Forums! The Musical

I know you can spam the Wall or "play the market," but I'm curious to know if there's anything you can put in the game to occupy the time before intermission when we're out of turns. Like a simple puzzle game that keeps daily and all-time leaderboards or a slot machine you can spend moolah on with a leaderboard keeping track of how much has been spent and won by players. I'm sure that because these things detract from what Paradox is supposed to be, that they're not that likely to be implemented, but I thought it would be fun for us chatters to engage in a little friendly competition (hence the reason for the leaderboards) whilst we're waiting. You could even make it so that you could only access it if you actually had 0 turns available. As ridiculous as that sounds, I think it would promote players to use up their turns. And the most important part: it just gives us something to do and gives us a visual reward and bragging rights. Anyway, I don't think it'll fly, but let me know what you think.

Sounds... Interesting. We'll have to wait and see what Gobberwart thinks.

If something like this *was* to be implemented, it would need to be something that has no impact whatsoever on character progress (ie. no stats/item gains/etc.), would have to have minimal impact on the server and fit into the visual style of the game.

I'm not committing either way at this stage, but I'd definitely be curious to hear ideas, so if you have any... post away!

Idea's, no.......opinion, yes

No shots left........that always happens to me 10 minutes AFTER intermission....so I hear ya!

But to add something that wont detract or subtract from the game, thats a seriously hard call.

Rather than "add to", it makes more sense to expand from within what the game has to offer.......

game/chat/people.....its like the fire triangle. Take one element away, and it wont work. ADD another element....well, who knows? Anything can happen I guess........ The thing is, with the game at the stage it is, there will be spare time, and thats probably a good thing. At this stage, forums need to become vital, chat needs to strive towards being dynamic/fun/interesting and informative........stuff any green player can impliment those qualities to chat.......believe me ":). Enter comps, make a comp........spade for spiff/lollies/wiki.......practice toastmaster skills in chat....try stand up comedy in chat......thats always good for a laugh~! And for non paradox games, theres a games channel.....create and impliment your own there for everyone! ":) Listen to the radio here........make the dj play your music! (I try) The choices are endless.......

THIS IS WHAT I TEND TO TRY/DO WHEN IM OUT OF TURNS........ (RE TOPIC ANSWER/SUGGESTIONS)

I guess this is a "game" suggestion, but to players, not developers.......The devs made the playground, its up to us to make FULL use of it. With some imagination and drive, any individual player can turn chat or forums on its head with a little witt and spare time.Create some extra dimenion to those area's for yourself and others. 50 turns or 500 turns wont make a scap of difference.......besides, for people that are time poor, it would create an imbalance, and for the amount of people with THAT much spare time, its probably healthier to work with what you have, or take a break.......sometimes more isnt better,,,,,,,and extra usually means more of the same

Im not going against the grain of whats being suggested, I just believe individuals need to explore the game more to find more before they want more.........

Down the track, I believe it would be a great idea to make a petting zoo here................

Are you volunteering to be the petting zoo attraction Sally?

"Roll up! Roll up! Come see our (almost) tame Sallyfox! The only one known to exist! Feel free to stroke her...... but please don't feed her!"

I kind of like jupiders idea.

Spiff wrote:I kind of like jupiders idea.

With the wiki missing so much information, I'm surprised you're looking for more things to do

Sallyfox wrote:Lots of stuff

Awesome post, Sally, and totally valid. I'm still not averse to implementing some kind of simple, non-game-affecting mini-game if someone has a great idea, but there's definitely PLENTY of opportunity to both create your own fun and to create fun for others without it, while we (devs) continue to work on the core game.

Taking from Sally's idea, we can put up like a virtual pet system like a tamagotchi or something. Like feeding and playing with them when we're out of turns and even while in chat. And in line with the games time traveling theme, maybe we can get pet dinosaurs or pet aliens apart from the regular pets. This can be totally separate from the 'familiar' system. And it has little to no impact on the game other than the buying of the pet stuff and giving us something to do when our turns are over and in chat.

Okay. I totally agree with sally as far as the "make your own fun" thing, so I'm not really taking sides on this yet either.

I will, however, make a suggestion. I played Gaia for a while, and the only thing I go there for now is the jigsaw puzzles. I know its probably an uber-nightmare to code and implement, but if someone were to do this sort of thing, we could:

A) hold contests on the forums for players' art to be either temporarily or permanently added to the stable of puzzle art,
perhaps have a leaderboard for the fastest times in certain categories or on certain puzzles, and
C) get everyone involved with each other more, as it would in no way affect gameplay and would more likely become a social thing than a hardcore competition.

Just my two cents, and I know it's probably a ridiculously hard thing to implement and in no way necessary or urgent.

EDIT: In case this wasn't daunting enough, maybe even have shiny rewards that do nothing but rot in a showcase. Like Achievements, kind of.

-jB

Lol you mean for e-penis and e-gina purposes, I could live with that, plus puzzles tend to keep the mind working (^_^)

iSketch FTW!

If we were to implement achievements I would actually volunteer to write some. I like writing little sarcastic comments

Totally on board with the idea of non-story-related "stuff" to do, but I need to step in at this juncture and remind everyone that:

1. This isn't Facebook,
2. We don't have unlimited bandwidth/server resources (hence the need for a turn limit in the first place), and
3. With the exception of javascript, I'm 100% against requiring players to have any kind of plugins (flashplayer for example) to be able to play the game. If something can't be done without a plugin, forget it.

Oh, there's also the fact that we're trying really hard to work on stuff for people to do WITH turns, so extra "fluff" is very much not a high priority.

And the truth is, Im not really a player........just paradox eye-candy

(to look at when you run outta turns)

I bet we are just waiting for the devs to throw something for us to do when our turns, don't you think its better if we posted our ideas on what we want, that way the devs can see what the community and they can work Post away!

Oooo, now that sounds like a strangely good idea....

.... odd that no one has thought of it before!

/me waits for ideas to come with pencil at the ready

And GO!

that idea I had ages ago that I told Gob and some other people about.. like a pvp thing except you just fight them as if they were monsters, so not like ToG... if that makes sense

does pvp take turns?

MrsOraptor wrote:Oooo, now that sounds like a strangely good idea....
.... odd that no one has thought of it before!

Actually, they have. I am combining the two threads which share almost the exact same topic title.

Folks, please look through the current forum topics to see if a thread has already been started which fits your topic. It's very easy to clutter up a forum and the forum mods will appreciate your efforts since it means they don't have to spend time cleaning up.

Thanks, and please continue discussing ways in which the game could provide entertainment (aside from chat) when you are out of turns for the day.

The Arcade Room, A new zone, A few basic arcade games in here that could be played solo or multiplayer. Only a little fee might be needed to play the games. Games in mind was Air hockey, Race car racing, Shooting, etc. (no none of this will use of Flash) Just posting here to see what you all think. I have no clue what the rewards for playing could be, so everyone can sport their ideas.

A toy pistol for the shooting games

There already is a toy pistol :-p

...for the old timers anyways

Was there a point to that, Mas, or are you just showing off?

Point was that there already was a toy pistol in existence...i figure we can come up with similar, but new ideas...before remaking an item...in this case a toy pistol...so rather than a toy pistol how about incorperating something like...

http://blog.makezine.com/menu_nintendo_gun.jpg

Hang on, that's... a toy pistol. Ay Carumba!

I think this is getting off track, anyway. The original suggestion was to create an area to go play in that doesn't require turns. It wouldn't require any equippable items either, would it?

I was responding to to UnknownZ

Right now, there is nothing to do but chat when the day is done. I would love to have a turn free activity that we could do. I know this is a social game...but some lil' activity would be fun so I could keep my attention here instead of Alt+Tabbing all the time.

So any ideas might be listed here.

Unfortunately I haven't thought of any at the moment

I think there are already a few threads regarding this, actually.

Here is one: viewtopic.php?f=77&t=635

Merged.

The main problem I have with providing activities that don't require turns is that, while they don't add anything to playing the actual game, they do require server resources, which cost a not-insignificant amount of money to provide.

That said, you don't need turns to chat, trade, fiddle with your profile, be active in forums, add stuff to the wiki etc. so maybe that's something you could look at if you're looking for stuff to do? Alternatively, check out some of the "Help Wanted" threads around the place and see if there's anything else you would be willing/able to assist with.

Well, After beta gets released, i will be more than willing to make a Paradox iSketch list. Have to wait for Beta so I don't have to make a new one a few months down the line.

Okay. Totally awesome idea: A Holopet that instead of occasionally dropping specific equipment, it drops Rock, Paper, and/or Scissor cards that are non-tradeable. They could start as a simple "Plain Rock Card" but when you challenge another player and you win over their "Plain Scissor Card" you would win both cards and your "Plain Rock Card" would turn into a "Fancy Rock Card" (like a level-up) and the Scissor card would remain plain. Then, if someone challenges you and you play your "Fancy Rock Card" but they play their "Plain Paper Card" their Paper would upgrade to Fancy and they would take your "Fancy Rock Card." There could be several levels for each card, like this: Plain > Fancy > Extravagant > ... > Gold-Trimmed > Platinum-Laced Hologram (you get the idea). Just like in the real game, Rock always beats Scissors, Scissors always beats Paper, and Paper always beats Rock; this means a "Plain Scissors Card" could just as easily capture a "Diamond-Encrusted Paper Card" as it could another "Plain Paper Card."

Okay, now the downside: Multi abuse or simply players working together to upgrade their cards. Bastards. They ruin the game for everyone. So one or more of these are what could be done do to combat this:
A) The game randomly chooses any of the cards in your inventory, so long as you have two different types. This could be problematic if you don't want one or more specific cards to be played. It also turns it from a game of skill into a game of luck.
You select a pool of 3 or so cards of at least two different types and either the computer or your opponent selects one at random (and even you won't know which are which).
C) A "table" can be set up that you place your card face-down on alongside other players' cards. A challenger then looks at all the available face-down cards (not knowing who each belongs to and only if there are at least two different type of cards face-down) and selects one to play his/her card against.
D) You can only challenge or be challenged by a player once per day. Meaning you could play as many games as you wanted as long as you still have a card, but you couldn't play against the same player more than once.
E) You pick one of each card to put into a pool as does your opponent. All six cards are revealed to each player. The computer randomly picks one from each
player and gives the winner both cards, with the winner's card upgraded.
F) Cards are downgraded to their previous level with each capture until they are Plain again. This could make it very difficult to fully upgrade a card, unless it is upgraded several times between being downgraded to other players.
G) A Card can only be upgraded once per day. This poses a challenge with keeping track of what cards have been upgraded. A complex method of making a "Plain Rock Card" upgrade to an "upgraded Fancy Rock Card" that turns into a "Fancy Rock Card" after intermission could be used, but that seems a little overboard.
H) [Any other ideas...?]

There could be an MMG-style setup where you can leave you cards for someone else to challenge. Or maybe a chatroom /challenge playername command to play in chat. Or both.
Having one of each fully-upgraded Card in your Showcase could yield you an award or sticker.

Anyway, that's the idea. Currently, it's obviously full of flaws but I believe it has potential, and if Gobb likes it and feels he could implement it (after Beta, of course), we could work out the kinks and make it a fun community game.

I like the general idea. I'd like it if some flaws were kinked out.

I just want to bump this because I've just recently re-thought about this whole Rock-Paper-Scissors card game and still believe it would be a fun add-on to Paradox.

In MMG-style game play, you could put your card alongside two unknown cards for an opponent to play against. One card would be a guaranteed win for the opponent, but his/her card wouldn't be upgraded (nor would he/she lose or gain any cards), one card would be a guaranteed lose where he/she would lose his/her card (eliminated from the game completely-or just downgraded?), and the third would be your card: If your card wins, you would get both cards, with your card being upgraded and your opponent's card downgraded and added to your inventory; If you lose, then your opponents card is upgraded and they get your card, which is downgraded. In essence, you would need to use one card and win with it repeatedly over and over to get it upgraded to its max (e-peen ftw!)

Like previously stated, basic (level 0) card could be obtained in-game via a specific holopet or perhaps a particular zone or combat encounter. Only by winning against another player (not the guaranteed-win NPC card) could you upgrade you card to the next level. The two NPC cards are to eliminate multis from merely playing against themselves to upgrade their cards. The downgrading is so that you need to actually take risks and gamble to get your card to the max level (10? Maybe have a reward for having a level 10 Rock, Paper and Scissor card in your inventory?) If cards only went up, it would be easy and risk-free to get a card to the max; but by having losing cards downgraded, it adds an element of challenge and risk to get that card up to the next level.

I like this idea. I would really like to see it come to fruition; let me know what you all think.

Well, it sounds fun, but I really hate games that are just luck.

Hmm, yeah, and besides, ToG has a card game now, they beat us to the punch. So maybe a Hero Clix-esqe kind of game? where the Clix are Paradox Monsters. You could collect them like ToG Tiny Plastic sets, but they would be useable in gameplay in some form or fashion like Hero Clix or Chess or something, where it is turn based action play. Maybe with a timer.

I don't know what game mack is talking about, but some kind of strategy game (original would be best) would be nice. No timer, but there are no rewards except fame (maybe there could be player-hosted tournaments, but no in game prizes except an award for the #1 on the leaderboard)

It could use an ELO system.

Also, this is a little much for beta, these would be post-beta things.

A system like this would be cool, but so far down the priorities list that we should be looking for it in the distant future, for now we just have to make sure there's something to do when out of turns by keeping chat stocked with awesome people 24/7 8)