The title says it all, really.

I see a lot of staff activity going around making dragon events that hold no interest for me, the millionth generation of dragon slayer in the past six months, it's all about the dragons. Yay, right?

Well probably not yay, per say, because it feels like we're haemorrhaging members like crazy. In the past few months the best thing since sliced fairies 'Eternal Nightmare' has risen to prominence only to die of death like the other five super awesome new guilds that have cropped up in the past year. Once again, big yays.

I dunno, from my perspective it seems like once again the forum is dying, and the staff are working like crazy to keep the plates turning, or at least not quite falling for the folk who donate big dorra dorra, I guess?

Ultimately though, I can't help but think you guys should be maybe asking what people want, cause to me it feels like you're telling us what we want, and it isn't exactly working? Not for me at least. So yeah, something to think on maybe? Probably just a gripe tho.

I agree, not going to put a complicated personal opinion here.

Dragon event or a "fight tourney" is based off of people who talk about fighting (which the majority of the site isn't into), but weren't/aren't active leading up.

Blue Pegasus people already did an XP dungeon, the secondary dragon event rewards are less than doing a guild event and the 1st unrelated round/NPCing's been delayed.

Other people who will get the expensive DS magics are diverging their characters into an OOC controlled-power plot.

Imagine you reach the highest ranks on site or aspire to it, but your character IC keeps changing to random stronger lizard-slaying magics, or whatever's new.

Maybe add personalized guild upgrades, or a secondary magic that takes more investment at X-rank+.

More than happy to listen to what the community wants, particularly for events. As it stands the dragon event was drawn out for too long, expectations were made with it been completed last year, but delays prevented that from happening. We will be pushing forward to completing it as soon as possible in a cohesive manner. I look forward to moving past it and go on more open-ended plots.

Though I don't want to put any blame or pressure on the community, I do encourage members to drop event ideas, prospective item concepts, etc in the discord or message me directly about them. While it might be disappointing to have your idea be knocked back there's always something that might come about from it. I personally have made dozens of regulations, events, items that will never see the light of day, but those lead to better options and created a dialogue to start something fresh and new.

The Come not between the Dragon and His Wrath event's rewards are somewhat meek however the intent for the event is to offer members something flavorsome and more challenging. The event also allows them to roleplay with almost anyone regardless of location in a sense, that is in their skill range, and continue roleplaying where they are while not using a topic slot.

As for the guild events themselves, it's something that will need to be explored as it's not something that's in a great place right now, in my opinion, finding it too restrictive as is. But there only so many things that can be done at a time.

As for other members swapping magic or changing to something new that's at their discretion to do so, it could certainly be seen as the flavor of the month, as they are arguably more powerful than other magics, however, the staff and I are endeavoring to improve all magics, dragon slayers simply were the highlight of things at the time. Future goals include Take-Over revisions, Other Slayer Revisions, Limited Summoning Magics, etc.

At the moment ranking up past S-Rank admittedly doesn't do much for the user with them receiving one additional S-Rank slot per rank and roughly a hundred SP for the equivalent amount of work to get from D-S Rank and double again for Z-Rank, assuming they are human. I could see certain options being made available to higher-ranking members though it would need to be translatable for both Mages and Non-Mages.

A secondary magic is a tricky beast to be sure, with the existing limitations of spell slots and spell types that someone can use with their class, that is somewhat mitigated, however. If it were to happen it would like to have to be through an enhancement, one which would probably use two slots instead of the normal one.

Guild Upgrades through a shop is certainly something to consider however can be quite passive in regards to what it could provide a user unless they offered the users boons for completing tasks in the guild for instance.

I think it's just worth investing time into seeing if the majority of people want more PVP combat or are content with more RP mission set-ups like the 'Come not between the Dragon and His Wrath' event that just lets the players form teams and RP it out. I think it's fair to say PVP oriented combat events have not gone over too well in the past, with turnout (some of which being players that prefer RP just doing it for the rewards), people not replying and the constant need for battle mods.

It would be nice to get some actual stats on participation for those, both that enjoyed it and that just did it not to miss out and participate in more open storyline events. Which I am glad to hear may be more of a focus later on. I also think that the conquest system, while interesting, catered to the idea of people actively engaging in combats and takeovers which it has yet to do, and I think that shows a general lack of interest in the member base towards pvp. It would be different I think if it didn't require you to kind of be locked into a place just in case which then hinders travel and Rp experience that I believe more of the members are interested in.

That's more speculation though. But I think the best thing to do going forward in light of losing members and systems not achieving the intended result would be to actually take an anonymous survey to gauge the demand from the market (members) and then supply them with what they are interested in so you build more loyalty to the base and ideally get a lower membership turnover rate.

Most people even if they feel unenthused by a place, will stay quiet because they don't want to speak out publically. So an anonymous survey would be the best way to go, with some open-ended questions to be compiled as well.

I think the enhancement system and the custom item creation system are the best things to come out for awhile.

I think Kon's response is passionate and has cool overall transparency, props to that, not going to comment specifics on it (as most won't, Kazimir points out). Kazimir has good points that conquest system wasn't utilized for PVP, but travel also can limit that. It's also easy to metagame travel to avoid fighting, yet both things are easy to see while designing/changing by people who "wanted to fight".

I'll be stats guy and go down online list/activity checks.

Active Just-Write RPers

Zane, me (idc either way), Sofia, Sage, Rinni, Odin, Kurisa, Kon, Kazimir, Judith, Gene, Esperia, Azure, and Alisa don't care for fighting themselves. Valentine/sizeable portion of random people that hang around obviously don't care either. Every one of these writes nice in their own ways beside me, it doesn't make them "carebears" or "story RPers".

Past Active Just-Write RPers

Ordered kinda by activity: Mikajia, Masami, Venus, Kaiser, Hatsu, Akira, Nuala, Jan, Daiko, Yugo. Kerii, Caius, Lee, Xandra, Manzo, Yumi, Raymus, Natsumi, Ragnar, Etaoin and a bunch of people that may or may not be alts.

Note: Yugo is not a special case. Think back farther than ole Vice can, how many people do you think have been driven off because of the "cool fight RPers"?

Most of the "story RPers" also have multiple characters. Masami had an alt, Nuala had alts. Yugo making alts and not "focusing a strong char", is that not good for site activity?

Vs Past Active/Only "Fight RPers"

All were always less active than most of above: Steel, Ezekiel, Erebus, Noel, Tenshi. Shichiro and Kenzo just hang there as exceptions to activity but don't focus fighting. The others, when present, have interceded on convos to try to balance toward fighting. This is not "calling them out" or wrong of them, it's an easy to see census.

This is the real vocal minority, even if people reduce activity, systems and ideology remain behind. Compare the lists, how many "story RPers" voice chat (Judina doesn't right?) or were on Discord typing all the time? They don't need to be, they still drove site activity more than the vocal and cannibalistic "fight RPers".

PG isn't listed as they seem to like fighting but are "off-brand" for whatever reason, they stick around RPing either way like Tomoe.

Solution

Kon wants solutions and answers, that's subjective.

My opinion's more structured, yet I think Masami and others simply had more valuable potential input as staff than me. The same goes for crafting solutions. Like Kazimir said, people that are unenthused won't speak out and it's hard to do so publicly.

It's not that people want you to do more work Kon, I personally trust your balance and work, as others should. I'd wish that you brush off cute people that just want to maintain a status quo, for when they return from inactivity "MAYBE". Just-Write RPers don't need that as they'll follow the changes generally and don't need to be caught up.

Uncomplicated Changes

Most people don't want constant changes that they can't always follow regardless. Pushed participation in an event people don't have personal investment in makes people think they're missing out.

Second, Tertiary Magic

Additional magic on this site should be easy, Nullification/single magics shouldn't stack. I like unique event rewards like the Halloween magics/Hero Relics. I might not reach X/Z-rank till a reset, as most won't, but higher ranks having more should be encouraging.

Lore and Customs

Event magics and custom races shouldn't be a sole focus but that'd be something to be motivated for. Halloween-like magics being considered custom and permanent could also be good. The previous lore events like the cults and such aren't seen in the items/magic/feeling of the site new or glancing members see. The other slayers and the angel/demonic races don't interact.

Storyline Ranking, Balance

Tailoring Limited Magic to have different enhancements, or being able to create a custom enhancement can make a higher-rank character feel better.

Non-casters could upgrade their items and make them customs/get free customs ranking up that are lost on changing class. Non-casters can have some upcoming weapon mastery upgrades tied into their rank.

Overall, make it so the Masamis/Kurisas can do more storylines, even let them do storylines to get low-grade customs for lower-ranks in their guilds.

There should be a steady flow of items (culling the ones never bought too), now that a balance review system is in place. Staff has events and things to work on (Kon in particular, not the ones who leave inactive after getting in their input), yet the shop can just have members making the items. FTRP's always been about how widely diverse the shops are and people looking forward to additions from the outside. Development forum currently stymies interest as people already know what's coming generally (in dragon event's case - they're let-down), rather than steadying expectations for how things are coming along.

Tarots can be customized (there's JoJo Tarots, Persona, all sorts of media), and additional Tarots could be unlocked based off a member's rank. They'd go under an existing Tarot as an additional option. I still think higher Tarots should be stronger, it just means The Worlds can be customized (Esperia and Ika). All these customs (Tarots, multi-magic, not multi-storyline) in general should have an additional rank/jewels/work investment and don't combine.

Legendary Effect

X and Z-ranks are "legendary", but they're distant in the lore of the site. You can make lore-changing storylines, but they feel like something no one will see nor need to care about. Custom enhancements, Tarots, changing items on site to have a character's name/history/magical influence, or having a custom race (like Voidling except available to others) makes the character more memorable to drive engagement. No one joined RK to build it up with their character because while a law-keeping force is interesting, they don't have any real effect on lore.

Storyline Cooldown

In general, I think storyline cooldown is only good for things that shouldn't happen frequently like lore changes. People like Kurisa and Masami can accumulate too many jewels, yet jewel changes can stymie that. The balance itself around these ideas can fit the site due to enhancements/like-minded effects being successfully universal.

Centralize Storyline, Activity

Storylines and most things are released manageable. That's good for stability and balance, even though I think the site is well-balanced enough (props to Kon or whoever). People should be doing storylines more than neutral quests though.

As a side note, I suggest you only need to be active on one character and your alt can retain limiteds+get a free 2nd AC reward. The most active people have alts, it shouldn't be discouraging in any fashion for them to try and build up a second character. Second characters can be an insurance like how Masami joined RK where there's nobody.

"Fighting"

We've established no one needs fighting events here.

Why have battle mods or push fighting? Google "battle mod" roleplays and they're nowhere in the most active RP. It's an artificial mainly Forumotion thing to dominate a memberbase. Only really old sites had battle mods and they weren't serious.

Most sites don't push fighting anywhere close to FTRP. The members regulate themselves and if they don't allow things it doesn't affect either character. No reward systems, no bounties. Elsewhere, if members want to affect a site plot, they need to cooperate with the other members in that topic.

Why not? I joined and haven't seen a "fight RPer" fight since then. All those "fight RPers" are frightened of RPers that just write, trying to force to fight on their terms, even in the dragon NPC fights.

Hey hey what's up guys, here to drop like 233909312 words in this thread

This is really just gonna be me ranting on for a bit, so it probably won't be as well structured as feedback I've given in the past. To Sofia, Kon, Kazimir and Vice who have all posted really good points here, I hope you don't mind me getting off-topic a little bit at points.

Honestly, one thing that I've really been thinking about with all this discussion about stuff like the dragon events and whatnot is who should FTRP appeal to? I asked myself that, and to be honest I can't really decided who it SHOULD appeal to. But I do know who I want to it appeal to.

To be honestly it's pretty rare for me to be this honest about things, so I genuinely hope you'll all never ever mention this (probably) cringeworthy preaching I'm about to do. Best case scenario you forget this post a few months down the line. I want FTRP to have something for everyone. I've been here a long time, more than most. I've seen FTRP's community take many shapes. Sometimes the people of FTRP didn't care about combat vs social at all, sometimes a lot, sometimes inbetween. But to be honest, I just want us all to stop worrying about that. As someone who's RP preferences began as very combat-focused and shifted elsewhere over the years to where it is now, I feel as though I can say I've been on different sides of this kind of debate in the past.

To be honest I just want it to end on both sides. I don't think people who RP for more 'casual' reasons are soft or anything. I don't think people who RP for combat are assholes. Yet both on FTRP and other forums with members of more mixed preferences I've been on the past I often see a lot of those kind of insults pop up, and it makes me sad to see. I don't want FTRP to be the kinda place where we have to do that. For me the perfect kind of place would be one where we could all just be chill about who wants to do what and offer a little bit of everything. An ideal FTRP for me would be the kinda place someone could do what they want (that falls within the rules of course) and everyone else could be cool with it. Is that last sentence probably impossible? Yes. I don't think that kind of judging could ever be truly escaped from. There will always be people who insist on forcing their viewpoints on others. But even if it's not really "possible" it's still a goal I'd like to pursue.

Anyways now that I finally let out those thoughts I'd like to use what I just said to get into some of my main points that I wanna make. I'm sorry that this is gonna get a little off-topic from what you originally said Sofia, but I hope you don't mind. I'm already pretty deep into this post and all.

Activity Checks
This is something I've talked about in discord lately, and my more recent discussions about it have probably led to certain guidelines on the subject being less harsh - such as users keeping customs etc etc.

The first thing about the activity check I'd like to note is that the rewards we have set up are good. I like them. I think even if you don't have limited stuff it's a good idea to post in the thread because you get so much out of it. As a side note Vice's second paragraph in his posts "Centralize Storyline, Activity" section is a suggestion I like to a degree. I think that a good system to put in place would be to have up to two of your alts gain the AC rewards as well as long as the main account has 10 posts. That being said though, this does lead to the question of if rewards would have to be reduced to account for it - but that's a question for another day, given this is just a side note.

My main point here revolves around abolishing the need for activity checks in regards to limited items, magics etc. It's a pretty drastic idea, but there are a lot of key points I feel can be made in its favor.

1: The average age of FTRP's users are older and busier. This isn't back in like 2014 when we were all in our teens. A lot of us don't have time/energy. Some of us study in universities that demand our attention. Some of us have demanding jobs already. Some of us are just stressed out. I think the idea that someone can't make 10 posts in a single month for 2 months in a row because of factors like that is realistic. A lot of member's posts are on the longer side as well, so it's not exactly like posting doesn't take any time or effort from people.

2: The pressure. A lot of people will feel like they no longer WANT to RP but rather HAVE to RP because of the fact these regulations are in place. Not only do they lose the stuff they've worked on getting for a long time, but they might also be blocking other people out from getting it too.

3: It works against the appeal of the forum. The fact we have these kind of requirements on a forum that very clearly encourages grinding up and getting cool stuff with what you earn makes it even more stressful. It's as Vice stated in his earlier post - "FTRP's always been about how widely diverse the shops are and people looking forward to additions from the outside". This is something I feel rings really true. I've met members that enjoy the grind of FTRP in the past, believe it or not. Some people find that grind really satisfying, and given how many quests we have in the quest section, items we have in the item section etc. I'd say grinding is a major part of the forum. Why punish people who spend their time doing that kinda stuff when all they really did was be inactive for a measly 2 months?

4: It leaves a bad aftertaste. I've talked to a lot of older members this past year - people who have been with FTRP for multiple years in the past. One common complaint I see is that the activity checks are stressful. Some of them cite it as their main reason they don't want to return. I don't want an RP forum to feel stressful for people. RP is a fun little hobby. Stress shouldn't be a part of it.

Obviously I can't just complain about it and not offer a solution, so here's my take - either everything is limited and permanent, or everything is unlimited. This isn't just for items, it would apply for magics too. Obviously this is a drastic change and I wouldn't be surprised if a majority of people disagree with me, but I've always though that the option of "everything is unlimited" wouldn't be as bad as people think. One thing I've always noticed on discord is that people love theorycrafting builds and combination and all that. It's clearly popular among a fair portion of members. If a forum is going to offer so many options, why not allow people to go with what they want even if one dude has the same sword as them? All of those items could theoretically be obtained by a single person in the current system anyways, so it's not as though this would be much of a balance concern. Should some magics like dragon slayer be one at a time? I think that would be fair as a special case. But the vast majority of magics and items in the shop might be better off with being unlimited.

As for people who would oppose something like this with the argument of wanting to have the items they have be unique to them - customs are more accessible than ever. They're not super rare any more. If you want things unique entirely to you then you can get them whenever ya want, really.

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

I've typed like 1400 words now. Sometimes my thoughts go on for way too long. I planned to make this one big post with all the subjects I wanted to talk about covered, but it only ended up being two of them. So rather than wait for one big post I'll just save the rest for later and hopefully give you all something to chew on for now.

A lot to be broken down to be sure, to be sure. There's plenty to discuss from what's been said. I suppose I'll go from top to bottom haha.

At the moment I do think there are too many assumptions being made without hearing what the community in mind. I don't disagree with that and would not be opposed to an anonymous survey where people can highlight any thoughts, problems, ideas they have without feeling any potential backlash from what they have to say. I will set something up on my downtime. While it could certainly be said that it is a big investment and no-one wants any fighting events personally I feel that's because of the fighting events we've actually had in the past being a poor example. The last one we had was the GMG which by itself was full of other problems that did a lot of damage to the site. Obviously, I wouldn't want that to happen again, so I think trying out something more individualistic rather than group-based might be more appropriate for any future fighting events for now. Just a personal thought of course.

It is also my opinion that we should have enough events that even if you don't want to participate that there will be something to do for you. This is a tough balance however as I also do not want to overwhelm the community with things to do.

Custom Magics have always been an interesting topic to discuss, I could see them eventually added to the storyline system alongside legendary customs, so requiring a Long Storyline.

Secondary Magics after retrospection could be viable through an enhancement though would come from very strict accessibility, i.e no single-spell type magics and no slayers or take-over magics.

Non-Mages have always been a sticky subject and not one I nor anyone can really nail down particularly due to the flexibility that mages receive. Previous suggestions have been made such as more weapon slots for Non-Mages through Weapon Mastery, alongside many other proposals, but none that are comparable to what mages can do right now.

As is X-Rank and Z-Rank are status symbols, reaching there representing a position of power, something which could be said as needing to give a member something powerful for doing it. I can understand the mentality of hard work gives a reward, however reaching those ranks you're already super strong, compounding it through that might be a bit excessive. I would be potentially okay with Z-Ranks being given another chance to complete an Epic storyline, however.

As for storylines, they are a mechanic offered to members to have their own stories, ironically enough, however, can be a big investment to create, complete, and wait on starting another, I think that it can be quite a job to complete one, many just preferring to complete a neutral quest and interact through one of them. but at the end of the day it's up to them.

Activity Checks have always been a hot topic, one we have tried to compensate to a lesser extent with the introduction of multiple user purchases of magic through a magic scroll, (which I think purchasing a magic scroll should excuse you from activity checks on that magic) and a limited item depending on the rarity. 2 months can be a short time, but arguably 3 months can be a super long time, 1/4 of a year, holding onto something for that long without posting can be seen by some as a bit rich. I propose a middle ground, allow members to individually apply for a reprieve from the activity check due to real-life circumstances. That way items aren't stuck with people that don't intend to return for months and months while offering those that need the extra time off some time to relax from posting here.

Activity

I agree overall with Zane completely, it doesn't stop me from seeing how it can be a perceived risk. Some people can say they'd pop around more if such and such happens but won't.

Some aren't interested in regulating weightiness with some peeps not peeping. But ya overall agree and appealing to as many as possible can be good practice.

Oversaturating items and devaluing them can devalue people's experience. With there being multiple limited item/magic spots now and the custom review giving any effect, Zane's suggestion is just the logical path now though. It's easy to view other things as half-measures. Staff wouldn't have to check each month the activity and members could self-manage their bonus incentive. Many big active sites have had lower post word count, less than 10 posts, or no activity check at all. Would you rather have Kenzo or others potentially posting once a month as they're tempted into super-activity, or give up posting from anxiety?

Kon's suggestion for a reprieve is right too, many sites have that if a member's admittedly busy. Winding back to the first point of such and such, this is obvious to see otherwise of if someone is constantly chatting still.

New items or storylines are engaging and nice. Preset "generic" storylines and outlines could be made for rewards, like how quests/areas were made when this site reopened/season started.

Additions

The status symbols of higher ranks are a passing hobby. The most active people probably don't care for power, they want more to expand upon/do with themselves, and all the best if it's fairly customized to them. My opinion's that lower ranks could beat higher ranks even with multiple magics. Looking from outward, the higher ranks were made a long time ago. Kaiser and others took a long time to reach what (like many places) was meant to be very hard to reach. When something is very hard to reach, it doesn't need to be thought about much until people are actually beginning to get in those positions for a good deal of time. All X-ranks+ have left at one point except Alisa.