UPNetwork  

Go Back   UPNetwork > Independent Forums > Fizzy Bubbles > FB Time Out

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 01-20-2024, 06:03 PM   #1
Lil'twick
Insanity
 
Lil'twick's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Fizzy Bubbles
Posts: 5,751
Send a message via Skype™ to Lil'twick
Shroomish Zone Submission Thread!

HEY! YOU! Do you have a cool and interesting idea for a new zone? Post it here!

*Notice: Posting your zone here gives all current and future ZAs permission to use this zone if they so choose. Zones will go through a standard review process before going to live, so there may be edits made to the zone in order for it to fit Fizzy Bubbles.
__________________


I fill my lungs with everything
You want someone that I can't be
You say it's insanity, but
I say that's my life

Fizzy Bubbles
Lil'twick is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-14-2024, 10:17 PM   #2
Emi
Barghest Barghest Barghe-
 
Emi's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 12,068
Send a message via Skype™ to Emi
The Shifting Sands: The Desert Zone

While some scholars and historians debate on whether The Shifting Sands is a part of Fizzytopia proper despite its autonomous status from the region as a whole, it hasn't stopped this large island fairly close to the Minnao Islands from being a popular destination for both your casual tourists and serious explorers and adventurers. The large island is easily accessible by a regular ferry that runs every couple of days from the port town of Reefstep back to the Minnao Islands, but The Shifting Sands is infamous for being very difficult to reach with other methods, as well as being very difficult to dive into the center of. While the town of Reefstep is often considered very welcoming, the farther one travels in the island, the starker and more dangerous the terrain becomes, and more it will test the skills of adventurers and explorers looking for it to give up its secrets.

Reefstep (Please Reply in Aqua)
(Danger Level: Very Low)

Reefstep is the major port town on the southern coast of The Shifting Sands, and remains both its primary access point and its most important settlement on the island. Among adventurers, Reefstep is known for its very friendly atmosphere and thriving access to goods. Reefstep is run by its governor, Cecilia Argent, who works to maintain Reefstep as an accessible and friendly place while funding expeditions into the center of the island. Adventurers who come to Reefstep can appreciate the general lack of crime and danger and freely explore its streets and listen to interesting gossip. This makes Reefstep for many people a great place to start their adventure in The Shifting Sands, especially for newer adventurers.

Experienced adventurers may wish to talk with Governor Argent. While she will be very welcoming to adventures of all kinds, she might have some work lined up for adventures who can prove their strength to her. Even if she doesn't, she can point you towards somewhere else on the island where something interesting or happening, or might even challenge you to a Pokemon battle just to pass the time.

Reefstep Docks
(Danger Level: Low to Moderately High)

The Reefstep Docks are a vital lifeline for the town and the entire reason for its existence in the first place. There is a wide and sophisticated system of docks to allow for both local, smaller boats and larger boats carrying cargo to easily dock and sail from the port town. There are also a lot of different services trainers can make use of while at the docks, with the most common being guide boats. Reefstep regulations prevent the use of Pokemon travel without the accompaniment of licensed boat, due to the fact that the rocky seas around The Shifting Sands can suddenly turn dangerous from freak storms and high wave activity. Trainers can take small boats that will allow them to leisurely fish for oceanic Pokemon, high specialized guides who can take them to various interesting natural formations around the perimeter of the island, or even book one of the special diving tours. A variety of shipwrecks from different ships attempting to reach The Shifting Sands over the last 1500 years can be found on the ocean floor around the island, but care must be taken to avoid the often aggressive Pokemon that accompany these wrecks if they're looking for treasure.

Reefstep Marketplace
(Danger Level: Very Low)

The Reefstep Marketplace is the beating heart of Reefstep, a massive sprawling open area with a lot of booths, mobile stores, and open air bazarres laid out. Many adventurers believe that if you look hard enough, you can find basically anything money could possibly buy in the Reefstep Marketplace. While this is likely not true, there are often a wide variety of goods being sold at any one time, although adventurers are advised to have a discerning eye. Many shopkeepers will attempt to get you to buy cheap souvenirs at a massive mark-up, hoping that a naive tourist will not be able to tell the difference. Sometimes though, if you are very lucky, you can find something truly special being sold here.

The Marketplace also functions as Reefstep's public square, so often shops and boots will be clustered around areas of public activity, such as dances or shows or even on occasion festivals. The Marketplace remains one of the best places to get caught up on rumors and gossip, and also to potentially join expedition bands going deeper into the desert who might be looking for trainers to act as bodyguards for their caravans.


The Shrublands (Please Reply in darkorange)
(Danger Level: Low)

The Shrublands represent a border zone, where the tamed civilization of Reefstep begins to transform into the harsh and unforgiving landscape of the Shifting Sands. The Shrublands get the most of the rain from the island's freak storms, and hence while nothing approaching a forest or a grassland, is still lush and vibrant with a wide variety of sturdy plant life. The Shrublands also boasts the widest variety of Pokemon available on the island, since its the most hospitable habitat. It is an easy to navigate and pretty safe area for explorers, since there are a lot of man-made trails to follow and much of the stronger Pokemon tend to avoid the area because of Reefstep's ranger operations. However, those who go off the beaten trail can find themselves in some danger, as there are some steep cliffs that can be dangerous to traverse and some stronger Pokemon around the lesser watched areas.

While most of the trails are easy to navigate, the Shrublands do offer some more physically rigorous options as well. One very popular trail involves a fair amount of rock climbing and traversal of rocky terrain, but allows the adventurer a sight of beautiful natural red sandstone formation, which in old local lore is called "The Hollow of the Fallen God" due to its almost humanoid shape. While it remains a very popular sightseeing site, exploration of the formation is forbidden without permission from the Governor, a rule that has been in place for over 500 years and has been strictly enforced despite the initial reasons for the restriction being lost to time.


The Shocklands (Please Reply in Yellow)
(Danger Level: Moderate)

The Shocklands are to many people on Reefstep where the desert truly begins. A wide, flat plain covered in a shiny layer of salt crust, The Shocklands hold an important spiritual connection to the first settlers to the island. In their mythology, the Shocklands were a settlement that blasphemed a god of thunder, and were punished by the god sending down lightning bolts, desecrating the land and making it uninhabitable. It's pretty widely known now how salt flats are formed, and The Shocklands are a quite large example of them. This is the first area where guides will recommend you bring a lot of water if you want to explore, as there is a lack of natural shade on the Shocklands and the temperature tends to climb very quickly during the day. This is a very common place to see Pokemon races, as the smoothed out terrain of the race track makes it very easy for Pokemon to compare against each other at top speeds.

Due to The Shocklands unique conditions, this is a place where a wide variety of Rock-type shows up. While it is pretty common to see large groups of Nacli, Naclstack, and Garganacl, many other Rock-type Pokemon will come here to enjoy the moisture absorbing salt. Many Fire and Ground-type Pokemon come here for a similar reason, and many Fire-type Pokemon can be found burning the salt with their flames in order to produce brightly colored jets of flame.


The Megalith Ruins (Please Reply in firebrick)
(Danger Level: Moderate to High)

The Megalith Ruins are aptly named because of the numerous large stone structures that both sit on the sandy desert floor and jut out of it. Around the perimeter of the area there are a number of imposing monoliths carved out of red sandstone, covered in a hieroglyphic language no one has been able to translate as of yet. Due to this, it is unknown what the anthropological importance of this site was, especially given the lack of any structures on the surface that would indicate human habitation. Even more confusing is that, due to the high density of sandstorms in the area and the deep sand layer covering the ruins, new structures are discovered while others are buried. Some caves have even been found which contain some stone tools, but exploring them is dangerous, because a sandstorm can quickly mean an adventurer risks being buried in.

However, by chance, an explorer two years reported falling into the sand after hearing a heavy cracking noise, and falling into a large, ancient, underground complex. While unable to document any evidence thanks to his camera being broken in the fall, it has become a topic of hot interest, and many explorers have combed the area looking for the caved-in entrance.


The Shifting Sands (Please Reply in sandybrown)
(Danger Level: High to Extremely High)

It surprises a lot of first time visitors that the island is actually named after its defining feature: the Shifting Sands. A massive desert area that covers almost the entire central region of the island, and hypothesized to extend further back, it is a huge natural barrier to exploration of the rest of the island, unable to be conquered in the last 1500 years. While entering the Shifting Sands would give the impression it is simply a vast, sandy desert full of sand dunes, the truth is more interesting, and for many former adventurers, terrifying. It is unknown what scientific phenomenon causes the effects, but travelers to the Shifting Sands seem to be completely unable to keep their bearings, and report back seeing extraordinary sights. Some have hypothesized that the Shifting Sands could have been the aftermath of some cataclysmic event in history, such as one between certain legendary Pokemon, and that it has resulted in a region where space itself begins to break down.

Every adventurer seemingly comes back with a different tale, and there are not that many who are capable of making it into the Shifting Sands and coming back out alive. One 200 years ago reported seeing massive, glowing pink rocks seemingly levitating in space. Another adventurer reported seeing the ruins of a modern looking city, half buried in the sand. Towers spanning endless into the sky, a large depression in the earth filled with giant metal pieces and the stench of oil, a pyramid that would transform into a mechanized robot are among the tall tales reported by those who come back. None of these have been verified, however, since no one has seemed to be able to return to them. The majority of people who make it that far do have one consistent report: of a beautiful oasis, before finding themselves outside of the Shifting Sands, unable to remember what happened.

Governor Argent has been working on funding scientific expedition teams to explore the Shifting Sands, hoping that small groups lead by a powerful trainer will be able to plump its depths, but nothing is stopping intrepid adventurers from making the journey themselves. Nothing except the fear of the unknown.

Confirmed Areas
Oasis of Rebuff

A large, almost picturesque location of a big oasis in the desert, full of water and lush plantlife. This is where seemingly the majority of people who go to the Shifting Sands end up, although it is not confirmed as to why it happens. Local superstition suggests it is the Sands itself rejecting the explorer. While the grand majority of explorers do not remember what ended up happening after they got to the oasis, except that they were able to leave with a large quantity of stored water, some artists have painted dreams they've had of the place after they left. Of the three dream paintings, two of them depict a beautiful woman rising out of the water, while the third one hasn't been viewed, being locked away in Governor Argent's estate.

Vision Document
Spoiler: show
Hello everyone! I'm writing this vision document in order to explain what I'm thinking about and what my goals were when creating this zone, in part because I like to talk about the things I create and in part because someone else might run this zone in the future. So to start, uh, why this. Well, Fizzy Bubbles has kind of lacked a proper desert area for a very long time. While the Mystical Realm does have a desert subzone, I wanted to go for a bit more of a grounded take on a desert area. I wanted The Shifting Sands to not only have an interesting hook in the namesake sub area but also feel like an actual desert space. This is a place you go to if you want to explore the desert, was the thinking.

Two big goals defined this zone for me. The first was that I wanted it to feel like a real space, something you could easily picture and imagine, without burdening the zone with too much lore that wasn't relevant. This is partly why the zone doesn't have any fluff areas to it: I wanted to avoid any subzones that felt tacked on for diversity's sake. I wanted each location to make sense as a place that could reasonable exist. The second is that I wanted each zone to have a purpose and a hook. Each place needs a reason for you to go there, either because it is a very unique location that hasn't been done before or because there's something there that is interesting and opens up possibilities.

New Mechanic: Danger Level

You're probably wondering what the fuck the danger level stuff means, and my intention here is to give an idea of how difficult an area is meant to be, and through that, an idea of how prepared you are going to have to be in order to adventure here comfortably and safely. This is a new idea as I'm trying to find ways to communicate stuff in zones, and this scale isn't really concrete yet, but I will define the terms below as I conceived them.

Spoiler: show
Very Low: A location that is quite safe and would be comfortable to adventure in for any character, no matter their Pokemon. While this doesn't exclude the possibility of a stronger trainer running into more trouble, it should be more the norm that adventures are low stakes.

Low: A location that is normally safe, but might have some danger lurking for those who are willing to look for it. Also generally safe for any character to adventure in, but some adventures might be a little harder.

Moderate: A location that is somewhat dangerous, either due to environmental conditions or due to higher level Pokemon. While not every adventure needs to be dangerous, trainers should come prepared with some mid-level Pokemon should they run into complications.

Moderately High: Dangerous enough that trainers should adequately prepare for their adventure and bring reasonably strong Pokemon. In this zone, this is used for the sunken shipwreck areas of the Reefstep Docks.

High: A quite dangerous area, often because of environmental hazards and strong Pokemon. Trainers coming here should bring some strong Pokemon in order to protect themselves, and should expect some challenging adventures.

Extremely High: Areas that are very dangerous and require not only an incredible amount of preparation, but also a very high level squad of Pokemon to reasonably navigate. Adventures in these areas will be both difficult and dangerous, and should not be taken lightly.


Reefstep: I wanted to make sure I had some kind of hub area to the zone, a very solid grounding point that allowed people either a place to start their adventures or have a place to come back to. Reefstep is the largest of the zones because I was looking to capture what it was like as a town, and also to give ideas as to the type of things you could do while you're here. The two subareas, the only ones out of the subzones, are meant to highlight the two biggest and defining places of Reefstep, while expanding what one could do here. In particular, part of my goal for the Marketplace was that updators could not only use it as a way to help updatees get ready for an adventure, but use it as a way to suggest opportunities to updatees on where to go.

I don't want Reefstep to be a mandatory place to go, however. You aren't required to start your adventure in Reefstep. But I wanted it as an option if someone wanted to adventure here but wasn't really sure where they wanted to go yet, or if they just wanted to explore a neat town.

The Shrublands: This one could maybe do with a little more description but this area is inspired by some of the desert areas in the American Southwest, not quite the Sahara or the Atacama, but a location with a wide variety of plant and animal life due to getting some rainfall. It is intended to be an area that is pretty easy to explore and good for catching Pokemon for newer players to dip their toes into. The red sandstone formation was added in order to potentially provide an interesting place to explore later on.

The Shocklands: I really, really loved the idea of having a subzone that was a huge salt pan. They're awesome natural formations and there is really nothing quite like them in Fizzy Bubbles. I also wanted to make sure there was something fun to do here, and salt flats are well known for being places where races are held, so I included that as well.

The Megalith Ruins: I wanted to work on the idea of the buried ruins trope, while also working to provide this area its own unique flair. This is at least partially inspired by the Unown event (lol), but I wanted it to be a place that felt mysterious in a way people are really familiar with. People love long lost civilizations, especially ones that are really quite odd. Maybe in time the underground complex will become a subarea of its own, but it might take some adventures for that to happen!

The Shifting Sands: Alright spooky enjoyers is time for you court mandated fucking SPOOKY bit

Okay so the intent isn't really spooky, but I wanted to court a bit of a supernatural vibe. Playing around with the ideas of getting lost and of mirages leading to a weird phenomenon where people end up at bizarre places they never expected is intended to give this area a lot of depth. I don't want to pull back the curtain quite yet on my plans for this area, but the idea here is that choosing to adventure here means you are not really going to be sure where your adventure is even going to end up. Rather than make that the entire zone, I made it opt in and I made it clear that it was a dangerous area to make sure that people didn't just come in with their level 15 Taillow.

The intent with the Oasis is that if someone shows up to the Sands and they aren't taking the zone seriously, they'll end up at the Oasis and have a smaller adventure there before being spit back out.
Emi is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Lower Navigation
Go Back   UPNetwork > Independent Forums > Fizzy Bubbles > FB Time Out


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:12 AM.


Design By: Miner Skinz.com
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.