doesn't break the Forumotion ToS!

They can mix and match tags as well, like having Insert Title Here [Group, Plot - M]. I think this will help both members looking for threads to join and Mods only wanting to pick up a certain type of topic they prefer. We can then have an easier time pointing a member in the right direction Mod-wise.

Site Name:
Still thinkin' about this one! I'll definitely add a poll at some point to this thread so people can vote on some liked suggestions.

I 100% disagree with the whole basis of telling people they can't rp unless they boost up their abilities, if you don't want to mod people of lower skill, then its simple don't be a moderator if your not willing to moderate all types of people. Pokemon role play is incredibly limited as it is in terms of members and as we have seen from this site, the member activity dwindled greatly when these "new" protocols were put up. So i think we should remain open to all types of members, whether newbies or experienced and if people can't be arsed modding them, then they should not be staff, People gain experience by rping and im pretty sure we all know how it felt to be newbies being told how shit we were compared to those of the more experienced variety.

As for customs i agree, custom items and pokemon and regions are slightly iffy.

To the HP and Move power system, its not actually that much work, its actually incredibly easy to work out, in fact on the site im working on i have one of these systems, http://pokepals.forumotion.eu/t11-trainer-guide-health-moves-and-items#15 so feel free to take a look, its a basic system that then means people can understand more of how long it takes to knock out a pokemon etc. Its a simple system.

I know Ava has it on her site and i have it on mine, but i do 100% support a form of happiness system that can dictate pokemon evo's, mega evos and whether a pokemon is willing to listen to you.

Personally i think legendaries SHOULD be gained, especially if we are intending on making a site that is far more member friendly and more fluid. If we are using the same system liek here [where basicly mods do everything, mod control everything, and that members only have their own personal story and not a proper plot based site] then why not let them have legends, its not like it effects anyone else. IF we are intending on having a proper fluid site were members can effect the storyline of other people and the way the plot evolves then legendaries should be able to be gained through site events, limited to one legendary of the type. and again the happiness system if implemented can be used here.

Quote :

Moderation Dependence
I'm not sure what to do about this one. Since we can't have members creating their own battles, encounters, and item grabs, Moderators are pretty necessary. Training topics are kinda there to alleviate this (for when a member wants to grind exp without needing to wait on battle posts), and group threads can last as long as all involved are still active in them. The only thing I can think of to help lessen the Mod load is finding some skilled, active users to sometimes fill in with basic encounter or NPC interaction posts. They wouldn't drive plots like a Mod would, and Gym battles would be left in Mod hands as well. These users wouldn't have Moderator ability (so a Mod or Admin could then get on and make sure the encounters and actions were justified and unbiased), but at that point those users could probably just be Moderators :/ I'm super open to any ideas for this dilemma.

Now this is where i have an idea. I agree with allowing members to maybe work random encounters for other people in threads. I have a few ideas which may help, moderators could just quickly click the random encounter, tell these people what the pokemon is, the level and ability and bam, the members can then rp the pokemon battle for the other person.

[example]

Player A and B make a thread
Player A asks for random encounter
Mod generates caterpi level 1 with shed skin
Mod tells player B the information
Player B rps out the caterpi.
If player B also wants a random encounter player A could rp player bs pokemon after being told it.

-----

Now as for the mod me bit here, I would suggest Character Updates. Character Updates are member friendly, they allow members to edit their own information so that mods don't have too. Essentially what happens is a member creates their character, and that character is approved. They then create their update page which houses all their information. [items, badges, pokemon etc] This initial page is not locked, and then basicly they rp their threads, so player a then has his caterpi evolve to level 2. He goes to his update page and posts on it saying

Caterpi levels up 1-2
and then posts the training link. A mod then quickly checks the thread approves it and he then edits the information. Everything is documented for that character in the update thread which also means members can't cheat and edit their items and levels as this can all be checked, this takes pressure of mods constantly having to edit everyones applications all the time and only needing to check things that fully require it.

I like the character update idea! You could score out updates you have already performed like this so mods don't get confused but the update is still logged.

Since everyone's debating over the standards, what about a school-like tier based system? Your level of skill is assessed and you are allocated a tier based on your level. You can then be aided with tips on how to improve and practice as you move up the tiers. Maybe we could use tags that indicate what tier certain topics are using. I'm not sure if that might just be complicating things though...

Thats a compromise i like, i would fully support a tier system, and i am a fan of the suggested starter system, its a nice idea, though i think we should offer the starter pokemon as an alternative, you know how people go to the professor, if someone did not like the pokemon they were given to start with they could decline and instead chose out of the three starter pokemon. Seeing as we are restarting i also think we should abolish completely letting people start with two or more pokemon, they should be limited to the one at a beginning based level regardless of application or staff permission.

Im still hoping for an "open" world based though, not just mods and members but more members and members with a little mod help.

Just throwing this in there since we're on the topic of starters- unlike what we've done before, I believe that we should have the person role play the encounter with the first Pokemon they encounter. Rather than typing somewhere random in their history that they "inherited the Pokemon from their family". It gives them a chance to have a feel the role play as their character, as well as the personality of the Pokemon they'd be using from two sides. Unlike other wild encounters, the person would be role playing as both the Pokemon and the trainer. It'd also allow us to see if the person truly deserves the Pokemon they chose or not.

And on another note

These App rules:

I'm not entirely a fan of this sort of thing. It sort of promotes making a junk character for the sake of benefits.

It sounds better to have all characters start under the same rules. If anything, I think we should be more strict when it comes to making a second/third/whatever character.

*Sigh* A year a mod, and I still can't confidently speak up among other mods xD

In any case, now that we're on it, yes, the starter compromise is actually great! The best roleplayers get benefits, and while this will draw flak, it'll also encourage others to do better. The tiers, I also agree with, as the weaker members can be given more attention. I feel we should be open to the fairly poor members, as I myself wouldn't be here if I was barred off for my initial roleplaying skills (or the lack thereof) ((No, don't go look at my old posts!))

As for the naming scheme, Pokemon World Online already, well, exists.

Special occasions like Shinies and Legendaries could be obtained either through special events, or through a lengthy and arduous plot, I suppose. There will always be some who desire and deserve it. I'll probably come back to this later.

I keep getting distracted by the starter pokemon, so I'll just hastily chuck this out here. Stats themselves shouldn't be implemented (please?) but the mod can add in either an elaborate HP bar with an image and all, or a simple HP percentage in colour (optional) like I started a few weeks ago. There are several damage calculators online, and can easily be accessed o3o

I really think I was about to say something else 'o3o Darn it school! Why are you so exhausting? Anyway, so, um, yeah.
*Fwuff!*

Nishwishes wrote:

Open world was always an option as previously stated, it was just rarely utilised because members were unreliable. And I suppose that 'starter Pokemon' compromise works nicely, although there'll be a small selection of at least three or four options per member anyway, I think.

I like the idea of three or four given options, especially based on the characters application, it really adds originality to it, so 100% agree with this.

Sora wrote:

Just throwing this in there since we're on the topic of starters- unlike what we've done before, I believe that we should have the person role play the encounter with the first Pokemon they encounter. Rather than typing somewhere random in their history that they "inherited the Pokemon from their family". It gives them a chance to have a feel the role play as their character, as well as the personality of the Pokemon they'd be using from two sides. Unlike other wild encounters, the person would be role playing as both the Pokemon and the trainer. It'd also allow us to see if the person truly deserves the Pokemon they chose or not.

And on another note

These App rules:

I'm not entirely a fan of this sort of thing. It sort of promotes making a junk character for the sake of benefits.

It sounds better to have all characters start under the same rules. If anything, I think we should be more strict when it comes to making a second/third/whatever character.

I have to agree with Sora, i think we should not allow alts, at least not for a while, sticking to one character and building them up rather than having four different characters to one account is mind blowing, it also means mods are spread thin between modding more threads yet still only modding one person. I agree with the levels etc, though these are things the tiers can cover, but i do agree that they should all start in the same boat, perhaps those of higher tiers gain additional benefits perhaps shiny pokemon or a slightly higher starting pokemon.

Like if we had say four tiers

Those who have a tier 4 app [the basics and just grasping the world of rp] would start with pokemon of a basic level, perhaps even forcing them to start at level 1 or even with an egg.

Tier 3 apps would be given a little more though just enough to give them a slight advantage, perhaps a level 3-5 pokemon to start.

Tier 2 are those who have a better grasping of rping and there app reflects this, given pokemon to start at level 10.

Tier 1s the best of the best applications, flowing history minimal errors. Level 15 pokemon with the option to start with a shiny, if a shiny is chosen then they could be limited to that pokemon starting at a lower level.

Because tier 1's will be rare and shinies are too, it seems to make sense that some people will have the luck of a shiny. We could even do the random generator that we have here, to depict whether the pokemon given will be shiny. I also think app editing should be a no no, updates would negate the need for app editing.

Building from what Nish and Sora are saying about roleplaying as the starter, we could actually use that to help chose a tier, why not use that scenario as a ROLEPLAY SAMPLE upon applications, i know people who can build gorgeous applications but not as great upon the rping front while vice versa, i know people who have trouble with applications but have the most beautiful set ups and stories when rping.

so using that scenario as an rp sample could be an option?

Also at @Absol, i think stats should be implemented, not a full stat sytem like having speed stats endurance stats and so on. But i do feel that we need to have some form of gauging health and stuff, not to toot my own horn, but the health system and move power usage on my "wip" site is rather good if i do say so myself, it caps for non evo pokemon at 2000/2000 while every level up gains an additional 30 exp [so the machamp for example will have an additional 60] while mega evos gain a further additional 30 making a full cap go to 2090 but maybe megas could get more etc. Also for the move gauge, we could just use bulpabedia for the move strength, so if someone was hit with a hydro pump it would take 110 HP from it, of course this then also properly uses Type advantages and disadvantages in a more adventerous way. Its a really easy system and we can actually implement HP ups and such to help booot them to give a more unique range of hp to characters etc. I think we do deffo need some form of health gauge and move gauge though, i know some members seem to have trouble with their pokemon fainting or i have seen so in the past.