PMD: Stalkers - Feedback and Possible Sequel Discussion

[Suicune's Fire]

Size/Game Duration - By the end I felt like all the important stuff was being handled by people who got there first, like Chakra said, which made it less fun for me. Also the rapport system made it so that I had a positive rapport with only, like, two residents, which sucked. Well there were more than that, but some had already been interviewed. I feel like it went for a good amount of time. I think the worst thing is when it drags on and loses its spark, and I think this went for an appropriate time.

Themes - Other themes could certainly be utilised.

Doom Tracker - Like the others, I think it worked too slowly. At first it seemed to go quickly, and I think that was because we had no clues about the stalkers at the beginning. Which was great! It seemed like the Stalkers had the upper hand. But as we went on and found more items, then evidence, I think it should have sped up to increase the need for a solution (which could have pushed us to assassinate Koax instead of hold off for the ritual, which had little to no consequences even when Koax knew we knew her identity).

Puzzles/Difficulty - I loved the puzzles! Especially the actual jigsaw puzzles. xD All in all they were awesome. I loved the imagery used with the evidence, too, such as the creepy poems or Vam's diary entries (even if we never found them, haha).

Interviewing and Rapport System - I think it needs some work, but at the same time, I can understand how it's difficult to decide on positive or negative factors. It worked well, but could use work.

Possible new actions - Not too sure on this, but I liked the idea of protecting someone at night, following someone, or even surveying a place overnight, for instance. This would add danger, as there could be consequences involved for taking a poor action.

A third way to win? - Nah. I liked how it was!

Anything else? - I also think there could be a proper risk. For instance, getting an NPC killed because you went to a Stalker (who you didn't know was a Stalker) and said "Oh hey Vam, Prat thinks you murdered a bunch of people" and Vam goes "Oh how silly!" Then Prat winds up dead the following morning. Also risk to oneself; like Velocity was explaining, perhaps getting injured and being prevented from taking actions could be a good way to go.

I also found that it would be nicer if we could try to involve everyone in important actions, rather than whoever gets to it first, ESPECIALLY because of people's schedules and timezones. I felt like I did one significant thing (unlocking the windmill box) and a lot of players didn't get to do even that. I know this is fair game for everyone, but it would be nicer if there was something special that everyone could do (even if it's aside from taking an important action).

I think it would be really cool if, for something like this, time was a significant mechanic. That way, you could say something like "Day 1 is coming to a close; please submit your actions for tonight" and you could do things like survey a character, protect a character (from harm), venture out at night (for a purpose which would be predetermined), etc. However, sometimes actions could fail, or if you venture out at night, you could be targeted and injured or something. You wouldn't respond to those posts like you would an action such as interviewing, but, rather, it'd be a whole update after, say, 12 hours, regardless of whose action you're up to. The doom tracker could relate to this too. Let me elaborate on the time mechanic. Let's say that your responses work exactly as they did with this event:

Spoiler:

Interview Charles

Search the park

Search the volcano

Xanthe interviewed Charles

Day 1 is coming to a close. Please post your actions for Night 1 within 12 hours. <tag all participants>

Interview Anna

Night 1: Follow Charles

Speedy searched the park

Night 1 - Protect Anna from a Stalker

(12 hours later)

Xanthe followed Charles but he slept all night.

Eric protected Anna successfully.

Speedy didn't act.

Eric searched the volcano

Each player would have the opportunity to act, but they may choose not to, or they do nothing if they don't act. The time mechanic doesn't have to follow real-time days; one event day could be two real-time days, for instance. The doom tracker could work so that an NPC gets killed every x days, but then when it speeds up, two would be killed every x days, then three, etc. Hope that makes sense. xD

I also thought that it would be cool if next time, while searching places, the text could involve the player's physical attributes a little more. For instance, I think you used "walked" for me at one stage, but I was a misdreavus. xD I liked what you said about Viridian being able to slip through that abandoned place which was only possible because of her size. That was a good example. Seeing tiny little details about what pokemon each player is would be cool, is all I'm trying to say. XD


Overall it was amazing! :D A sequel would be wholeheartedly welcomed, and as you know, I'd love to help out. ;)

[Chibi Altaria]

This game was awesome! :D I'd just like to thank you, Neo, for doing such an epic job. I don't think anyone can beat you when it comes to RP stuff. xD

Game Duration
Okay! I do wish the game was a bit longer. I think we all got addicted and started hacking at it waaaaaay too fast. If there were fewer people it would have been alright. As it was, we had a couple of late newcomers and it was harder for them to catch up and join in when it finished so fast.

@Noblejanobii I'm pretty sure several times I suggested for someone to go and make a thread specifically for discussing theories and such, but no one ever did and we all stuck with the General Chat thread. xD

Themes
I'm with Emerald and totally up for a Sci-Fi theme for the next one! Or, yeah, something Halloween related or another horror is fine by me. If I'm honest, I love freaky stuff. The freakier, the better!

Doom Tracker
This was a little easy. I think we probably would have been fine with ten being the limit, instead of twenty. Or maybe the killings could be more frequent? Or have circumstantial killings? Like, if you know someone is evil and you go and interview them anyway, be prepared for the consequences! Or if you get something super wrong, kill someone as punishment. :p

Puzzles
I love puzzles! More puzzles! We probably could have used some harder ones, I think. Not like overly hard...I like Speedy's picross things. O: Or find-a-words, or something. And did I mention more?

Interview/Rapport System
This could probably use a bit of tweaking, imo. It was understandable that if two Pokemon shared a type they'd incur a bonus, but both super effective and not super effective types to have the same result seemed a little odd to me. I was vaguely reminded of the Paragon/Renegade system used in Mass Effect, and I was thinking that would help super effective/not very effective types to come into play. Where super effective types against the Pokemon being interviewed could be seen as a Renegade action, and not very effective types could be seen as a Paragon action. Otherwise it would be seen as Neutral. Bonuses of shared types and/or evolution stages could be applied over this. So for instance; Paragon, Positive. Or Renegade; Negative. Or something. The type of information revealed in the interview would vary based on which route was chosen. Also, the particular Pokemon being interviewed might respond better to one or the other. So even Pokemon with a not very effective typing could be more useful, in a Renegade situation. It's a little more intricate that way, but it could work well enough, I think!

New Actions
I'm with Velo. Maybe since (in this game) Mew had given us powers, we could have had some specific actions based on said powers? Such as an option to restrain a Pokemon once we'd found them out. Or use one of us to guard an NPC. Or the option to interview the townspeople at night -- which would obviously hold a higher risk.

Anything Else
Yeah, we need a higher risk factor. It was a bit too easy, in my opinion. For instance that trap Jeff walked into behind the Disorder Door could have knocked him out of play for a while, so others could have taken actions. If this is based in the PMD universe, I think adding certain kinds of traps into play would work nicely.

I agree also that it was rather "first come, first serve" with the important/main actions. Especially towards the end where a couple of people were getting in quick because of timezones and it just felt less fun. I'd get on and be like "Oh, that's already done" and I JUST had to catch up because I'd woken up. Perhaps it could be restricted so players only have access to a certain amount of "critical" actions so that everyone gets a turn. Maybe like...only a Pokemon under such and such height can crawl through a tunnel. Ooooor a large Pokemon is needed to open this heavy door. Someone with wings, or the ability to levitate, is required to cross this gap. And then tag everyone appropriate for said action. If they don't want to do it, then it can be a free-for-all. Have actions catered to everyone, and restrict them so we all get a turn.

Kinda adding to what Xanthe said, we could have some RNG component added to the actions. So you could effectively search an area and, if a dice was rolled and you got 50 or below, your search failed. To that end, maybe make important items have a higher RNG percentage? As in you have to roll 80 or above to get the item. But this depends, because we all know that RNG is a cruel *****. XD To make it easier, maybe just have places available to search both day and night. And certain items can only be found at a specific time.

[Suicune's Fire]

Kinda adding to what Xanthe said, we could have some RNG component added to the actions. So you could effectively search an area and, if a dice was rolled and you got 50 or below, your search failed. To that end, maybe make important items have a higher RNG percentage? As in you have to roll 80 or above to get the item. But this depends, because we all know that RNG is a cruel *****. XD To make it easier, maybe just have places available to search both day and night. And certain items can only be found at a specific time.

I actually was thinking RNG but forgot to add it in. The issue with RNG is that it can be a little unfair. And when things get too random, then it's based a lot less on skill, and more on luck. So in that case, maybe we could have something (reeeally simple, because overcomplicating everything would be too much for the GM) like a rank. You gain points that go toward the rank when you complete certain actions. The higher your rank, the higher the chance that the RNG will work in your favour. Sort of like "talent points" in games, except we should probably only have one gauge, instead of one for stealth, speed, magic, attack, defence, etc. XD That would be ridiculous. Let's have a go:

Rank 0 = 25% chance of success
Rank 1 = 50% chance of success
Rank 2 = 75% chance of success
Rank 3 = 99% chance of success (or even 95%, whatever)

I don't know how the ranks could rise, but perhaps you rise to Rank 1 once you complete two or three actions successfully. Then Rank 2 takes four or five MORE successful actions, etc. The actions maybe don't even have to be searching or interviewing, because then it could get tedious and long, and having to wait for the GM to get to your post might make it not fun. So that stuff could use work. (Or maybe there's a side-quest mechanic that happens in a different thread which is geared specifically towards ranking up, I don't know. That could be run by an entirely different person, so that the main roleplay's GM doesn't have to be bouncing between threads.)