Pokemon Type Festivals

[AshenPhoenix]

I'm gonna quickly scribble this idea before it disappears in the messy void of my half-brain

So, I really, really like the Paldea Festival and it makes me really sad, that I've missed the previous generational festivals. My suggestion is a smaller festival every now and again (once? twice a year?). Each would be themed after Pokemon Types (Grass, Water, Fire etc.). There would be like one or two vendors with appropriate pokemon available to buy for money (nothing super rare obviously, few tiers depending on how far the character is in their journey, just like Paldea Festival stuff), maybe pokemon that aren't placed anywhere yet, forms to exchange?

Maybe few appropriate items, like stones? Type boosting stuff, gems? Tera shards?

And, obviously, a Universal RP place for people to meet up in groups.

Raids? Though, as I want it to be small and as effortless as possible, those can be counted out

[Tarlar]

Festivals are fun, I just worry its too big with finding what pokemon, their prices, what kind of vendors and such ^^ It all takes time, and most mods prefer to use what time they have on modding threads

If there could be made some sort of system, so it's mostly just rolling what could fill out the spots, it might work, as long as we avoid destroying out ever goal of getting people to progress and work for stuff, hehe.

I'm fine with tera shards and gems being available as well, as they have less use and not so expensive. Stones I'd like to keep in the RT shop ^^

Raids are meant to be a stable thing, so if any festival related there, it would be having some festival related encounters in the pool for the raids.

[AshenPhoenix]

Maybe "festival" is not the right word for this. More like... appreciation celebration? Idk, I can't find the right word. It's not supposed to be huge.

Yeah, finding out the pokemon costs may be the bit that takes effort here. I'm guessing having a static price per egg tier is a bit too broad? Need to think about that.

Well, with the stones, it's not like they'd all be available to buy at once and they can sport a hefty price. If still too much, then forget the stones.

Raids, of course, could have type appropriate rarer pokemon, like regional forms and maybe more common pokemon with an egg move? Tm? Tutor? Don't wont to overdo it.

Also, I've thinking that perhaps the celebration wouldn't be just one type, but three at once with some cool theme like Stormy Celebration (flying, water, electric), Mythical Celebration (dragon (that would sport some weaker dragons like horsea, cyclizar, apple line), fairy, psychic), Spooky Celebration (ghost, dark, bug) and whatnot. The trio could be static or up to mods discretion.

I feel if there was a system for these celebrations, then it would be pretty easy to have, but idk about inner workings. As a member, I'd love to help out with setting them up, if they ever come to be.

[Goni]

I actually think that having the raids offer types of pokemon might be kind of cool when there's not another event going on with a selection of pokemon Lower tiers have more common pokemon and higher tiers have more rare pokemon or evolutions like the current raid structure?

For your idea of Stormy Celebration (Flying/Water/Electric) maybe a unique bracket like this? Just an example

Challenge Tier - 1★

Party Lv: 16 || Raid Boss Lv: 30

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In terms of tier, all are T2 or T3 similarly to how the current raids are set up for this festival. 

This way you'd really have to work for the pokemon, they would be fairly hard to get, and the battles could just be bike battles, not extensively RPd by the moderators. Plus, they would be a decent money sink since you'd have to purchase wishing stones, and offer some pokemon that are more unique/not available, and players could prep based on the season's theme.

EDIT:

I will say I am not particularly fond of the structure of this event just being a buy-fest, I like the other events more where there are other things to do. With the ability to just outright purchase pokemon, events kind of just become a big FOMO event where you feel like you -should- purchase pokemon just because you -can- purchase pokemon, and if you miss them now you might not get another chance to get them for a long time. Other events that I've seen like the BD/SP event and Whirl Island that had unique locations or a unique minigame were more exciting to me, and I'd rather those every once and a while with pokemon for sale using the event currency.

I don't know if I'm in the minority with this opinion or not, I know that the other kind of event takes a lot more different work, but I feel like if every month new and different pokemon are offered, the forum could become just a forum game spam and purchase cycle.... I dunno, some of the charm of this site for me is the effort required to obtain unique pokemon and a sense of progress that comes with it. Most pokemon are hard to get, or very costly. It takes a long time to earn coins in the casino, it takes even longer to get lots of RT to outright purchase some VERY rare pokemon, and while we do get quite a bit of $$$, there are not too many progression-skipping type things you can buy... complicated! But somehow a balance is maintained and it seems very intentional, I think if there were buy-fests too often, it would get old very quick considering there could be some really cool and unique events like the historical halloween events/items and the seasonal BCC/Fishing Contest/Race. I'd rather see more events like that than events like this!

Just my opinion!

Edit 2:
I will also add that if you are inspired, take a look at past events and try to write a complete one. Even if it does not get approved, it will likely just need refining to get it to work. I'd say the best kinds of things to submit are

• Simple to mod
• Not overly -give away- esque
• Target things that users find fun

Generally the simpler to understand, the better, but that's not to say that complex events don't happen, take a look at the event archives to get an idea of past events and what kinds of things have happened. I'd even say that a rework of an old event themed around a holiday or event has a high likelyhood of getting approved after some back and forth between you and the mod team but the more work you can do upfront the better. Write-ups take a lot of time and intention, and they're not as easy to write as they appear. Brainstorm specific things, and discuss it back and forth with the mods until you get a general approval for the idea in the member suggestions forum, and then try to write the post as if it's going to be the final post for the event! 

I'm currently working on a proposal for a feature for estates that started as a member suggestion here, and I'm trying to do a more formal write-up of it here before I toss the ball back in the moderator's court hehe.

Edit 3: I have too many thoughts xD sorry

You could also suggest specific Pokemon who are unavailable to routes or extensions of routes kind of like how the kimono dance theater added a wild zone recently. I'd say you would have to have a pretty good idea of rarity distribution on the site or a good idea for an area, but it's possible.

[Pixel]

A very smol 'temporary' vendor with set wares for the 'season' that can be rotated could be interesting. Plus like...

RNG'd T1, RNG'd T2, RNG'd T3 pokemon for sale for set costs. Like...Not hard numbers...
1K, 3k, 5k each...

And maybe like an RNG'd T4 Egg possibly?

So the prices are always set and stable, the only thing that swaps is the pokes. However, as Tarlar mentioned, it would be another moving cog in the machine of stuff to maintain.

[Caramell 🍬]

Sept 12, 2023 17:36:28 GMT 11 Tarlar said:

If there could be made some sort of system, so it's mostly just rolling what could fill out the spots, it might work, as long as we avoid destroying out ever goal of getting people to progress and work for stuff, hehe.

This and the price is the most important things to consider. We just changed the prices in Adoption so as not to hurt Trainer Shops. Why buy there when you can always wait for a cheap Pokemon that's rare for its Tier Goup to come along? As for price, I'm not a fan of set prices for Tier Groups especially higher Tier Groups for anything that would have a more semi-permanence to the site thematically. People would just wait until a theme with the Pokemon they want came along in the Tier purchase bracket.

A floating price range with the Tiers, or other requirements along with it (maybe like Goni mentioned about minigames that helped you earn specific currency for the event in the past) would work though! We already have Swarms for rotating Tier 1 through Tier 3 (sometimes Tier 4) and NPC trades for this, and they're in different areas because we want you to progress through the site, not wait until you can collect everything while in New Bark / Cherrygrove. (Nothing wrong with doing this when the pieces fall in place, just don't want to actively encourage not progressing through for the nicer areas, either).

Buy only events should be special events imo. They come, we have fun, then they go. Partly also because of mod strain setting up large events like our current one.

Having rotating event festivals who come and go so that they're not lost forever, but aren't around forever (even with cycling mons) wouldn't be bad, though. A bit more luck being around then, but no big loss if you weren't around for that one specific event to end all events for that one mon you wanted, ya know?

[Lamont]

Quick notes as I skim before bed:

• I too prefer events that have less buy, more RP. This one is buy fest cause there was severe limitation on mods working on it.
  
  
• In general +1 to having more consistent season events. But that of course all depends on mod availability. We tend to try for a spring one, anniversary, and Christmas as a minimum for the year. Summer/Fall is recharge time or filled with time-relevant events like BDSP & Gen festivals.
  
  
• Noting that a problem with constant events is it staggers normal site progression.
  
  
• Confirming flat pricing per tier is not generally good. A Joltik for example is far, far more valuable than a Skitty despite them being same tier.
  
  
• Noting that Wormholes & Raids is here to stay. It is a permanent feature of ZZ, though will be tweaked after the festival is gone. Suggestions on what to fill it with are always welcome. Recommend not relying on a rotation of things as that's just another thing staff have to manage which we're already lacking mods for (Mystery Salesman, Fishing, Races, IPF Auction to name a few) so adding a new one isn't going to work well.
  
  

[Tiki]

Pssst

I can help with races

I kinda never learn how mystery salesman work but a refresher can help?

Idk about fishing maybe?

[AshenPhoenix]

Sept 13, 2023 12:24:51 GMT 11 Goni said:

I will say I am not particularly fond of the structure of this event just being a buy-fest, I like the other events more where there are other things to do. With the ability to just outright purchase pokemon, events kind of just become a big FOMO event where you feel like you -should- purchase pokemon just because you -can- purchase pokemon, and if you miss them now you might not get another chance to get them for a long time. Other events that I've seen like the BD/SP event and Whirl Island that had unique locations or a unique minigame were more exciting to me, and I'd rather those every once and a while with pokemon for sale using the event currency.

I don't know if I'm in the minority with this opinion or not, I know that the other kind of event takes a lot more different work, but I feel like if every month new and different pokemon are offered, the forum could become just a forum game spam and purchase cycle.... I dunno, some of the charm of this site for me is the effort required to obtain unique pokemon and a sense of progress that comes with it. Most pokemon are hard to get, or very costly. It takes a long time to earn coins in the casino, it takes even longer to get lots of RT to outright purchase some VERY rare pokemon, and while we do get quite a bit of $$$, there are not too many progression-skipping type things you can buy... complicated! But somehow a balance is maintained and it seems very intentional, I think if there were buy-fests too often, it would get old very quick considering there could be some really cool and unique events like the historical halloween events/items and the seasonal BCC/Fishing Contest/Race. I'd rather see more events like that than events like this!

Just my opinion!

I full heartedly agree, this is the exact reason why Pokemon games are the way they are. But no matter the idea for acquiring the Pokemon we come up with, it always falls to "will this be cumbersome to mods?". I don't want to give them additional work that would feel like another job. I proposed vendors, because they probably require the least work, as well as I'm probably not that great at coming up with clever ways to make it fun without making it a heavy task.

I respectfully disagree (but I totally get it) with this potentially stunting people's progression. If anything, I believe it encourages variation - not all late or rare Pokemon are OP, just like not all early and easily available Pokemon are weak. Nobody signs up here to be stuck in New Bark forever, though it is very possible to never progress further and just stay in one place anyway. If someone is really this dedicated and sticks around long enough, why not give them some more options? Idk, maybe someone declares themselves as The Protector of New Bark Town.

That said, I really, really do not want rare and incredibly strong Pokemon to be available for just about anyone who walks in and pretty asks. Which is why I like what Goni did with the Stormy Celebration raid - all but one Pokemon are not known to be Meta Destroyers (with the humble exception of Rookidee...), but they're still quite rare on this site. I probably ramble a lot about new ways of getting different Pokemon, but that's what still keeps me playing - being able to get more vastly different things I can play with.

Aight, but enough ranting. 

I'm not sure how to work with mod availability other than allow users to help work it out and then give it for approval with some fixes from higher ups. But I think that would require a clear indication that it is something that everyone is willing to participate in and it won't be a wasted effort on something that noone wants or will be scrapped completely.

[Tarlar]

Well, if you want other things introduced by not-buying it could be done in the way as the Egg-stra special event?

Instead of having mystery egg, it could just be official what pokemon is in the egg. And if you want to ease the work for the mods, make it better to do socials or escapades for points for the egg, instead of travel threads

Or something like that, where activity around the board can earn points or access to buy/get stuff with.

Could also be things inspired by the pumpkin growing which as many other things needs work to make, but if twisted it could probably be reused. People were taking care of and watering their pumpkins, which grew to pumpkaboos.
where the patches were

could also be a part of lucdisc scooping

A raffle is also an option, although then we're back at buying

There also were the Advent Calendar which in itself is a huge work to set up, but could be similar but just give tickets or points used elsewhere, and only given if the member pops in and claim them.


AshenPhoenix, just tagging so you notice I have edited and added more

[AshenPhoenix]

Okay, not gonna lie, I didn't even think of this. Socials and escapades could finally give us some kind of reward and I'm definitely all for it. Of course, there should be some sort of anti-abuse system, but I'm pretty sure this is doable.

[Lamont]

Didn't meant to dump on just shops ftr! (in case my quick jot notes sounded like it) A lil' mixture is great, shops def have their place and can be good excitement :3 I wouldn't have made this thing mostly shops if I thought they were bad :p

You can see all the past events of ZZ in the Events > Archive. There are plenty of examples to inspire yearly repeatable ideas. Also, what I meant as 'more RP' was more just having *something* that has more of an 'activity' piece to it. Like the Halloween & Easter examples Tarlar linked. Doesn't have to be like a quest or anything. Themed escapades also great! & the Wormholes thing is our new addition to support exactly this sort of thing: provide a 'shop' where members can have some quick RP challenge to get a range of pokemon.


Also! Just to clarify... When I warned about rotation before I left out the key part that makes it hard for us to keep up with regular rotation tasks: they're dynamic rewards. It'd be perfectly fine to have a seasonal rotation of [mostly] static things. So for example, every year the 'Storm' themed festival thingamajig would be roughly the exact same with maybe some very small variety as things change in the games. Something like that would be very manageable as a 'rotation' thing. Only when things have to be re-prepped every time it becomes time challenging.


Regarding constant events staggering progression: it's a fact and has affected ZZ members previously. We actually had comments along the line of 'I hope there's a break from events' nearing the end of our previous long string of event periods. And I see this expressed repeatedly in other non-ZZ places. Member event burnout is real. It isn't just for mods sakes we have chill time.

Not to say we can't/shouldn't have more events ;D Just take into consideration when planning out yer seasonal/periods is all!



On the mention of 'dun wanna spend time that isn't going to go into a live thing'... If only I could show you the decades worth of unimplemented ideas and things in limbo in staff. The Wormholes/Raids mechanic in the festival? Yeah that was started in 2020 xP Pkmn Contests!? 2011..? And that's still in limbo haha. Tooooons of work sitting in limbo there.

Member suggestions is exactly for members to propose new ideas and implementations for things they are excited about. It's possible you may spend time on something that doesn't go live. I try to do my best to throw in even just tiny tidbits of notes and insight as early as I can, but member suggestions don't magically give more time in the day to do so :p Reviewing new suggestions takes time. And the more discussion required from staff means less time for other things, or vice versa (sorry Trials suggestions!)

If you're passionate about an idea, risk putting some polish on it to make it real. The more members involved and showing an obvious interest for a feature or idea, the less likely it's going to go to waste. This idea for example, seems to have a lotta support and interest ;D


(this took me near an hour to write so it disregards any edits & posts in the last 40mins xD)