General Improvements

[Hishido]

Hello there,

First of all, congratulations for turning SSO into a semi-playable game. Kudos to you guys, you really deserve it. Love the graphics.

As someone who's owned and played RP games around BYOND, I thought I'd give some thoughts on stuff that I think could be improved. This doesn't mean that you HAVE to go do it, it's just some stuff that I know from experience makes RPing more comfortable for the general populace. You may disagree with me on some of these, and that's also fine.

1) Real-time reward system

One of the main reasons why I refused to play SSO was because of this. I think that rewards should be given real-time, and some sort of RP Spy system should be in place. This will alleviate the work of the admins having to constantly go through logs and logs of players' RPs, and rather take care of them off the bat. It's in the nature of RP that rewards for RPs gives you a better incentive to continue RPing. If you RP for days on end with your character not progressing, RP gets stale (in my opinion).

2) Player Statistics

While I understand that RP games aren't the same as verb games, having a general way of leveling up your character and consistently gaining some form of experience/stat points in order to level up is a good way to give people an object they would like to be working towards. The current system by which an admin has to sort through your logs and determine whether or not you've RPed enough for it is, in my opinion, not efficient. It wastes time, there WILL be issues with people being biased, and it's an altogether annoying thing to do. Have skills be set in tiers, with each X amount of levels giving you a stat point. Use the stat points on a certain skill tier in order to unlock a hierarchy of skills. Crazah, the system you had in place for NE works perfectly for this. This will also alleviate the need for players to beg the staff to look at their RPs. If you are able to get the necessary skill points/experience to unlock a certain skill, then logic dictates that you've RPed enough for it.

3) Shinobi Clans

While I like the concept of being able to play as a samurai, Priestess is an altogether non-canon race that destroys the feeling that it's a Naruto game. Second of all, the game is called Era of the SHINOBI (ie. Ninja). Races shouldn't be determined by some random roll when you start a character. I'm willing to bet that 80% of most people that log in will see that it's a random roll, try for 30 minutes to get the clan they want, then give up on the game altogether (I can list a couple of great RPers who quit EOTS because of the random rolls). If people don't want to play a specific clan, then they don't want to. Don't shove it down their throats. If you're concerned about having too many Uchiha/Senju/etc , then implement an efficient system to deal with it (ie. Make it something you can unlock via certain achievements in game. That way not everyone is running around with it, and only an above-average player will have access to it). Make all the other clans a select-able option upon character creation, thereby giving your players freedom to play their character as they see fit. (For example, I will NEVER RP as a priestess, or an Akimichi, or an Inuzuka, etc...)


4) The Academy

If you want to have the academy as a big part of the RP world, don't allow people to select their age when they log in. Have everyone start off at age 12 and go through the ropes. Don't allow people who are below Genin rank to leave the party. That way, they can RP with other trainees and the designated teacher without having to wonder where to go. It's a great tutorial to have the academy students only RP with the assigned teachers - they'll learn the ropes much faster and won't bother the experienced players with newbie questions. The system that is in place at the moment made me (I'm ashamed to say) sort of rage quit after a couple of hours. The player base IS NOT HELPFUL (this is not a rant, it's a fact). If you don't want to do this, please eliminate it altogether and have the transition from academy student to genin be an automated process. One of the biggest fails of SSO was that you had to sit in the academy for weeks on end until someone one day decides that they're in the mood to go an help the academy students. It's inefficient and drives away newer players.

5) The Guide


The guide that you have at the moment is not adequate. It explains basic game mechanics, sure, but it gives you no hint as to who you have to go search for, what you have to go do, etc... in order to progress with your character. It took me 2 hours of asking questions until someone finally told me that I have to wait for some person to randomly show up and give a class. When he finally did show up, he was incredibly rude, saying "I'm training MY student." before ignoring the newbies and going to RP with one guy.


Other than those 5 points, I really don't have any other suggestions. It's insanely hard to start a character off in the game, and it shouldn't be.

Again, these aren't rants of the sorts, just general suggestions that I think could make the game better and more unique. They aren't hard systems to implement (Should take you a day or two tops) and it will make this game MUCH more popular than SSO.

Peace out <3

[Claytonctc]

Not bad, I like some of the things here. But I have some problems with somethings.

1: Not everybody is a ninja, The age limiter would be a small problem. However I do agree it does get tiresome waiting around for classes, It would be nice if there were more teachers that would hold classes throughout the day rather then one/two a day.

2: With the stat gain thing, I both agree and disagree. If you mean give players a way to improve there general statistics through training and strenuous activities like mining or fighting. But if by "skills" you mean perks and jutsu I have to disagree there.

3:Don't agree with "Selecting a clan" but the earn clans by rp thing sounds interesting, Maybe give players a chance at randomly getting a clan during a remake an then lock there key out from clans for the next day?

Also, Yeah the player base? Not helpful. Admins can be helpful, But it can sometimes take way to long to get help. I guess they need to either bolster there ranks or at least make a guide verb with better information. including the games rules just to be safe :l