Just a Few Ideas

So, ah, hi! I've decided to stop being dead. Yeah.

Having finally come back to URPG after almost a year of hiatus, I am so excited to see all this talk about change that seems to be all over the forum! I thought I would chime in with some ideas, just to give you all some new concepts to rip into. Who knows, maybe one of these could end up being useful...

DISCLAIMER: These all could possibly be ideas that have been brought up and rejected in the past. Sorry if I'm repeating anything people have already discussed.

1. Sim Battles
I have seen a lot of talk about how inaccessible battling is to new players. I agree: learned moves and Pokemon are very expensive for a new player to purchase, and it is impossible to earn new moves in any way. I have seen people posit solutions such as lowering the prices of learned moves for new players, or giving players extra Pokemon on startup. My solution is a bit different.

Have a battle mode where, instead of picking which of your Pokemon to use, you just pick any Pokemon and automatically have access to all its moves during the battle. Call it "Sim Battle," because that is what it is supposed to be: a simulation of a real battle. Participants in a Sim Battle would get no money from it, but the ref would still get paid of course. This would allow new players to more easily experience URPG-style battling without having to slowly accrue money by losing over and over again.

I recognize the largest risk of this suggestion: if Sim Battles become a thing, why would anyone still purchase Pokemon through the URPG system? I mean, why bother to earn Pokemon if you can just use any Pokemon you want? I have a few solutions: Firstly, the number of times you can Sim Battle could be limited, maybe to five. Secondly, Sim Battles could only be held in a limited number of battle formats, maybe only single-battle 2V2 formats or something. I don't know, I would love some feedback to flesh this out, see if it would possibly work.

2. Daily Rewards
Users getting bored and leaving is a big problem. The URPG does lots to counteract this- events, a variety of things you can do here, fun community- but sometimes a person can only log in for 15 minutes a day for many days in a row. It would be worth our time to figure out something they can do here in just a very short time span, so that they don't get bored by their infrequent visits here.

My simple solution is to offer a daily reward for activity. Set up a system where, every day (according to whatever time zone we use on here) you log onto AIM, there's a small bonus. Maybe give them some money, or a berry or something. Maybe we could offer larger rewards for people who are active many days in a row- say, an EM or something for logging on every day for 2 weeks, or a Pokemon of some sort for logging on every day for a month? I don't know, I just generally think some daily rewards system could help keep people from going away.

3. URPG Content Posted In Other Bulbagarden Forums
There are a lot of artistically-minded people on here, and the grading / curating system that URPG offers means that higher-quality content exists here compared to many other places! I have heard people talk a lot about how we should reach out to the rest of Bulbagarden, and well, I can think of no better way to start than by sharing our art.

Keeping art here on URPG means that mostly only URPG members will see it. I think that's really a big loss, to be keeping great art here instead of sharing it with the world. Bulbagarden already has a Writer's Workshop and a Creative Corner: We should take advantage of them, and post URPG content there.

I don't know how it'd work. I don't know if we'd only post contest-winning entries or especially-highly-graded pieces there, or if we'd start convincing people to post their stuff in both forums. I guess if this happened, it would be sensible to add in some blurb like "First Featured on the URPG" to the work, maybe attract some interest in what we do like that. Sorry, I know this is a very general idea, but hey, ya never know, maybe it'll be a little bit useful... to someone...


Anyway, yeah! Here are a few of the ideas I had. Keep calm and URPG on!

Greg

 

Hey-o, welcome back. I love a lot of these ideas tbh. Couple of my cents:

=Sim Battles: Perhaps this could actually be a type of battle clause with no limitations? The Battle Factory tournament was super badass, and I remember being able to try all sorts of crazy stuff because I didn't have any limitations on what moves my Pokemon could use although part of that was also because randoms were super awesome. If we implemented this, it would have to be a battle style that both players agree to (sort of like D/P/Pt vs BW Revo or something), and probably half/quarter pay or something to prevent people from abusing the system and also to encourage people to, you know, have the need to buy EM's for their stuff. I do think this would be a great way of encouraging new people to battle more and get into the grove of URPG-esque battling, and it would definitely level the playing field for when Ash a bunch of old vets challenge newer players who have fewer resources.

Also, this should probably be banned for tournament battles (barring something where it's part of the mechanic, such as Battle Factory) and gym/E4/LD for what I think are obvious reasons.

=Daily Rewards: sounds really cool, although I have no idea how we'd keep track of this in a reasonable manner. The only thing I could see that would be trackable would be to post everyday, but that's probably illegal/spam on some forum and also a pain in the neck to keep track of, especially if a bunch of people do it at once. Also, timezones.

=Outside Content: YUP YUP. I AGREE SO HARD.

I don't art, so I can't speak for the art branches, but BMG's Writer's Workshop is fantastic. I don't think there needs to be any stipulation of the level of quality of work posted there--members are perfectly welcome to post their stuff elsewhere if they feel so inclined; the problem is that most people don't really feel inclined to do so. :>

 

Hey Elysia! Thanks for replying! I LOOOOVE some of the ideas and input you put in, so I'll do my best to respond to it all:

1. Sim Battles
Ooh, making it a battle clause sounds like a great idea! I'd suggest two limitations for it:
1. NO LEGENDARIES!!!! That way, the super-special Pokemon stay special and only useable by people who earned them.
2. There's a limit to how many sim battles you can have in one day: I'd suggest 5, but I dunno, we could change that number.
Also, I agree, people who do sim battles should still get money for them. Maybe half pay, like you suggested. If sim battles can already be done only so many times, then we don't really need more deterrent to make sure people still do regular battles!

2. Daily Rewards
Yeah, on second thought, I see that this daily rewards thing would require WAAAAY too much work to maintain. So! Here's an alternate idea!

2A. First-Battle Rewards
Simple. Your first battle of the day earns you double the money. Whatever battle mode you do, and whether you win or lose, whatever you'd normally get, it's doubled. That's it. It's a nice thing that's REALLY easy to take care of, and it's a daily thing that gives people a little incentive to come back to URPG every day! What d'you think?

3. Outside Content
Thanks for the support! Yeah, you're right, I was totally wrong even suggesting that just contest winners should get posted somewhere else Let's start getting people to post their stories and art in more public areas, like Bulbagarden's Writer's Workshop and Creative Corner, and in those posts, linking to the URPG! Threads in the Stories and Art Gallery sections here could be the discussion threads for those stories and art. I know this is a bit more cumbersome a system than the one we have now, where the piece and its critiques are just kept in one thread, but this new system could help attract some traffic to us! I dunno, is this a good idea?


Tell me I'm right, tell me I'm wrong, just don't tell me I'm an octopus. Cheers!

Greg

 

What if the firat battle was something like WAR or tournament or gym, that has increased wages? Getting 6k for a 4v4 seems excessive.

I agree with the sim battle though

 

Well, it would be the same as just doing two of that type of battle...
I don't know. In my opinion, a 6k bonus (mind you, that's the MAXIMUM bonus) doesn't seem like too much as a reward for battling every day! Anything less would probably not be enough incentive...

But on the other hand, maybe this daily-rewards idea is sorta dumb. Ehh. I want to see what people think.

EDIT: I've made a poll for the daily-rewards idea. Let's see people's opinions!

 

You misunderstood me, I like it. Just think it'll probably be shot down because of the potential for abuse

 

Thank you for liking it! I agree, though, in its current state maybe it's too easy to abuse... Ehh. We'll see

 

I think the daily rewards idea is great, but I also think that double pay is a bit too much. Maybe just like .5 or 1k more for your first battle of the day? But then I also see the potential for lying especially when some battles take place in private chats. There would have to be a way to prevent this from happening.

 

To be honest, if people start lying, then there's not really much we can do... I mean, this game is built around trusting everyone else playing, or else everything starts becoming really ugly really quickly.

However, you're right. You're right about both things you said. However, I wouldn't put the daily bonus down that far- 2k seems fair and reasonable to me. And as for preventing lying, a line about it could be added into the ref log. Sure, it's an extra thing for the refs to do, but I don't think it's TOO unreasonable...

 

LOVE this, LOVE that you're back!

Sim Battles: totally cool, half pay or something, limit five times a day. This makes it fun for everyone, as you don't need to be new to play, and it'd be groovy too if this was a clause.

Daily Rewards: Why not have a thread where people can post daily, and claim $300 a day? That's a week for a lower-end TM, three weeks for Protect, a full month for a free mart mon. To combat the issues of time zone, a moderator could start every day's claimable period, and when she or he posts the next day, players can only claim for that day. It'd be cool if we could have this thread on one forum, like PxR or PWN, to get people over to these branches, and rotate that thread monthly or something.

Boost for your first battle is also cool!

URPG Content Outside of URPG: Hey, I like this! And I like what you mean by asking the people reading the story or looking at your art to comment at in the URPG thread it's originally posted on (if I'm not misunderstanding). I don't think that's cumbersome at all - it's one click away, a click that'll make them curious about the rest of this awesome, weird URPG thing we do. And also posting on PWN and PXR cause that's cool too.

 

Yay yay, hi Smiles!

Daily Rewards: Ooh, I like this thread idea! It's simple, elegant, and works! I'd boost the amount up to $500, though, just because the mart seems to deal in multiples of $500. And I agree, using this as a tool to get URPGers to visit other forums is a great idea!

I actually like this idea a lot more than boosting your first battle... Having both seems like overkill. I would go with the thread idea over the first-battle idea.

URPG Content Outside of URPG: Yup, that's exactly what I meant! And lol, all the PWN and PXR love

 

I think Sim battles should be limited to the Pokemon that the players own, albeit with all EM's. That way, you minimize the complete OP abuse/ power creep that'll inevitably ensure (ie fully-EM'ed Greninja/MegaKhan/Gengar/idk/Swampert/Togekiss/Jolteon/Mence on every team) and also gives new trainers a chance to figure out what EM's they really use most often on the Pokemon they already have, which would be a good way to soften the learning curve a bit.

 

Hm. When I thought of Sim Battles, I was thinking they'd be a useful tool for team building- they'd help you out what Pokemon you want to write for / trade for / buy to fill out your team. However, I see what you say- if left like this, Sim Battles would probably just end up being battles between a select few of the most powerful Pokemon, and that'd get really boring, really quickly. Ehh, I dunno. Wouldn't your idea lead to the exact same problem, except the battlers would just have to acquire the Pokemon first?

 

Experienced players would also dominate the field, since they most likely have most if not all of those pokemon.

 

I mean, the current endgame of URPG/fastest way to become a decent battler is theoretically to obtain all of the same, overused threats that everyone else has because there's no other way to counter the overused threats. If we limit Sim Battles to only Pokemon that the players own, at least we'll put another step in the process?

That answer is probably way too cynical lol.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if we limit Sim Battles to only Pokemon that the players own, new players will be able to test out what their Pokemon will look like at the final stage of EM'ing or whatever. Furthermore, they'll be able to prioritize which EM's they should buy for their Pokemon (theoretically) because they can see which moves are most/least useful in situations after repeated Sim Battles. Not constraining Sim Battles to only Pokemon that the players own will emphasize building teams rather than building Pokemon, which, if that's your intention, would work exactly as planned. I'm nervous that this extreme level of Sim Battling will basically nuke the need to bother obtaining Pokemon in the URPG in the first place--even if we limit Sim Battles to one a day and also to non-gym/LD/E4/important matches, few people battle more than once a day anyway, and if you can turn on a clause that lets you use any Pokemon you want, why bother trying to write/park/art for anything? (well I guess for gym/LD/E4/important matches, way to ruin my own point)

Sim Battles would, from what I can tell, serve as a sort of crutch to newer members in the URPG so that they can play on an equal playing field as older members. With only all-moves, I don't think it would be too abuseable; with all-mons/all-moves, however, I think the need for obtaining Pokemon would be moot for a lot of casual battles.

 

Love this thread and the ideas!

Daily reward of 500 is so simple, yet great encouragement to at least pop in and check what's happening every other day if you can't manage every day, or give that final push to stick around every day! This would probably work best as like an ongoing thread where people collect following a timezone but it could also even be an AIM/Skype chat where people simply post they're claiming. This brings activity to the messengers (the heart of the community) and isn't a lot more work as far as I can see. Either way is great though imo!

Sim battles are always something I wanted. Usually the counter-argument is "you can do that still if you can find a willing ref but no one gets paid". But sometime's you want to just try out new things and abilities and moves without committing to purchases. To be honest, I don't even really see the need to limit the amount of these provided the pay is lower.

Also, something I've been thinking lately would be a change to basics. Halfing the pay given for basics wins and losses, but in return lowering the prices of some of the higher end TMs and individually pricing MTs. Not sure how people feel about this though ;o

 

Response to Elysia's most recent post:

If you build a team, you also have to build each Pokemon on the team. In my opinion, restricting Sim Battles so you can only use the Pokemon you have would limit anyone's ability to use it to plan future battle strategies. Also, I fail to see any great benefits if we institute Sim Battles, but restrict them in this way that you suggest, Elysia. Sim Battles should be used as a way to plan for the future, and lessening your ability to use them for that sort of defeats their purpose.

Also, Sim Battles should be regarded as a tool to introduce new URPGers to the battle mechanics here. Let's be honest, battles here are REALLY weird compared to video game Pokemon battles, and it's hard to adjust to them sometimes. As a beginning URPGer, the first battles you'll do are the basic battles to level up your Pokemon, but that alone doesn't really show you all that a URPG battle is. You need a full team of strong Pokemon to really experience that. Sim Battles would let newer players taste what they could achieve if they persist in their URPG endeavours, and also help them achieve greater things by helping them plan out things.

These are my thoughts. I am interested in yours. Thank you all for your discussion. I feel like the other two topics I began this thread talking about have been waylaid by Sim Battles.. That is fine. Maybe I'll start up separate threads for each idea if anyone still wants to discuss them. Anyway, that's it for now. Cheers!