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Old 05-01-2017, 05:42 PM   #1
Jerichi
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Diancie FB's Core Philosophy

Having read some of the threads and proposals, I've noticed something that I think is worth discussing in detail: there does not seem to be a lot of clear consensus on what FB's core philosophy should be moving forward. What I mean by core philosophy is basically the kind of game you want FB to be once everything is said and done. When you have a new player come into the game, what do you want them to see? How do you expect the average player to spend their time? I think there are a handful of really essential, basic questions about FB's core game design philosophy that could use some focused answers from the community, and once those answers are found, they will in turn answer a number of questions on more specific elements of the game and how to handle them.
  • What should FB's primary focus be (zone RP, character building, collecting/team building, free RP, group RP, etc.)?
  • How quickly do you want players to be able to progress?
  • How significantly should assets (coins/Pokedollars/candies, items, Pokémon, etc.) influence the experience (i.e. should a newbie with a starter and one other Pokémon have a significantly different experience from a seasoned vet)?
  • Connected to the last two questions, how easy do you want to make acquiring assets? What should an "average income" be? How should this income be gained?
  • What kind of RP do you want to prioritize (Updator-style RP, free/collaborative RP, individual writing)?
  • How do you want Pokémon to be obtained? Which kind of Pokémon should be obtainable? How easily are Pokémon obtained (both in general and specific Pokémon)?
  • How much time do you want an average member to spend in FB? How much time of that is RPing? Participating in shops? Doing community tasks?
  • What is the ultimate goal of FB (outside of having fun, obviously)? What is the experience we are looking to achieve?
  • What do you personally want from FB?

I know a lot of these seem basic and/or obvious but these are all important considerations that need to be made when designing a game. It's all well and good to tinker with individual systems and talk about what you want particular elements to be like, but without a unified vision for the game, we're likely to end up with a hodgepodge instead of a well-oiled machine.
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Old 05-02-2017, 01:38 PM   #2
Emi
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I may not be able to provide very detailed answers because its hard for me to focus, but I think that I can still provide something satisfactory.

>What should FB's primary focus be (zone RP, character building, collecting/team building, free RP, group RP, etc.)?

FB's primary focus should be RPing in zones. It's always been, in my opinion, what the core of the FB experience should be: going into a zone and having an adventure. Stuff like team building and character building happen as a result of it, and free RP, while good and great to encourage, isn't something that should be held over zone RP. This is why Fizzy Bubbles has suffered, atrophied, and been on life support for the last few years: zone RP was never made the focus of the game, despite the fact that it was supposed to be, hell, it was actively suppressed, and Fizzy Bubbles was never able to be alive as an RP.

If zone RP is not the focus of the game, we're going to face the same issues.

>How quickly do you want players to be able to progress?

This is always a difficult question, but especially in a game like this. Progression is less of a factor, but one thing is certain: people should not be progressing slowly. When people progress slowly, that leads to stagnation and discontent. When the concern is about people progressing too quickly, I'm not sure that will be an issue. I think people will progress as quickly as they feel is comfortable. If someone wants to be more of a collector, I don't believe that is an issue. If someone wants to build their team more slowly in order to develop their character more, I think that is also fine. But we should progress at a pace which makes people happy and content.

>How significantly should assets (coins/Pokedollars/candies, items, Pokémon, etc.) influence the experience (i.e. should a newbie with a starter and one other Pokémon have a significantly different experience from a seasoned vet)?

If you look at a traditional RPG, for example let's say Final Fantasy I, as one gets stronger and progresses through the game, the more difficult the game gets. Initially, you're fighting mook enemies like goblins or wolves. At the final dungeon, you're facing massive worms, dragons, and a final boss who barrages you with widespread elemental attacks. The game should adapt to how strong the player is. If it doesn't, you suffer from the issue that older, more experienced players have adventures they feel are stale and unchallenging. In terms of adventures, its entirely possible that a new person may have a significantly different adventure than a more experienced one. Would you send a Level 1 party in FF1 to fight Chaos (ignoring the low level challenge runs that people do because they're insane)? No of course not. But we need to strive that, even though the adventures will be different, that they are fulfilling and exciting to both the newer and older players.

>Connected to the last two questions, how easy do you want to make acquiring assets? What should an "average income" be? How should this income be gained?

Acquiring assets should be something you work for, but not be extremely challenging. If someone wants a Fire Stone, for instance, they shouldn't just be handed it like the previous SoaT store did. This doesn't mean they should have to proceed through five different adventures to restore their small shard into a Fire Stone. It may take an adventure or two, but people shouldn't be waiting for a long time to get the stuff they want. That was an issue with old FB. Adventuring never really gave you what you wanted. You wanted stones? You used the Shop of all Trades, not zones. You wanted a Spiritomb? You went to the Egg House or the Coins for Prizes shop, you didn't look for it in a zone.

"Average income" is a bit of a misnomer in my opinion, but in my opinion, the income one makes should basically be limited to the "vital shops", those being the Daycare and the Move Tutor, and other things should be worked for. Adventure rewards are a different story, but I feel if you finish an adventure, you should be adequately rewarded for it. We want people, preferably, not only working to complete their adventures but also to adventure in multiple places.

>What kind of RP do you want to prioritize (Updator-style RP, free/collaborative RP, individual writing)?

Out of these three kinds of RP, the one that is the least important is individual writing. Individual writing, such as the Visionary Glade, are nice and shouldn't be discouraged. Sometimes you need to develop something and want to expand it without having to wait for other people, or you want to get really in-depth. That's great and cool, and we all love reading it. However, its RP that doesn't really involve anyone else, so in my opinion, it shouldn't be prioritized.

When it comes to free / collab RP, its one of the things I really enjoy and give it the credit of basically keeping this RP alive. When the zones weren't open, when there wasn't any place to officially RP, we the memes RPd in Secret Bases, in the Bar, in the Nightclub, and in other places we call free RP. I don't believe that this takes anything away from zone RP, and in fact offers a great space for members to interact and RP with each other, which is something that zones often lack. I'm open to free RP, open to new free RP zone areas, and like the idea of giving everyone a Secret Base to encourage this. However, I feel Zone RP is still more important than this.

(Obviously, since I feel that zone RP should be the focus of the game, it should be more prioritized.)

>How do you want Pokémon to be obtained? Which kind of Pokémon should be obtainable? How easily are Pokémon obtained (both in general and specific Pokémon)?

Pokemon, in my opinion, should be primarily obtained through adventuring in zones. This is usually by far the biggest incentive one can offer in Fizzy Bubbles. People want to build their teams, and they want to build them with the Pokemon they want. Historically though, this has never been the primary way one got Pokemon in Fizzy Bubbles. The Egg House has been the biggest source for years, and years, and years. I want to look for ways to tilt the scales back to RP.

Pretty much every kind of Pokemon should be obtainable, except legends in my opinion. Diversity in Pokemon is the greatest thing I think this RP can achieve. There are going to be some Pokemon that should be rarer than others, but not many. Some Pokemon, like Spiritomb, have had a consistent basis for being rare and hard to get. But other than these specific examples, I think that Pokemon should not be seriously rarity gated. Nobody wants to hatch twelve Numel just so they can get a Rare Pokemon, and nobody wants a rarer Pokemon like Eevee or Pikachu coming up once or twice in a lifetime and sparking a fierce bidding war.

>How much time do you want an average member to spend in FB? How much time of that is RPing? Participating in shops? Doing community tasks?

FB should be something that people participate in regularly. I'm not going to say something like once a day because I'm cautious, but it should at least be a couple-few times a week. Of that, most of that time should be done RPing, whether that's replying to an adventure, updating in a zone, or free RP. Sop participation should be the thing that takes the least amount of time. "Monday chores" were as much of a meme as they were a real, tedious issue. Realistically, we want people to not spend nearly as much time in shops as they were before.

Community tasks is a weird question and I'm assuming you mean stuff like updating or being a zone admin, but that's a difficult thing to quantify in my opinion. Realistically, we have people putting enough time into this to keep the game running, but what that means in terms of time spent, I don't really know.

>What is the ultimate goal of FB (outside of having fun, obviously)? What is the experience we are looking to achieve?

Adventure. Enjoyment. Friendship. Simply put, what I want to achieve is a game in which people can have a wide series of adventures, from the mundane to the extravagant and the supernatural, have fun while doing it and feel like FB is a good use of their time, and to bond with the community and make friends. That's the ultimate goal of FB, and the one that has been continually lost for years under Tess.

>What do you personally want from FB?

I want a well developed team of Pokemon that I can use to play the game enjoyably. I want to have the experiences I had wanted when I first joined. I want the ultimate goal, and I want to work to make that ultimate goal a reality.
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Old 06-07-2017, 04:49 PM   #3
Whimsy
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Ok, I apologise for not fully answering the questions in the opening post but I decided I'd try to say something here.

ABL made me realise that FB is more of a distraction tool to me - a means to avoid the stresses of doing the work I should be doing. And yes, I do feel a little guilty about that - but knowing this has made me realise what I want and/or like about FB.

You see, FB to me has always been an escape - a wild ride adventure where anything and everything can happen. Where I can let loose and do crazy fun things with people. There's a reason I've RPed stupid things like setting up a massive bar fight, blowing up a graveyard and sending everyone into the dark recesses of my Original!Panpour's mind - because I could, and because people would often enjoy the craziness that ensued. That's what made it so fun. That's why I've been so liberal on points like allowing legendaries and free pokemon - because I don't care about the logic behind it all. When I said "If I become the shop owner for the Breeding Centre I'm going to have Arceus pop up every so often while he's high as a kite for the fun of it", I meant it.

That's what FB is for me. It's a place where I'm free to go crazy and do the impossible when I feel stressed and trapped by reality. Rules and Logic be damned. I know this sounds selfish, and I'm sorry.

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