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smash_ooc2015-03-16 09:34 pm
mansionstaff) wrote in smash_ooc2015-03-16 09:34 pm
Entry tags:
Audi famam illius - IMPORTANT GAME DISCUSSION
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
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.
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.
QUESTIONS?
Nothing is set in stone!
STATE OF THE MANSION
Alternatively, characters could just have a new, shiny mansion to live in. Bring your stuffed animals and everything else you need or want. But there would still be locked doors, corridors, and other mysteries that could be solved and accessed over time.
The movement of the academy's network to the island is also something to talk about. In the academy, we have the technology needed for having a network community. Such a luxury might not be available right off to bat by moving to the island in the sky. What would you do if there's no network at all? Or we can just say the mansion has access to wifi and everyone still can use the network as they have been. (Maybe certain events and circumstances temporarily knock it out as applicable.) Or we can use magical devices constructed by Crazy Hand to keep in contact (meaning they could be partially unreliable).
How about housing arrangements? Shared rooms? Single rooms? "Team" floors? Themed floors? Shared chores? Robots or magic handwaving that takes care of housekeeping?
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A WHOLE NEW WORLD
The floating island could move physically to an entirely different location through slow levitation, warp bubbles, portals, etc. Maybe it could even float above Kanto or on another planet for a while. Events would equally be opt-in/opt-out, or may affect only a secluded part of the island. The sky is the limit (ha ha).
Would you prefer to have FDC tag along on a nearby island, or maybe play more with the concepts of "working together" to survive? Maybe outside supplies can only be ordered in via Escargo Express?
Something else to discuss is the very nature of the game itself. Currently, Smash Academy is defined as a nexus game with optional jam-jarring. Meaning, characters can freely leave Smash at any time and return to their home worlds, or be "stuck" here on the whim of their muns. While we enjoy that flexibility, sometimes it's difficult still to give certain characters motivation to stick around even if we do "force them". In addition, we currently we see a huge under-utilization of the mechanic of open world-hopping.
So what would be your "ideal" game? A full jamjar, where characters are mysteriously pulled to the island and can never leave? Where they are given the option to earn their exit through unlockables? Where they are given the option to earn their exit only after a certain amount of time passes or a personal quest has been fulfilled? Or would you prefer to still have Smash an open "nexus" styled game, where characters can freely come and go but have nothing realistically tethering them to the game (other than what you make of it)?
...Also thoughts on Loftwings...? Black Chocobos? Pokemon? Other wild colonies of flying mounts living on the island just waiting for some industrious characters to try and tame them?
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A NEW FANTASTIC POINT OF VIEW
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A DAZZLING PLACE I NEVER KNEEEEW
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Re: A WHOLE NEW WORLD
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EVENT & PLOT LOTTERIES
What do you think about a separate page to submit events and each month we'll run an "event/plot lottery" to pick out what we think can run?
CHALLENGE MODE
Players will anonymously submit challenges (example: thread out someone getting their arm stuck in a vending machine. thread out use of trophies gone wrong. thread out a smooch. match icons with someone five times in the same thread. three crack/not-serious tags. meet double-triple-quadruple the activity check requirements. post a meme in the ooc community. have your character make a gross misunderstanding about another character. subject them to a whacky transformation. goad captain falcon into punching you and live. discover a new floating island. get into a fight over what to name the new island. start a log with the letter "X" in the title, survive a great Excite Bike Migration, etc.) and once a month during personals/CR meme we'll compile and post a list of a group/block of challenges. Players will submit threads that meet the challenges and be rewarded with IC powers, or access to locked doors in the mansion, the ability to world-hop, travel back home, see a castmate, or something. WHO KNOWS. WHATEVER YOU COOL PERKS GUYS LIKE TO BE REWARDED WITH.
We could group unlockables & rewards like this: We may reasonably put lock-limits on either per player, per character, or per month to keep things fair/to manage pacing better, depending on how all this works out.
Once that group/block of challenges has been met, we'll make a new one and the process can start anew.
What do you think?
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Em here just lurking
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still Em
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GAME NAMES
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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.
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PREMISE
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