Audi famam illius - IMPORTANT GAME DISCUSSION

[mansionstaff]

Smash Academy has, for about seven years, been known as a school-setting game. The mods have discussed extensively options for the game's future and what directions it can go in to reflect its current state. We would like to introduce that to you and get your feedback. The pathway Smash Academy can take, is ultimately up to the playerbase, so be honest about what you want and what you think would hold your interest.

As Smash Academy ages, it is evident that it is losing focus on the things that defined it a 'school setting' to begin with. Class logs have become less frequently utilized, we're missing social cliques (jocks versus band geeks, for example), and other 'school' elements like the student council and overall feel of an educational institute. Sometimes there is difficulty incorporating certain "character types" easily into a school setting. Consequently, we're proposing moving said focus away from a school atmosphere and onto something new.

Introducing Smash Manor / Chateau / Mansion / etc.
We propose the concept of an excessively large mansion on the floating island. As you might recall, the Isle of the Ancients was introduced late summer 2014 and has been present since. By doing this, we can continue to hold many of the very popular events like dances, festivals, dormitory logs, blind dates, and kissing / memory mistletoe just as they have been. We would be eliminating events such as graduation and prom, but can easily substitute other appropriate celebrations in their place.



This does not mean we would outright eliminate the academy on the ground. We could leave that present and people looking to satisfy the occasional urge for school antics would be able to do so in either an entirely new and additional dressing room, or in the one we are currently using (which might be better in the long run).

Getting to FDC and its various shops, the contest hall, the bars, and so on, could potentially be relocated to a nearby floating island and become convenient for characters to reach, whereas traveling to the academy itself on the ground would be more difficult (in an effort to more effectively shift our focus off of a school setting).

Topics of Discussion

• Questions: what it says on the tin.
• State of the Mansion: how the mansion and living arrangements could be.
• A Whole New World: how the surrounding area and game environment could be.
• Event & Plot Lotteries: player submitted events (ala the game plotting thread in personals, only better organized).
• Challenge Mode: introducing new ways to spice up your rp, and get rewards and perks for it.
• Game Names: the name of the game is important!

Take some time to think about where you want to see Smash Academy go in the future years. Let us know how you want the game to evolve and change.

Comments

[awakeningwill]

Cuz mods said it was okay for people to make their own top levels for general thoughts and such, here goes?

Forewarning that I have never played at any other game, so I really have no frame of reference for how anything works anywhere else. That said, reading all the ideas did have me really excited. The premise sounds really cool, and the community does need to get rejuvenated.

I still feel really hesitant though, mostly because keeping memories + removing the school setting complicates the motivations of a lot of characters for being around. And I don't really have an interest in playing a jamjar. Not to mention I'd have to completely retool a lot of planned character development if I wanted to keep the same dudes, if I could even justify it at all. In the end, it feels like if I played at this new setting, it'd have to be with a completely fresh slate - at which point, it might as well be a pure reboot for me. Like, the change is potentially good for players who have characters that struggle with a reason to stay, but it feels like it messes up a lot of the characters who just want to be at a school.

Like, I'd personally feel more comfortable if there was a school setting option attached to the game officially, partially for smoothing over the transition and also just because... I dunno, having the school be purely dressing room flavour feels like it takes away the legitimacy of what happens in terms of continuity? It could just be a permanent portal to the school and whatever happens there is more or less treated like an offworld log or something. I know that moving away from the school as a setting is important to transition the overall game, but it makes me really anxious after investing so much in it. Plus, I've always liked jobs being imposed on certain characters. I guess cuz it gives them a general thing for them to do that's not purely self-driven adventure mode.

I guess overall I just feel really nervous. It feels like I'm going to need to pick out a whole new roster - I don't have that many muses to begin with, and I survive very poorly in PSL if I need to drop existing characters that I'm still invested in. Anyway, I guess those are my personal thoughts. I'll keep trying to digest all this.

[rivalsolarbeam]

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around how I feel about a lot of things, so I won't be adding anything yet, but all of this feels pretty close to some of the thoughts I can identify presently.

[icequeen_aran]

I feel you on the investment bit which is why we are leaving it open if players want to take their development with them to a new setting, or use this as an easy opportunity to reboot. It's a lot to think about with your character's personal development vs the game's development at a whole.

Personally I'm not in favor of a complete jamjar. It's over-saturated and done to death in other games. It's limiting. It's kind of boring. I like the flexibility of a nexus environment though I can also see the merits of somehow forcing a character to stick around for the sake of trying to keep them more IC, even if temporarily. Or "temporarily". I think there's a good balance to be struck somewhere, somehow.

I can still see ways of imposing jobs on characters to give them something to do, just they may not be school-orientated as much. A huge mansion would still need a security patrol to protect against both internal and external threats. It would still need electrically and mechanically talented types to keep lights on and air conditioning/heating going. It would still have gardens that need tending. It would still need people who know how to cook and serve food, etc.

It'd be neat to see jobs actually that depend on each other more, actually. Blood Falcon sucks at tending the gardens and so everyone doesn't have x vegetable to eat this week. The cooks have to figure out a solution or everyone starves. What's everyone going to do? Go beat him up, eat him instead, go scavenging on a nearby island for vegetables? (plant island is very perilous, try flower island) Go world hopping? Escargo express? (Who's paying)? Who's going to be put in charge of tending gardens now?

Might require some proactive sorts of organization (probably a lot, actually), or at least frequent communication between relevant and involvement players, but it might help bring out everyone's skill sets into practical use, in a more engaging way a "classroom" couldn't really utilize as well (or hasn't in a very very long time, I feel).

[rivalrockwrecker]

I hope you don't mind a non-current jumping in on the thread here, I'll delete if you want to keep it just current players opinions in this area, just let me know.

I wanted to run off of "...having the school be purely dressing room flavour feels like it takes away the legitimacy of what happens in terms of continuity?" It's a point that really hit me as well when I read it. If people are keeping their character continuity, but now anything that happens at a school setting is 'Non-Canon,' then it feels like anything that happened at a school setting previously is less important, or less 'canon' somehow. Was there a reason the mods chose "School is not DR" instead of "What if the school is over in that corner, but the focus is on this big fancy mansion"? Was it an attempt to keep the game from being too unfocused?

Like I said on Plurk, I really like the idea overall, and it opens up a lot of new opportunities, I am just beign nosy and curious.

[icequeen_aran]

Don't mind! It's nice to see all kinds of opinions and get a picture on all sides.

At risk of sounding blunt, there's no logical reason why it would be "less important" or "less canon". Developments are entirely what the players make of them.

To give a personal example I've been playing Samus for an incredibly long time here--years--with lots of development with her character continuity. Just because Snake isn't here anymore doesn't mean his interactions with her are suddenly invalid or didn't matter, or that I didn't build off of them. They had an impact on her and are a testament to where she's come to be now.

We're electing to have the option of school setting in the DR to, yes, keep the game more focused on a direction it already seems to be going anyway. Class logs are rarely posted, or get little comments. Who ever talks about homework on the network or who they're going to ask out to prom anymore? Not to go on and on, but it just doesn't feel like much of a a "school" atmosphere anymore, and the game is noticeably stagnating as a result.

I also see a lot of concerns for characters that "come here for the education" however and we will keep this in mind, whether it's fostering some kind of informal academia in the mansion or something like that. Maybe it wouldn't be exactly the same--maybe instead of sitting in desks characters are sitting on logs around a campfire on some floating island while an elder type passes Important Life Knowledge--but it could provide a similar enough niche that characters are still getting the most out of their smashing education. There would still be a communal atmosphere with rules and guidelines for delinquent characters to toe not unlike how they would in a classroom. Something like that maybe.

alternatively everyone suddenly graduated and was thrust into the "real world", congrats, you're all adults now

After this discussion post simmers for a bit and everyone works out their thoughts and feelings we could throw a poll up to help refine everything in tickybox flavor.

[awakeningwill]

I agree that in terms of activity, the focus on purely 'school' elements have stagnated, and it shouldn't be a main focus anymore. I guess my concern mostly has a lot to do with the transitioning. I can see how the school remaining might undermine the new direction if the game completely commits to Adventure Mode, which is why the DR was proposed. But it kinda feels strange and forced if the characters that came for formal schooling follow the community into the floating mansion, but their reason for being around (if players don't want to commit to having their character jamjarred) is separated from the main game, or they have to settle for replacement tutoring.

DR implies that, say, the stuff that gets threaded there doesn't count for AC, and it could potentially be confusing if you need to look up character history anywhere other than the network or logs. I suppose I don't see the harm in having the school remain as a background element of the new game, in the same way FDC is now. But yeah, polls and further discussion sound good.