Endgame Content, Alternate Play-Modes

[lainashea1]

One thing that stopped me in my tracks while playing PokeMMO (I had been completely happy and satisfied up to that point as it was only my first play through) was the fact that there's really nothing to do once you complete the islands. No new lands, nothing new unlocked, no cool clothes or medals, etc. and that made me want to stop playing.

 

Sure, you could start a breeding frenzy, or spend oodles of money creating the perfect shiny, high IV/EV team-but for what purpose?

 

So I came up with a couple ideas, that don't require any new regions:

 

ALTERNATE PLAY-MODES

The only way I've been able to keep the game interesting was by going back and playing it again in a different way. I raced people, I did one-type only runs, etc. but the excitement was dulled when we realized no one knew what we were doing, no one could watch or cheer for us, and any of us could secretly cheat because the whole set up, via giving ourselves boundaries to play under, was all pretend. But what if it wasn't?

[Perhaps different channels could be set to different modes, similar to how other MMO's have automatic PVP channels vs. PVP-optional channels]

 

=IRL Rival Mode= Pick another player and lock onto them as your 'rival'. There would be a counter in the corner of the screen so that you could see each other's progress (how many gym badges, # of pokemon caught, % game completed, etc.) and you would compete against each other to catch 'em all, with official duels at least once per city. If anyone were to spectate either of you, they would be able to see your rival's counter too, and therefore cheer one or both of you on. [Alternatively, there could be a Double Rival mode with four players, or two teams of two, with all duels being double battles.]

 

=Race Mode (speed run)= Pick another player, or group of players, and race each other. Similar to Rival Mode, there would be counters on-screen, but it would tally points instead and have a ticking clock. Whomever reaches each city first gets points, gets gym badges first, gets key items (silph scope, exp share, s.s. anne ticket) first, etc. get points. Perhaps there could be monetary prizes, or cosmetic prizes, as each player reaches certain point milestones.

 

=Race Mode (completion run)= A more restrictive race, where players can move on to the next area after ONLY AFTER catching all available pokemon in the area's grass and after battling all available npc's of the area [i.e. fully completing areas before moving on]. This is the race I most recently did with another player, and people on Channel Chat got very involved in cheering us on, hearing our frustrations at "oh my gosh jigglypuff where are you! My rival is already in Mt. Moon! I have to catch you, hurry!" etc. I usually like to include rival battles within this, but that would be more of a Rival/Completion mode hybrid.

 

=Customized Restriction Run= Want everyone's starter Pokemon to be randomly picked? Want to only allow two pokemon types to be able to be caught per person? Want to put Nuzlocke rules on yourself (i.e. fainted pokemon disappear or are put in PC; only first-seen pokemon are able to be caught, etc.)? Want to put a ticking clock time restriction on how quick you have to make it to certain areas in order to stay in the race, etc.? This would be hard to do, of course, but being able to filter our own game experience would be some pretty darn cool end-game.

 

AND THE GRAND PLOT TWIST-All these modes are only available after you beat the Elite 4 on one of your characters.

 

UNLOCKABLE CONTENT

I want more milestones and rewards to keep me playing. Perhaps at a certain point, you get to pick one of your pokemon to become shiny (but it then becomes un-trade/sellable of course). Or, as you unlock more gym badges, more tiers of expensive custom clothing become available to you to buy (similar to how different pokemarts sell different items). Or, depending on how many times you beat the Elite 4, there are different elite outfits/colors/hairstyles you can wear, to make end-game characters distinguishable from other people.

 

ITEM STORE

Multiple fun, non-game-affecting items could be created for sale (real money or in-game), like paint buckets to change the color of one thing on your sprite. Or even macho braces, lucky eggs, etc. could be bought (but if from the item store then they can't be traded/sold and would have expiration timers).

------------------------

I know a lot of this seems really impossible, and maybe only certain things are possible due to the coding of Pokemon games vs. that of other MMO's, and I understand that PokeMMO is still in its semi-early stages, but hopefully some of this could one day be implemented.

 

You may say I'm a dreamer...but I'm not the only one ;D

[Pidgeysaurus]

It's a nice concept, but all of these ideas/most of these ideas can be done by the user anyway, it's just not automatic. After the game, most people who stay tend to do competitive stuff or if you hate yourself, shiny hunting.

[Inarin]

Funnily enough I was talking to one of my friends about something similar, but definitely not the same.

 

A lot of people I know have been getting bored with the limited options after completing the main story, craving something to do that actually has a point to it. While alternate game modes are useful, even finishing the Trainer Tower full of NPC's with RNG Pokemon/Strategies would keep people's attention until something huge could be implimented. I think the question we're all asking is "What's next?" or "What else can I do without starting a new character?".

 

This Suggestion in my opinion simply adds "Forced Rulings" just to make sure people don't cheat in these alternate modes one can do for themselves, and I think there would be a huge amount of work required to add mere counters and RNG based modes that could be spent in other areas, so I doubt it would get past the "Looked At" pile.

[lainashea1]

I know; they're big ideas. It's still something to get the reader's mind moving in the right direction, though! I don't know what is or isn't possible with the game coding, etc. but someone who does might notice something on here that can be done, or can think of something similar that might work.

[Darkshade]

This isn't really additional end game content in any way, it's simply game modes.

 

My thoughts of which I've already expressed here; https://forums.pokemmo.eu/index.php?/topic/37995-suggestion-challenge-mode/?p=677310

[Toira]

content is designed to be dynamic and is updated as the game progresses.

 
silly to me
 
Especially when (as mentioned above), it might cause damage to the standard gameplay that we are supposed to be supporting.

Okay, seriously? This person is coming up with ideas for something aside from competitive play, obviously. Something fun to do with friends. This isn't the kind of thing people would do constantly; they'd do it a few times for the fun of it. And if you're talking about standard gameplay, I'm assuming you simply mean hanging out in Viridian dueling or doing absolutely nothing, or breeding. That is what standard gameplay is right now, and people are saying they're bored. If this game is truly going to be dynamic, at least take a moment before you stuff peoples' ideas in the trash can simply because of YOUR preferences. The staff seriously needs to start listening to the players, because this game is just going to slowly die. Unless a big update happens, I think other interesting things aside from small breeding fixes, need to be implemented. At least take into account that we could have a voting system for this kind of thing, to see which ideas the player base truly believes in and wants to see happen.

/end rant

[Darkshade]

This isn't the kind of thing people would do constantly; they'd do it a few times for the fun of it.

 

That's the point.

[Malorne]

That's the point.

i enjoy looking at the viridian pond too much that i'm drooling rainbows all over it...

on a serious note ; its a little wrong to expect much from a game that is still alpha stage/under developement... While saying this, i think staff should pay a little more attention to suggestions considering that PokeMMO has already crossed the line by choosing to follow a different path from nintendo, we have an opportunity here to make something new, while we've seen staff made bad decisions also in the past (not criticising). Well, yes with new region is still interesting and many people are looking forward to it... but even with the new region, i doubt the end game will change that much... only difference will be the dungeons, but what will happen after everyone has completed the dungeons individualy? another dead end... 
 

[Toira]

Exactly, we need to add new things to make the game more 'fun' as that is what a game should be. I understand it is in alpha...but at the same time, there is a reason it has been that way for so long...other than yes, the staff don't really get paid much from my understanding, but I'm just saying. Maybe it's time to hire some new staff to make the game continue moving along at a decent pace, and add for better input of opinions.

edit: I don't by any means mean that we need to REMOVE certain staff members; I just mean MORE staff (seeking out programmers and the like, people who are passionate about the game) might improve the quality of things.

[Malorne]

edit: I don't by any means mean that we need to REMOVE certain staff members; I just mean MORE staff (seeking out programmers and the like, people who are passionate about the game) might improve the quality of things.

that would be the problem here... the current DEV crew have decided to go on with this team (gizmo (rip), dshade, desu and shu)... as a person of art you should know that everyone has a different taste in things while creating art (game, paintings etc. etc. ) which would be the issue here, yet a solid proof that shows why the developement process is slow, i would suggest that not piling up every new change into one update but one by one to keep things a little more interesting and also less boring coz that would create more enthusiasm rather than boring people to death for 6 months and then watching the same thing over and over again

[Emlee]

Darkshade isn't wrong here, and he isn't discouraging new end game content. He is looking for end game content suggestions with longevity though, and he is correct in doing this.

 

I can understand that it is a bit fun to replay the game on a different character and do speeds runs/the runs suggested in the OP but it's not technically end game content. End game content would be content you can consistently do with your already made character. Alt runs and fancy alt runs are not end game content, and PokeMMO is moving away from any dependence on them (renewable resources, etc). 

 

I won't say everything suggested here is absolute trash but most of it isn't realistic. Having things that are "fun" in game is good, but they should be fun for as long as you're playing the game (the mystery box is an example of something that has no longevity and runs out of "fun"). 

 

 

A word of advice to the OP: You have far too much content in your post, and it's clear to me you did not read the rules of this section nor look through the Table of Contents, many of these ideas are suggested already (although sometimes slightly different variations, which means you post in those threads and give your small suggestions etc). Your OP is much too wordy. No you don't need to take my advice, but I am giving it anyway.

[Toira]

The thing is, I'm not even just talking about this post. I meant it more in general. I can understand with this specific post that no, the longevity is not that great. I just see a decent amount of ideas shut down that could actually be really fun...and I look at some features of the game and wonder if they will ever be paid attention to again, or if it is now going to just drop off the face of the earth i.e. swarms. Not sure if it's in progress anymore, but it was entertaining for the first few weeks and then what happened to it...? So yea, some features like that tend to be added anyway...same with altering cave. I believe we were told the intention was to have different and new cycles, then it just never happened. So you can't say things like this don't already make it in game.

Mostly I just think additions to staff (which apparently isn't going to budge) and more voice of the players, some kind of voting system or at least new features proposed by staff and then players can vote on which they think should take priority. Then staff can kind of go from there, and implement as they see fit since they're gonna just do that anyway.

[Senile]

The thing is, I'm not even just talking about this post. I meant it more in general. I can understand with this specific post that no, the longevity is not that great. I just see a decent amount of ideas shut down that could actually be really fun...and I look at some features of the game and wonder if they will ever be paid attention to again, or if it is now going to just drop off the face of the earth i.e. swarms. Not sure if it's in progress anymore, but it was entertaining for the first few weeks and then what happened to it...? So yea, some features like that tend to be added anyway...same with altering cave. I believe we were told the intention was to have different and new cycles, then it just never happened. So you can't say things like this don't already make it in game.

Mostly I just think additions to staff (which apparently isn't going to budge) and more voice of the players, some kind of voting system or at least new features proposed by staff and then players can vote on which they think should take priority. Then staff can kind of go from there, and implement as they see fit since they're gonna just do that anyway.

Voting is a terrible idea. Believe it or not, a large amount of players are completely incompetent, and even the players who aren't incompetent don't necessarily have any knowledge or talent in game design. Voting won't happen, because it's absurd. 

Even if it wasn't a terrible idea, I don't seriously think the staff would implement something like that.

You said yourself, you look at some features and wonder if they're ever going to be changed, this in itself shows how much work the developers have. Adding onto their workload features that don't actually increase longevity very much isn't helpful at all, they don't have time for such things.

tl;dr: You're trying really hard, but they don't have time for things like this, you should probably throw in the towel.

[Toira]

Voting is a terrible idea. Believe it or not, a large amount of players are completely incompetent, and even the players who aren't incompetent don't necessarily have any knowledge or talent in game design. Voting won't happen, because it's absurd. 

Even if it wasn't a terrible idea, I don't seriously think the staff would implement something like that.

You said yourself, you look at some features and wonder if they're ever going to be changed, this in itself shows how much work the developers have. Adding onto their workload features that don't actually increase longevity very much isn't helpful at all, they don't have time for such things.

tl;dr: You're trying really hard, but they don't have time for things like this, you should probably throw in the towel.

Well, you're missing the point completely, but think whatever you want. I'm not trying to change your mind.

[Malorne]

Even if it wasn't a terrible idea, I don't seriously think the staff would implement something like that.
 

i guess that explains things a little and also proving the point

[lainashea1]

A word of advice to the OP: You have far too much content in your post, and it's clear to me you did not read the rules of this section nor look through the Table of Contents, many of these ideas are suggested already (although sometimes slightly different variations, which means you post in those threads and give your small suggestions etc). Your OP is much too wordy. No you don't need to take my advice, but I am giving it anyway.

 

I actually fully read the rules and went down the lists of already suggested items. Two were slightly similar to what I was talking about, but none had anywhere near as solidified of an idea on how to do it or what it would entail. I had multiple people in-game asking me to post and explain what I was thinking, so I did. Of course I'm going to be thorough; I'm trying to help. I did not, however, repeat anyone else's idea. I came up with these on my own, yo!

 

I think people are getting caught up in categorizing my suggestions as End Game or not. If they get unlocked only after completing the game, then I consider them End Game. I understand the longevity issue that might ruin that categorization, though, yes. However, this was meant more as a fun alternative to put in while we're waiting on other updates. Like if it takes forever to add in a full second game region for us to play through, maybe some of this would be easier to put in quicker and would still make us happy. I did go out of my way to say that I understand that coding is difficult and some things are harder than others or more practical. But I was just throwing out ideas for people who do know coding to look at and think about.

 

That's why it's a *suggestion* :D