The Last Poster Wins! [v19]

[Neo Emolga]

Yeah, I tend to draw lines pretty slowly as well, as if I'm performing surgery or something. That bike-riding analogy is a pretty good one, I'll try to draw the lines a little faster to see if that improves things.

[Chakramaster]

Same. Either today or tomorrow I'm gonna give it another go. Then I will post my attempt later. Hopefully it turns out better than the last attempt xD

[Neo Emolga]

In other news, I did finish PMD: Gates to Infinity the other day. Good game, glad I finished it all the way through, but I'm not going to bother with the meta-game stuff. I'm just moving on straight to PSMD.

I'm also thinking of going with whatever starter the personality test gives me, just to keep it interesting. Playing as Pikachu is always fun, but I have yet to play a PMD game where I've played as a different Pokemon. If something besides Pikachu comes up, I'll give it an honest shot for a change of pace.

[Chakramaster]

I couldn't do that. I mean, not on the first play through at least. It just wouldn't be "me." So my first play through is always gonna be as ME Pikachu.

Should tell us what you thought of GTI though Neo. Get some of your thoughts on it. Same with PSMD as you play. We'd all love to see your reactions!

[Neo Emolga]

I couldn't do that. I mean, not on the first play through at least. It just wouldn't be "me." So my first play through is always gonna be as ME Pikachu.

Should tell us what you thought of GTI though Neo. Get some of your thoughts on it. Same with PSMD as you play. We'd all love to see your reactions!

GTI was pretty good. Some parts felt a bit drawn out, but there were some plot twists I really wasn't expecting.

Spoiler:

- Wasn't expecting Munna to be an antagonist and Hydregion to be the good guy.
- Wasn't expecting Keldeo to be the Entercard creator.
- Wasn't expecting those lights in the sky to be other humans that were defeated as Pokemon

I find it interesting that there are common, reoccurring themes across all of the Mystery Dungeon games, such as humans becoming bright light upon being returned to the human world. When I thought of that whole PMD: Striders of the Stars idea, I kind of wanted to do something that united all the games together with common themes. But it... got a little too complicated with too much stuff to handle.

If I were to try and resurrect that idea, I think I would keep it in a much smaller frame and instead just take the role of permanent dungeon master that decided all the outcomes and events. Generally, people would keep using their same characters again and again for each world they visit, along with all of the relics and things they earn along the way. In the meantime, all the participants would all be in one guild rather than have it divided into several. I just feel it would make more sense.

[Chakramaster]

If you'd like to go back to that idea throw some ideas my way or we can PM/VM about it. I've told Gemma a bit about what I've been trying to put together for the last year or 2 now. It's sort of similar in a way. In fact, I'll go ahead and throw a PM your way about it. Maybe it'll give you an idea of something possibly or even myself to move past the road block I'm at as well.

[Neo Emolga]

If you'd like to go back to that idea throw some ideas my way or we can PM/VM about it. I've told Gemma a bit about what I've been trying to put together for the last year or 2 now. It's sort of similar in a way. In fact, I'll go ahead and throw a PM your way about it. Maybe it'll give you an idea of something possibly or even myself to move past the road block I'm at as well.

Yeah, I'm just not sure, it's one of those things I'd need to think over a lot more before I make a call on it. I would love more PMD RPs and something cool that unites them together would be awesome, but it's a lot of moving parts that need to be considered and thought over. I do think that the one big change is that the "Dungeon Master" of the whole thing would need to give up participating in it with their own character and just focus on the NPCs, enemies, and storyline of the whole thing. I thought I could get by that part and have my own character, but it's just not possible. That's at least one major change I know would need to be considered.

It's hard, because I really wanted to make an Emolga character for it, but eh... can't have your cake and eat it too.

[Chakramaster]

Yeah, I'm just not sure, it's one of those things I'd need to think over a lot more before I make a call on it. I would love more PMD RPs and something cool that unites them together would be awesome, but it's a lot of moving parts that need to be considered and thought over. I do think that the one big change is that the "Dungeon Master" of the whole thing would need to give up participating in it with their own character and just focus on the NPCs, enemies, and storyline of the whole thing. I thought I could get by that part and have my own character, but it's just not possible. That's at least one major change I know would need to be considered.

It's hard, because I really wanted to make an Emolga character for it, but eh... can't have your cake and eat it too.

Sent you that PM btw.

We'll have more than one dungeon master so you can keep up in level and/skills. There may be times where someone may have to be left of out the story due to an event. Use GTI as an example. Not everyone went on the missions you went on at the same time. Someone had to stay behind and look after the base. Maybe an excuse like that. That way you could totally have an Enolga to play as in part of the RP. Being the leader you and the temporary leader would have to discuss and plan it all out first.

Back on my old forum (the Naruto Faction) when it came to hosting the RP sparring it was always held with the kesder being the Proctor of the fight. After some others ranked up, me included, he taught us how to host it and that way in case he couldn't make it or be there, or multiple had to be run at the same time, he taught it to us. So maybe something similar. Still yeah though it's something to consider down the road

[Neo Emolga]

Sent you that PM btw.

We'll have more than one dungeon master so you can keep up in level and/skills. There may be times where someone may have to be left of out the story due to an event. Use GTI as an example. Not everyone went on the missions you went on at the same time. Someone had to stay behind and look after the base. Maybe an excuse like that. That way you could totally have an Enolga to play as in part of the RP. Being the leader you and the temporary leader would have to discuss and plan it all out first.

Back on my old forum (the Naruto Faction) when it came to hosting the RP sparring it was always held with the kesder being the Proctor of the fight. After some others ranked up, me included, he taught us how to host it and that way in case he couldn't make it or be there, or multiple had to be run at the same time, he taught it to us. So maybe something similar. Still yeah though it's something to consider down the road

There were a few other few issues that we ran into during the whole development from what I recall.

First point is the actual dungeon crawling would get kind of boring in RP format. This makes things tricky, because exploring the randomized dungeons makes up such a huge part of PMD's gameplay. Also, the big problem with RPs is that so few of them actually finish.

Missions also might take a really long in real life time. We could take bits out of Dungeons & Dragons, but even those kinds of sessions take hours and they keep going because everyone is there in the room, whereas on a forum, people come and go at different times. I think the only way to combat this is to have a time limit on the missions. Another way to combat this would be to have easy-going missions at first. Then, the difficulty and length can be increased until we hit that sweet spot where people get things done relatively on time.

Also, character progression. It's always fun to have characters gain levels and progress, but it's a lot of calculation work (and this is why I RP instead of jump in on the competitive battling scene or join stuff like the URPG). But, on the flip side, if characters don't really progress, gain levels, or advance, eh, there's nothing really much to it.

I don't know, I think we're just better off with regular PMD RPs, and if someone wants to reuse their character, I think that's fine.

[Chakramaster]

There were a few other few issues that we ran into during the whole development from what I recall.

First point is the actual dungeon crawling would get kind of boring in RP format. This makes things tricky, because exploring the randomized dungeons makes up such a huge part of PMD's gameplay. Also, the big problem with RPs is that so few of them actually finish.

Missions also might take a really long in real life time. We could take bits out of Dungeons & Dragons, but even those kinds of sessions take hours and they keep going because everyone is there in the room, whereas on a forum, people come and go at different times. I think the only way to combat this is to have a time limit on the missions. Another way to combat this would be to have easy-going missions at first. Then, the difficulty and length can be increased until we hit that sweet spot where people get things done relatively on time.

Also, character progression. It's always fun to have characters gain levels and progress, but it's a lot of calculation work (and this is why I RP instead of jump in on the competitive battling scene or join stuff like the URPG). But, on the flip side, if characters don't really progress, gain levels, or advance, eh, there's nothing really much to it.

I don't know, I think we're just better off with regular PMD RPs, and if someone wants to reuse their character, I think that's fine.

I mean I've never played D&D so I can't say I know the rules or anything, but I have a general idea about it. I hate to say it, but maybe it needs to have forced story development then. The difficulty should then be around the sum of the highest and lowest leveled players to avoid being too low leveled or too high leveled. Accommodations I guess?

I mentioned this part to you in that PM, but maybe have it set where each mission/adventure has an estimated time limit. Later on maybe they can be broken into sections so your not all sitting there for hours doing one mission. It'd in sense be like old movies with an "Intermission" in between parts. It'd help fix timing issues. Also could help keep tensions on what will happen next. Also having more than one GM/DM would almost be a necessity.

It may need its OWN unique battle system and exp handouts to accommodate this then. That way your not going by some other RPs system which may be more complex than you could stand to handle on the calculations. It also makes the RP unique to have its own complete battle/exp system. Same goes for stat handouts.

It honestly doesn't HAVE to be some super complex D&D style RP either. Maybe if anything you could make it like I thought of making a fanfic once. A player based driven story (I'm talking about the one I mentioned to you in the PM). I originally thought of making it an RP so the characters could be whatever they wanted. It'd also add a much deeper story. If someone played as the someone in the villianous team, how would that go? How would "the good guys" combat that? Making a very complex system would take a lot of dedication and more than just one person running it, that's for sure.