Below is a compilation of suggestions loosely organized that I’ve written since I first started playing OJ. Some have been added already, some of which I’ve properly noted. I just wanted to put this out there since I haven’t got around to fixing it up in a long time. Here it is in open office document format (odt), with tabs etc. intact at time of this release: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2251174/OJ%20Suggestions%20-%20Copy%20%289%29.odt
100% Orange Juice Suggestions, patch 1.7, prior to Nanako and Syura/Shura release.
Most of these are not gameplay alterations, as I haven’t given much thought to that yet. These are just things that have come to mind while I play or while I’ve detailed these.
Key:
+Adjustment. Something I think should be addressed, but not technically a bug.
-Bug.
*Gameplay alteration or just for fun. Might be more involved.
…Another aspect of the suggestion.
?…Additional reasoning.
[A#] means the first new set of items I’ve added late to the list. They will be scattered, so you may search on “[A” to find them. Currently goes up to at least A22.
[** means I want to check into it first. Search.]
–Contents:– (Keep in mind some aspects from other sections might be mentioned, or are vague.)
Menus, Shop, Lobbies, Deck Building
Battle
In-Game, Out of Battle
Customization
Other
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Menus, Shop, Lobbies, Deck Building (mostly order like this, per section.)
[+Adjustments:]
+1: Tooltips. This game could really use them for early player accessibility. Explain what you can without the manual, and on any unclear buttons etc. Some examples include deck saving buttons, random char button, game in progress icon, and map event buttons.
+2: A tutorial mode. It should be an additional primer stage before your original campaign’s 1st mission. They have to complete that to play, and can go back any time. This would help a lot, I think. It would be the same in every campaign, though if you want to personalize a bit by having different character-specific dialogue, that’s nice too, but not necessary.
+3: Booster packs should give more than 1 card, in my opinion. I think it would be more exciting and obviously make more sense. 3 would be good. They can still appear one at a time. Also, less clicking overall when blowing through your stars.
…Just multiply the cost, perhaps reduce slightly if you feel it’s necessary for early accessibility (or they can start with stars, or get a stars bonus for completing a stage they haven’t before).
+4: Make it clear somehow on the color packs that they affect all characters, and only their base color. If possible, show all of them (perhaps via arrow scroll for the sake of low resolutions, and it would be easy to add characters later).
+5: It would be nice if we could view an item under our level or stars in shop. Just because we can’t buy it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be able to look at it.
+6: Binder showing a billion of one card is pretty undesirable/pointless. We’re not using real money, we can’t trade them, we can’t sell them back… they’re just there to take up space. It’d be a lot more meaningful to display one of each, and on top of each, have a “14/3” etc. to show how many of it you have, and how many are possible to use in the game. This would make it much easier to tell when you still need to buy boosters, which should generally be the point. It’s also good for reviewing the cards, since it’s succinct.
+7: Please tell us when we have the maximum usable amount of every card from a booster by making it sold out. It would also be wise to make it clear when we have that for all boosters, as a note in Binder or something.
+8: Most of us would probably like to know how to get drops without having to review the previous patch notes. It might be nice to have a section in Avatar select or something, or if nothing else, update the User Guide.
…It’d be nice to be able to know when we have specifically the hair color drop you get from 10 games, so we can move on without counting carefully.
+9: Single Free Play doesn’t have the same options as multiplayer, namely banning Tomomo (I noticed her appearing), and game speed settings. It would allow new players to understand the speed difference easier if you made this consistent, not to mention convenient.
…Could also make a game speed setting in Campaign.
+10: Hovering over lobby names that are cut off should display full name as tooltip.
…Let us see which map events are in effect.
…Display who is hosting the room. If you want to allow for anonymity, then make it an option in game configuration (feels less weird having it there instead of while you make a game).
…Color locked rooms differently so we can easily pick them out instead of looking just for yes and no, which is kinda messy.
+11: Allow us to add AI players and choose their characters (and either let us choose their colors or have cpu pick its own). This allows us to make scenarios. These AI are still take-over-able.
+12: There are 2 special icons when you’re selecting a map’s events: Default events, and all Random. I’d like to add an icon for custom events, and have them be selectable, so that custom events don’t change when you switch maps. It’s pretty annoying when you don’t want it, which is probably often, but this method allows for both preferences.
…Add tooltips. Even if they can try them, it’s better to just let them know than force them to mess around with it.
+13: Integrated world chat that is on by default in the Join Lobby menu. Can turn off, similar to normal chat. The current Chat button method is too detached.
+14: It would be nice if you censored some very obvious (English and Japanese, romaji at least) words by default, especially for lobby names. There’s a fair number of nasty people making lobbies. This would be further worthy of addressing with the above item (13).
+15: When chat is minimized manually, it doesn’t appear again when someone talks, instead showing an icon change. This is fine, but the icon before the change should look different when it’s manually minimized, to be clear that it functions differently.
+16: On lobby screen, instead of saying the host is “ready”, replace “ready” with “host”.
+[A6]: The friend tab positioning in lobbies is a bit weird. It would make more sense to have them all on either the top or bottom. I’d prefer the bottom, as we’re more likely to look there. You can move the player boxes up slightly and keep them misaligned as they are.
+17: You cannot kick someone in lobby who has set to ready. Why? Please allow the host more control than that. There are people who cause trouble. This setup is pretty abnormal. Please allow banning from the lobby for as long as that host remains in control. Ban remains in effect during game, but cannot be started then.
+[A7]: Allow us to change the lobby name after it’s been made. This is especially fitting for when the host gets swapped.
…Allow us to change the host ourselves without having to leave.
+18: Arrow Selection: Whenever there’s arrow selection (character select, map events, colors customization), please show the one in each direction (if not more), as you do with maps. It would make finding what you want much easier. (Also please see [A11] directly below.)
…It could have a gradually faded transparent look, which would give you enough but perhaps save a bit of space. For colors, you’d probably just show the combination of base and hair to the right or left of the selected values.
…Please also allow us to use mouse wheel to scroll, a single step at a time. For colors, this could mean being in the correct vertical coordinates of the arrows, and contained between them horizontally.
+[A11]: With the number of custom colors increasing, it would be very convenient to have a grid display of each color. Instead of cycling through them, you could click hair, and get all the hair colors you have display at once to choose from. (You may still want to allow them to cycle as well, though.)
…This would also be a way to show what they’re missing, if you choose to show them.
…I think this would also be very helpful for character select as well, at this point, where we have up to 20 characters so far.
+19: Let us back out of a single-player game when in the deck build menu.
+20: Let us see the map and its events while building our deck.
+21: When you hover over a saved deck, it should show you what it contains. If possible, show it elsewhere other than what you currently have. It could just be drawn below it, on top of other things.
?…This is especially important for when deciding to save over a deck.
+22: Being able to label decks would help us quickly decide which we want. Name could display when we hover, and on saving it could bring a little pop-up text box (I imagine a rounded rectangle with coloring similar to the save circle, white text area inside).
…Honestly, I’d like to be able to have more than 3 decks. It seems bare minimum. With labels, this would make more sense, since we can be very specific.
+23: Please consider reordering Hair color and Base color so they make more vertical sense to feel more natural.
…You could also rename “Base” as “Clothing Color” to be more intuitive.
+24: Don’t say “Game is ready” after you select your deck unless everyone’s selected theirs. That is, change what it says up until that point. Just say “Waiting on other players…”
+[A5]: I’m sure everyone would like all the sprites used for characters, so they can make their own avatars and such.
…We would appreciate having all the base/hair colors as well, if not just so we know what exists, which is important for motivation and is generally more convenient.
+[A9]: Change the pumpkin heads to [hats, now that it’s been added] so we can keep the outfit. Really, it’s just monotonous and uninteresting to begin with, and ruins the rest of the costume.
…It would also be nice if you touched up the costumes a bit (even if you didn’t do the above change). Some changes had special additions, while others were pretty cheap looking comparatively.
[-Bugs:]
-[A1]: If this wasn’t already mentioned in a bug report by another player that brought it up to me, the trap-moving card title pun, 我等わるだ組, could probably be translated a bit more smoothly. I believe the pun is simply saying “We are ‘Bad! Team’ ” or the like, while making the pun “Our trap,” or perhaps not intending the waru to mean anything but be part of “trap”. I was considering We are The Trap, We are The Trick, or We are The Conspiracy, depending on how much you want to directly say “trap” or denote their “badness”. I recommend the first. However, if you feel Waruda as a name is important to keep intact, then that’s fine. Translators can’t (and shouldn’t try to) have everything.
-[A2]: I assume the name “Syura” is actually Shura, since syu is a poor romanization method for shu (actual sound, derived from a “shi” + a small “yu”). Shura also makes sense with the “hell” reference, though I have yet to play the origin games.
-25: Crashes if you alt-tab from full screen mode. (Using Win7.) Game just disappears without an error.
-26: Changing your avatar doesn’t save it on first backing out of the menu if you close the game. Seems to save if you back out one step further and if you play a game, I believe. It should save immediately.
-27: Tomomo’s sprite has a dot above her hair. It at the least changes colors with her hair.
-28: Re-sorting the lobbies when one is already selected causes a different one in that position to be selected instead. It’s not just visually.
-29: When I had already finished QP’s campaign (it was probably after I finished them all), I did not have the Pudding Chase map (had to buy it).
…Before I bought it, whenever I set up a game in Free Play, the Map listing showed the wrong map and events for the name. When played, it played the map name’s map, but with the events of the shown map (I think this was after we had the ability to change the events, so that’s not surprising).
…On buying Pudding Chase, all maps were fixed (I believe). I originally started my profile with Kai’s campaign, if that makes any difference.
-30: Character Color: If you play a campaign mission twice, the first time having used a non-default character with a non-default hair color (in my case, I don’t have them all, which could make it show up like it does for map select issues), if you play the mission again it shows the default character with a different hair color, whether you own it or not. One case: Played Tomomo w/ purple hair (don’t have other colors), regardless of clothes color, on Kai’s 5th mission, replay and Kai has black hair (I probably only had orangish brown and green extra colors, no more, no black). You can start the game like this and you’ll see it in-game (though you won’t own it still). I’ve also had base color and hair both change if I used Aru. Resulting color is consistent.
…Might be related, but I noticed Tomomo wouldn’t keep the Base color I chose when playing multiple Free Play Single matches, between the matches. It’d keep the hair color only.
-31: The description on some of the achievements are misleading or wrong now. Please review them.
…Tough than Diamonds says to “Win on an Air Strike Field” without being KO’d. The actual requirements are playing on Warfare with any map events (Air Raid* not required), winning without being KO’d.
…I’ve been told that a player gave up and played a final campaign stage on Casual, and still got Marc’s campaign achievement.
…FYI, “Poppo?” achievement is unnecessary if Casual is continued to be allowed for campaign achievements (if it becomes the norm), as when you get “Poppo?”, you would also get Superstar (assuming the bug extends to both these achievements; I have heard one case (same one) where they didn’t).
…Fair Trade with the art from Reverse Attribute Field is particularly misleading. Multiple people have assumed it was a positive effect from Reverse Attribute rather than Exchange.
…On the topic of achievements, Starbound and Battle Master are kind of dumb. Consider making them hidden if possible until they’re unlocked (I believe a certain Fernet-icon one was like that, which someone found for me). Is 30 wins even very possible without deliberately stalling the game or from very bad decisions? That’s like playing the game over again and then some. Even if it has happened before, that doesn’t make it a good type of achievement. Consider lowering the requirement to 20 or so, which is difficult but certainly not impossible in a normal game. Starbound seems pretty unlikely as well, though not quite as much.
-32: All Character Weekend: I have the seagull, but only normal characters otherwise, and on this weekend, I had 2 gulls. They had different positioning between the arrows (the wilds other than one gull all seemed rather low, like Poppo).
…Also, they aren’t allowed in Single Free Play (we might want a test run first, after all).
-33: I’ve noticed that some cards closeups darken when you put 3 in your deck, but others do not, from both booster sets. For example, Stiff Crystal and Pudding darken, but Usabit and Dash! do not. Also keep in mind “Max 1” if you intend to keep this feature.
-[A10]: Nanako’s Base color skips default color when scrolling left (I have the pumpkin head costume, and it skips to that).
-[A12]: Map events disappeared between lobby matches. I was hosting, and I noted after a game that my “Random”, (blank), “Minelayer” (on random map) had all become blanks (I may have been late in noticing). I suspect it may have happened when someone left during the deck build phase, and it forced us back to the lobby. I noticed a game or two later than that, but I didn’t pay much attention at the time.
-[A19]: QP’s hair in some hair colors covers her eye, but in default and other(s) it doesn’t at all.
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In-Game
[+Adjustments:]
+34: Chapter should be displayed at top at all times (probably in the font used for names), as well as Bonus (how much from each chapter).
…Hovering over this top area would do the same thing as hovering over the Deck in Info mode.
…It should display countdowns for map events.
…The above would aid spectators in knowing map events.
+35: Allow us to move the map around when it’s not our turn, still recentering with middle click.
…Allow us to move map while in “attack indirectly” mode, like with Poppo’s or Marc’s Hypers.
?…This would be especially handy when you’re dead, and get no chance to look. Boring and unengaging, if nothing else.
…Note: I believe we can move it around when someone else is selecting a norma. **
+36: Draw paths the character can take, instead of just highlighting the square. This could be lines, or perhaps floating dots (for style).
…They could use a similar method for square positioning as characters do when they’re on the same square as another, which will occur occasionally even if you don’t draw multiple dots before they branch into different paths.
…Color each path uniquely.
?…There are times it’s less than clear which path leads where, and people are usually in a hurry, so mistakes are easy.
…Along the same line, Please draw the remaining moves above the character’s head when they have a choice in paths, as they have when they’re actually moving. I personally wouldn’t do it so invasively, though, either way, with that speech bubble, rather having just the number, perhaps with a player-colored outline.
+37: Turn Indication: Some kind of different coloring scheme for when it’s specifically not your turn would be helpful, since things look pretty similar. Just a change in hue (not the same as the players’), perhaps, would be nice, if not a bit more done.
…Along the same thought, a visual change other than color would be nice (only) when it’s your turn, like a special highlight circle around your corner, or something, to grab attention. This shouldn’t happen for other players on your screen.
…When in single play, with no timer, an indicator to take its place would be nice. For the player, it could say “YOU”, and for cpu players, “CPU”, instead of the time.
?…It would also prepare them to look for that before they start playing multiplayer.
…Make it clearer when it’s your turn from someone attacking you. A special visual for the battle that’s visible during card select as well as after, plus perhaps a special sound effect when you enter battle would be best.
+[A8]: It would be nice to have a little star icon to the left of the first norma option (when selecting), and maybe a fist (or whatever) for the other option.
+38: Please show when an opponent is selecting a norma. You don’t have to show the buttons/numbers, but you might as well (especially if the coloring scheme is different, like the above suggestion [37] states). This is mostly just to make it clear why there’s a pause.
+39: Show players what cards they’re forced to drop. Preferably, show what they’re forced to trade as well. This could appear above Previously Used cards, with a label left of it saying “Lost:”. It would last until the end of your next turn. (If you lose a card on your turn while you have lost display from someone’s previous turn, it replaces it outright. Otherwise, it adds to it.)
+40: Star Decay: It seems like you’re punishing legit long games. It would be more reasonable to apply the cut to any remaining resulting score above 1,000, say, and perhaps 2% each chapter (give or take), starting say, after chapter 70. Right now, ch161+ means 0% stars, while this would mean ch121+ would be capped at 1,000 stars.
…If this penalizes the winner too much, then either don’t count Rank bonus in decay, or lower the %.
+41: I haven’t played Extreme difficulty much because, other than the already disturbing rigged rolls on Normal, there doesn’t seem to be any reward other than a purple crown. Consider adding a fair bonus of stars (or a multiplier) for star farming, or even just some to make them feel like it was slightly worth it. I would go for a 1.2x multiplier or more, personally.
+42: Cards for players 2 and 4 in their corners appear in reverse order (because of the right-alignment) than what they see on their turns. This feels inconsistent and makes it more difficult to keep track of things needlessly.
+43: Let us cancel Move command (opponents can just see it once you’ve actually rolled), or don’t require 2 clicks. I’d prefer the former.
+44: Fernet’s Hyper is a bit unclear. It should specify whether it does it randomly selects 1-3 per enemy, or only once for all.
…Display the damage done for longer, so we can see the scattered numbers easier. This is assuming speed 4, of course.
+45: Path splits should have arrows indicating correct direction of travel. You could use half arrows outside of the square for style, like __\.
+46: It’s actually pretty easy to not notice the player name above the previously used cards (I’m not the only one that didn’t notice until told). Consider putting a player-colored dot surrounded by a white circle in front of the name to make it stand out a bit.
+47: If you show the square that an opponent you’re choosing whether to attack is on, it would help us decide more quickly/intelligently more often. Consider drawing it below the character’s portrait, in a skewed circle (like the square is), and show any trap card animation. If a base, the pole/plate should stick out of the ellipse. It could also be placed near the top of the screen.
+48: Player Rings: To be consistent and bring more attention to it, make the player color rings rotate in battle. I actually didn’t notice them for a while until I noticed a gull player fighting another gull and was thus encouraged to look for evidence.
…Make them slower outside of battle. They’re pretty fast even on super slow motion mode speed 1.
…Also they’re mirrored backwards. That would definitely contribute to them being unreadable. (Hard to read, but they seem to be correct in battles.)
+49: Don’t block the opponent/yourself with your card hand in battle. It’s easier to keep track of things and act quickly if we can see. People won’t always be watching carefully between their own turns.
+50: Consider 1 click for defense and evade, instead of 2.
+51: “Winner” display lasts 2x as long as the fanfare or more. Then we have the ranks and score show up after. It’s not necessary to force us to stay on that screen as long. Please cut it in half.
+[A3]: Honestly, I don’t think the dice roll animation since 1.7.7 looks very good on speed 4. It makes me think of the old non-steam version of the game I have. It feels a bit too wild.
…We don’t get a lot of time to look at it either (and it seemed like less time now), so tracking it in a wider area is more troublesome, as well.
+[A16]: It changes strategy a bit, but QP Dangerous’ mechanic for stats from pudding cards is a bit “under the radar” (and doesn’t seem very protagonist-like either). You might consider showing stock effects on her for each pudding. It just feels odd to hover over her, see her initial stats, get in battle with her, and have her have significantly different stats with no explanation. I don’t recall if her card says she gets strength from pudding cards, but I doubt it says what from what. I realize that you might want to keep this secret, so I don’t intend to push this, but it feels kinda underhanded (compounded by her expensive origin).
…Alternatively, you could actually show her pudding cards each battle, which they’ll understand anyways, but at least it doesn’t just slip past the player unnoticed.
…If you showed her pudding cards face up in her hand, that would take away the questionable surprise, though the player might feel a bit “exposed,” but it would be up to them that they choose that character.
…You could show her total pudding card number (maybe in stock effects) instead of the pudding types. This would be an acceptable warning without giving away too much. I think this would be the least offensive, yet helpful, solution.
+[A17]: Perhaps we should be allowed to choose who to attack first when multiple players are on the same square. I would normally say yes, but it seems that it currently works off of player order or who last got to the square, as your first choice. If the latter, it gives the first person to be attacked a potential reprieve, since the new arrival might attack someone else first. However, I think it’s often more likely they’ll decide not to attack even if they’d normally attack both, because they don’t want to take risks before attacking the easier target. This can actually put the easier target at a disadvantage if they do survive, as then they’ll have another healthy player pursuing. Furthermore, players would obviously like to have a choice, so I think it’s for the best to give it to them. Consider a similar selection method, but show each character’s picture from left to right, and a “Don’t Fight” option underneath. Once you’ve fought one, their picture is taken out of the selection and you are shown the choices again.
+[A18]: It feels kinda odd that if you land on a base, and you get warped away by a trap to another base, you still can’t norma check. If you really wish it to not allow the player to do so ever, consider putting such a note in the card’s description, like “prevents norma check at both points.”
+[A20]: I’d like to see a better animation for Saki’s hyper going off. Something that shows how much damage it’s doing. One suggestion is to make it create a large upward explosion (like thrust) on each character involved for every 2 damage, and a small one if there’s 1 damage left over. That would keep it fast, but still make sense for every bit of damage. Have the damage above each character count up as it goes.
[-Bugs:]
-52: Player’s turn timer shouldn’t run unless he has an action he can perform. It runs while the character is moving, etc.
?…This is one of the bigger reasons I initially started choosing speed 4 for multiplayer. This would allow people to play at lower speeds if they like that, without other repercussions.
…When people join in the middle of the game, other host controls should be restricted until he chooses whether to let them join or not, and at the same time, his timer should be stopped. This will also prevent another bug (below [53]).
-53: When a player is asking to join and you press accept, if the click would cause something else to happen (like roll a die, or click more button), that happens as well. This shouldn’t happen.
…(copied from above [52]:) “When people join in the middle of the game, other host controls should be restricted until he chooses whether to let them join or not, and at the same time, his timer should be stopped.”
-54: Previously Used cards don’t always display when someone has to discard. I’ve seen it happen on me the turn I revived (Charity gave), and I’ve seen it happen on other players. I believe the hand cards still show.
-55: Uncertain, but Go Away may not always prevent norma check. I and another think we’ve caught it once or twice allowing it, on AI I believe. Something to keep an eye out for.
-56: QP’s Hyper protects against giving wins as well. If this is intended (probably should be), it needs to be noted on the card (it only mentions no star loss). You could put “… If your unit suffers KO during this battle, you do not give up stars or wins and…”.
-57: QP’s roll/attack animation (yes, she uses one for both) doesn’t have hair highlighting, which is a bit distracting. Is there a reason for this, or is it an oversight?
-58: Put the Revive number for playable bosses. Make it clear that Shifu revives in one turn, and how fast he heals
-[A4]: If you join a lobby with the game already started, the chat can bleed out of the lobby window before it switches to showing the game in progress.
-[A14]: I was told by another player that when he switched monitors, the game crashed. I believe this was while we were playing. He uses windowed mode (and he made a comment about borderless windows).
-[A22]: Battlefield made its “boss” sfx but only flickered on then off once during Christmas event. Here are the match details: Sealed Archive w/ Boss already on, miracle and battlefield as events (I think they took up the 2nd and 3rd slots respectively), on chapter 31. Random details: Bonus was 7, characters were, in this order, Saki, Yuki, Manager, and Aru. All had hats except Aru, who successfully unlocked at the end of that match. I don’t recall if it successfully came on again, but I don’t believe it flickered again.
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Customization
**
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Other
[+Adjustments:]
[-Bugs:]
[*Features:]
*59: Add custom eye colors.
*60: Shade your custom colors more consistently. They often appear too saturated, or boring because the original had 2 different hues, but you chose only one with different shading. Looks cheap (Shura/Syura’s is particularly atrocious).
*61: More colors. Perhaps different combinations, considering defaults are for several (Marc, QP, Sora, Poppo, Hime), which get changed to one hue with custom colors.
*62: A good idea related to the above (61) would be to allow us to color each part of the outfit separately with our base colors we have. You could have an icon similar to deck saving to select different clothing parts, using the same arrow. People would love this, I’m sure. Bosses and wilds included. Allow us to save combinations (hopefully more than 3 slots).
*63: Never make things exclusive to special events. Always have another way of getting them, even if it’s only by pay at a later date (though pay-only is questionable as it is, it’s acceptable). Otherwise, you’re just treating others that join late poorly. It’s better to take back what you said and put a positive spin on it than to leave it exclusive, unless they paid for it (which would’ve been a bad idea, but hard to go back on without offering refunds).
…QP Dangerous is a bad example of DLC. I understand why you might not say even if you’re planning on doing this in the future, but I want to point out that she should be offered as a separate DLC apart from her game. She is currently more expensive than 100% Orange Juice itself, and I haven’t really had an interest in playing QP Shooting (style/music don’t appeal to me), so I likely won’t be acquiring her as I did the others.
…I think a better move would have been to say that for a limited time, you will offer her for free with her game, and at some point later, she will be purchasable separately, while perhaps still being available for free with her game. This will stimulate purchasing of the new game (“limited time”, “free”, and “early access”), not make people feel like they’re missing out on content for the game the DID purchase unless they purchase another of your products, making most everyone happy involved. You can still change your deal to this, even if a bit late.
*64: Consider a different multiplayer currency (like “red stars”) to spend on any new items you put out, to keep people playing for a tangible gain. Naturally, we’d all start out with 0 once patched. This would be especially fitting for releasing cosplay outfits (see a bit below [66]), and perhaps new characters. Multiplayer games give the same amount of red stars and yellow stars. This would also help fix the issue of campaigns being the easiest way to get stars (with speed up and easier stages) and thus causing less players to be online, because it would be more efficient to get both kinds of stars at once. I would really like to see this feature get made.
…Option to buy red stars for those that want something fast or won’t be playing much regardless. I’m unsure how Steam handles this type of purchase, but if all else failed, you could have it be “purchasable content” in red star “packs” of different tiered amounts. This is also an effective way for players to donate and get something nice in return (but not making it too exclusive to make it unfun for others). Alternatively (or additionally), you could have “Quick Content” packs to unlock specific red star items.
…You shouldn’t be able to get red stars in a single player multiplayer game (ie. humans haven’t joined yet), so consider the amount of chapters and the amount of (other) players in each chapter, take an average, and make that your “Red Star Multiplier”, divided by 3. This way, if they were in most of the game, you still get most of the credit.
*65: A referral system to get more players. Give a special reward to anyone that gets 1 referral (should be a costume unique to this reward). Add other rewards for higher amounts that aren’t unique game features, like red stars (see above [64]), or special beta testing privileges, etc.
*66: Cosplay outfits: They would be a separate arrow on color select (“Outfit”), with the hopeful inclusion of color changes as well (At first, it could gray out the other arrows). I’d be interested in seeing what people came up with as fitting cosplay (game-wise and character-wise), that aren’t too extremely iconic/cliche. Any hats could either alter hairstyle a bit (perhaps) or just ensure nothing pops out (depending on the costume, probably).
Here’s a list of some ideas of mine, with some ideas I approved/modified working with aphtershox. These assume custom coloring to parts will be involved, as suggested a ways up (62):
–Some general categories for convenience–
Fandom Fantasy
Occupation Fashion Yukata
Kai * * ** *
Poppo * * **** *
Tomomo * * * *
QP * * ** *
Yuki ** * * * (no glasses?) [Considered The Mob as Fantasy.]
Aru * * * *
Suguri * * ** * [Considered Maid as Fantasy.]
Sora * * * * [Considered Teddy Bear Ears Mode as Fantasy.]
Hime * * * *
Marc *** * * *
Peat * * *** *
Fernet ** * * *
Nanako ** * * *
Shura *
QP (Dangerous) * ** * (Happi) [Considered Elderly as Fantasy.]
Saki * ** * *
Kyousuke * * ** ** *
…Yukata for each character. Altering hair style for the girls is optional, in my opinion. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukata (Idea from aphtershox.)
…Fashion wear for each character, as described below individually.
Kai:
…Protagonist Man: Much Protagonist Power. Should have at least a cape and mask, if not a full superhero suit. Uncertain on the coloring. Give him at least some dignity, though. Perhaps do without the glasses for this costume.
…Casual Kai / Street Kai: Keeps the headphones for this look.
…Busboy Kai: It’s better than fast food. Black pants, maybe white collared shirt with a black vest or something.
…Great Thief Kai(tou): Top hat, monocle, cape with big “vampire” collar, etc., default black color scheme with red inside cape. An alternate to black would be white.
Poppo:
…Leprechaun: She looks it, it fits her, etc. Needs hat.
…Kindergartner: Japanese look, with a little yellow hat. See: http://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/auc-school-carrots/cabinet/01762447/img58735138.jpg (side/back view) Another example: http://www.soka-stm.ed.jp/sakae-syo/shinnyu_img/tsuugakubou2.jpg
…Ladybug: A costume, but perhaps have the wings come out when she attacks, defends, and/or when she has a “victory” stance. (Idea from aphtershox.)
…Elf: Christmas or “cookie”/Keebler elf. (Idea from aphtershox.)
…Kid Dress: Something more normal than her weird baby look, with the pouch and bell. Small polka dots is a possible option.
…Pirate Captain: Possibly with parrot or canary. Must have 2 peg legs and an eyepatch. Claw optional. (Idea from aphtershox.)
Tomomo:
…Touhou 13’s final boss, Toyosatomimi no Miko. She has a similar feel, and her music resembles Touhou’s somewhat. See: http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Toyosatomimi_no_Miko
…Janitor: Her staff is now(?) a toilet brush, or perhaps a plunger or mop.
…Lonely Hangover: Bleached/light blue jeans or some color of sweatpants, and light (maybe light pink) top askew over another. Whatever it is, it shouldn’t be too stylish.
QP:
…Pudding Warrior: Costume made out of empty pudding containers of different sizes (larger than normal). Would include a helmet.
…Tennis Player: She just gives me a similar impression.
…Baseball Fan: (Or something with a baseball cap.) Baseball striped jersey unbuttoned over casual top, probably with shorts. Potentially big hand/finger for attack/roll, should not be visible otherwise (would feel gimmicky).
…Fire Fighter: Because fire fighter hats on dopey characters.
…Sherlock: Sniff out the crimes. And puddings.
Yuki:
…Mobster: Give her a nice fedora hat and pinstripe suit. Could change her glasses to full black rims. Give her a tommy gun instead of a handgun.
…Bad(?) Cop: Japanese police uniform, with bowler hat. Skirt vs. pants optional. Not the best example of uniform, but for the hat’s sake: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Tetsujin_28_and_a_ceremony_Oct09_072.JPG (Idea from aphtershox.)
…Business Manager: Might have a women’s tie involved, similar to what she normally has. Skirt vs. pants optional. (Idea from aphtershox.)
…Leisure Yuki: Newsboy cap askew and a jacket over her shoulder, which her hand toward the back (in normal pose) could hold, though this is her gun hand, so perhaps the coat could be thrown with flair over her head in the attack pose, or something. Needs better name.
Aru:
…Burglar: Sack of goods. Must have black strip eye mask and a fitting black hat, and clothing for whatever tier of burglar she is (typical, verses, say, a sophisticated jewelry thief).
…Winter Attire: Must have a scarf and a coat without fluff (since her original already kinda covers that). Carries a shopping bag or purse, normal method (ie. not Santa method), but attack animation can have similar positioning.
…Pirate Underling: White bandana, red/white horizontal striped top, white frayed knee shorts. One loop earring in her bunny ear. Sack of booty may look a bit different, like off-colored with patches and some treasure showing. (Altered by aphtershox.)
Suguri:
…Racer: Typical racer gear. Needs helmet, visor open to see her eyes. While the design of the suit is up for debate, try not to give her too many randomly colored ads (could potentially have ads for your games).
…Casually Hippie: Nothing in your face, but the basic look, including bell-bottom jeans. As for whether a jacket or vest or the like, optional. “Weird girl” look.
…Aneki Suguri: Elaborate, traditionally (and media-) inspired Yakuza getup, as a gang leader.
…Maid: Fits her expression of relief, and her general demeanor. Include gray(s) with the white and black, not too flashy. Don’t release this before releasing another outfit for her, lest it be the only thing we ever see.
Sora:
…Teddy Bear Ears Mode: Something simple seems fitting. Her attack “companions” could be sticking out of teddy bear suits, or just have ears.
…Fashion Enthusiast: Must have fluffy boots.
…Fast Food Cashier: With a nice little dumb hat. She has a good expression for it.
Hime:
…Touhou winged character(s): Ones like Flandre (wing design / bright colors), Mystia (Hime seems to sing); would rather it not be Cirno (wing design) or Utsuho/”Okuu” (chest jewel thing). She also looks a bit Touhou-like.
…Painter: Needs beret. Instead of wings, paint globs (she flings paint).
…Flamenco Dancer: Red (default) dress with perhaps some ruffles, maybe some minimalistic black lines. Perhaps give her a beauty mark (mole) on her face (to avoid hair, the left (her right) cheek).
Marc:
…Chef: The apron look with a chef’s hat and definitely not a butcher knife (little too sinister for this game, even if it might fit). Dice roll pose would be funny with this. Attack pose could wield a pot or something.
…Farmer: Must have straw hat. Uses big daikon instead of rocket. (Idea from aphtershox.)
…Fire Fighter: Her attack pose would have her holding a hose instead of a rocket. Kind of a pair with Peat’s Fire Fighter, and it fits her in a comical way well enough.
…Sniper: Because of her Hyper (especially on her maps). SWAT team style, must have eye-gear; could be futuristic. Sniper rifle. Should have its own attack pose, if possible. Otherwise, she could hold the gun backwards and swing it in battle.
…Princess: With a conical hennin hat. When she attacks, she could be holding the hat instead of a rocket.
…Casual Sundress: Something long and plain, light colors like yellow and blue. Optional light/white (white could be default color, but changeable) sun hat of some kind. (Idea from aphtershox.)
Peat:
…Zombie: He revives a lot, and his death pose is particularly reminiscent. Still has a pleasant expression on his face. Maybe a bit blackened face.
…High Society: Tuxedo. He just has that air about him. Wineglass optional, since his default pose is currently not right for it, but perhaps he has other poses where a wineglass could suddenly appear.
…Fire Fighter: He’s confident enough for it to fit pretty well.
…Unbeatable Peat: Karate master, open-chested karate gi, headband, default white color.
…Jailbird Peat: Stripes with a ball and chain.
…Retro Hero: Old Japanese high school uniform with matching hat. Hat could be considered separate. Example: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2251174/Old%20School%20Uniform%20example.png I’d say the grayer version works well for Manager, and with the hat intact. The more colorful version could work for Peat, with the hacked up hat as well.
Fernet:
…Viking: Hair isn’t far off, and she’s defensive, so armor would be fitting. Also, the pointing+expression attack she does seems to work. Braids and helmet expected. Might want to alter her happy pose somehow.
…Teacher: needs glasses (no top rim, perhaps, like Yuki’s), and a pointer stick to attack with.
…Out of Your League: Evening gown (red by default), cowl neck, pearl necklace, some kind of earring (probably dangling), and done-up hair.
…Traffic Cop: Probably with a vest, but perhaps not. Consider changing her pointing attack pose to a stop hand signal, though both work fine. She also has a backwards “stop” with her roll pose.
Nanako:
…Goal Keeper (Soccer): Her attitude and defensive qualities. Just seems to fit somehow.
…River Dance?: **
…Yuppie: Upper-middle class, pants, maybe some jewelry.
…Cheerleader: Her attitude, and to an extent her poses, seem to work fairly well for this. Pom-poms.
…Elven: As in your typical fantasy games/movies type of elf, or perhaps just a Christmas elf (Poppo also has this as an option, but between Christmas or like a “cookie” elf). (Idea from aphtershox.)
Shura:
…Hockey Player: That stance.
…Waitress: Holding a tray. Maybe with drinks.
…Cheerleader: Her poses seem to work well for this. Pom-poms are a given.
QP (Dangerous):
…Elderly: Requires cane or walker. Make her actually appear a bit older at least.
…Hot-Blooded: Requires flame (form-fitting), possibly very main character jet black hair. ** (Idea from aphtershox.)
…Happi: A matsuri happi outfit, pants or shorts. (I thought this would fit more than a yukata for this QP.)
…Let’s Get Dangerous: An old reference, to a mallard by the name of Drake. Nothing has to be exact (for copyright sake), but here are some reference images:
[http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130306075641/darkwingduck/images/5/51/Comic_book_capers.jpg]
[http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w223/Kyouryoko/letsgetdangerous.gif]
[http://i891.photobucket.com/albums/ac119/sasamipic/1272878355.gif]
And an alternate costume color would be for a certain nemesis:
[http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100101053237/darkwingduck/images/1/1e/NegaDUCK.jpg]
Of course, bringing in American cartoon-ness is probably not very fitting, and is a slippery slope. (Idea from aphtershox.)
Saki:
…Singer: What I thought she was to begin with. Maybe the grenade should be drawn a bit less like a microphone on the default. Anyways, now it’s a mic. Give her appropriate clothes, nothing skimpy.
…Umbrella: Tad longer raincoat and an umbrella, open whenever an arm is up, replacing grenade. Umbrella should show, but be closed, otherwise.
…Oversized Sweater: Possibly patterned, with sleeves too long, no hands ever shown. Maybe a lengthy skirt, to above the ankles.
…Ghost: Her default pose makes her seem nonphysical. Probably a white sheet over her, maybe fading transparency toward feet (sheet thrown the way her feet are, feet not visible), or sheet tapering to a point (no feet at all), or both.
Kyousuke:
…Rogue: He just looks the part. Rose pose is now him holding up his cigarette. Leather jacket (unzipped), black by default (potentially brown), tight white T-shirt which shows before Hyper is used. After use, he just keeps the T-Shirt. Always holding a smoking cigarette. Cigarette falls on KO. Either no glasses, or sunglasses (which could potentially come off after Hyper).
…Sentai: Hyper transforms him into superhero/villain/thing. Default appearance might be a bit more casual wear (T-shirt and jeans), maybe even casual office attire of sorts, with pens in a shirt pocket.
…Bruce Lee Style: Attack pose should be fists instead. Otherwise fine, though the rose should be gone, with him just making a fist. Baggy “martial arts” pants, probably Chinese with an appropriate shirt (when it’s on). Make him “Bruce Lee buff.” I’m unsure about the KO pose, but a weapon could be involved. **
…Surfer: Swimming trunks and a T-shirt, maybe Hawaiian button-down, unbuttoned. Hyper removes shirt as usual. Might have a Hawaiian lei in both forms. Needs a surfboard incorporated somehow. I’d like to see no glasses for this one. Attack pose could actually have him riding the board, with some pose tweaks. Win pose could be him eating a snow cone, and KO pose could be the contents fallen on the ground. (Idea from aphtershox.)
…Man in Black: Black business suit, puts on sunglasses when he uses Hyper. Probably no glasses before. Rose pose now has a memory eraser, which drops on KO. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuralyzer#mediaviewer/File:Neuralizer1.jpg
…Escape Artist: Has a straitjacket on (in reference to his near inability to hit many characters [changed now with his attack up to -1]). Hyper has him maneuver his way out. Can just have a black long sleeve shirt and pants, like an escape artist magician might, unless you want to make it more showy. Requires different poses with jacket on, though they won’t vary much (not that they do much anyway).
Gull:
…Gullfather: Mob gear. Slightly tilted hat, pinstripe suit, probably cigar.
…
Chicken:
…Chicken Costume: No, I don’t know why. It just seemed like a good idea.
…
Robo-Ball:
…Hero Ball: Some kind of super hero outfit thrown on him like he’s a coat hanger (he doesn’t know how to wear clothes). Hat or something(s) askew.
…
Manager:
…Santa Impostor: Together with the Santa hat, this would be a fitting outfit.
…Fancy Manager: Fancy tuxedo look.
…Retro Bully: Old Japanese high school uniform with matching hat. Hat could be considered separate. Example: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2251174/Old%20School%20Uniform%20example.png I’d say the grayer version works well for Manager, and with the hat intact. The more colorful version could work for Peat, with the hacked up hat as well.
Shifu:
…Schiff: Clad in a boat outfit with his arms through holes. Has a German flag on it somehow for the reference (Schiff is something like big ship). (Idea from aphtershox.)
Castle:
…
**
*67: More characters. [This was before Nanako and Shura. I’ve left this entry mostly bare, as you’ve fulfilled the character stat types I was interested in seeing except for one, a very defensive but low attack character, preferably without an offensive battle hyper, and hopefully 4+ HP. Since we have Kyousuke now to go with Fernet’s +2 Def, perhaps a +1 Def, +2 Eva might be in order. I recommend -1 Att unless you provide a more reliable way to damage Eva-based characters, unless the character needs to be very weak to them.]
…Some stat types I would suggest include:
(0 Att), +Def, (0 or less Eva) [done – Shura]
(0 Att), +Eva, (0 or less Def) [done – Saki]
(0 Att), +Def, +Eva [done – Nanako]
-Att, +Def, +Eva
*68: Minelayer laying traps on bases is a bit questionable. It’s worth a lot more there. Perhaps forbid that.
*69: Gift Exchange is an odd card. It’s an easy way to trade Hypers, but the person using it has less chance of trading anything, and yet it’s level 3 and has 10 cost. Perhaps it could be changed, or you could draw a card, either before the trade occurs (preferred), or after. If anything, it would make it more fun. Cost could be increased a little. Keep in mind it would also get used as a single card draw when there aren’t many cards on opponents.
…Another option is to favor trades that give your cards to others, though that would prevent certain outcomes where you hope to get one of the two cards back.
*70: Trap Ideas:
…A: Cost the player when the trap is hit, rather than when set (previous method before they were free). I still think the the costs should be scaled down from their previous levels, personally, but for them all to be free / the same cost is a bit questionable (though level requirements help).
…The debt mechanism could incur negative stars if you’re low enough, but another option is to leave 0 as the minimum amount of stars, allowing more trap usage when you’re low on funds anyway.
…B: Ability to place a trap on your square or the one you were previously on (or, any square you could’ve come from). This is just to give a bit more interesting play from traps. [Now that Saki has come out, this would make her hyper a bit more interactive as well.]
…C: Defensive Traps that lay on the square you land on. Since it might cause you to avoid battle entirely, the cost could be higher than a battle card of similar straight benefit. Of course, they don’t have to be directly battle-oriented (like doing damage etc.), but could cause them to lose their next turn (Dangerous Pudding isn’t so great for stopping normas, but would be good to keep them from pursuing you), or just deplete stars, etc.
*71: Boss/Wild playable character changes:
…x[Basically done.] I want to see a balanced version of Tomomo. She doesn’t seem that far off. Instead, allow us to play “Boss Tomomo” in single-player and perhaps “Tomomo-allowed” rooms (though I think this should be done away with). Sell the Boss/MPlay versions together as a pack, or make it sort of like you do for wild/boss cards that aren’t playable. Explanation text when you try to buy each would be great, by the way.
…I’d like to see playable Wilds (perhaps not the ones in Kai campaign 1) get Revive 3 (unless with further changes it’s too imbalanced). I’d also like to see some kind of wimpy/odd Hyper for each. Make them balanced/interesting if you can, while keeping 3 HP. Gull is probably easiest, since he can behave like Peat somewhat, giving and taking wins, but the others would need more help, probably Robo Ball the most, being a +def with low HP. The main issue is that they’ll lose stars often, and that it’s hard to get wins with low overall stats, especially for def/eva types, so they’ll probably need a special mechanic like the bosses, but hopefully unique to each. In addition to an always active effect, Hypers that last over turns like Kai’s can help. Some potential active effects might include “only lose 1/4 stars”, “take 3/4 stars from opponent”, “get double wins” or “1 additional win per KO’ing an enemy”, etc. to address their needs directly, and maybe another interesting effect.
…The bosses can actually be a bit boring, since they don’t get Hypers and have some major part of their game taken away (mostly Manager and Castle). Please consider adding some form of Hyper to them and perhaps adjusting things to be more interesting/engaging. In the case of Manager, the Hyper could activate on its own, either immediately, or in a certain circumstance, or you could just make it usable. Honestly, though, I’m not a fan of “can’t use cards”, “can’t counterattack”, and “immune to battle cards”. I’d like to see less extreme mechanics, like “add 10 to the cost of every card”, “add 1 to the level requirement of every card (can’t use level 5 cards)”, “- 1 stats when attacked” or “-2 attack from default on counterattack”, “opponent must pay 10 more to use battle card against you”, etc.
…Once properly balanced and interesting, I’d like to see boss/wild characters randomly selected as cpu characters as well.
*[A15]: Hyper Ideas:
…Can move backwards this turn. Cannot stop prematurely on bases/opponents. (This can be powerful for getting norma twice. As such, it might be rather fitting on a Wild.) [Incidentally, Backtrack has now been released, which I had considered but thought it would be a bit too imbalanced, since one player may easily be able to hit norma twice, which is quite the game changer. It’s good that it’s only every 8 chapters, but it’s still questionable. This would be alleviated somewhat if we could see the time until an event begins. There is an item (+34) on this for more details.]
…
**
*72: I was told to put this in, despite it being a bit unlikely: Get Wakamoto-sensei (voice actor Wakamoto Norio) to make another voice to choose from. I can’t say how willing someone of his stature would be, but if it worked, I think it would sell a lot of games. Maybe a whole lot. At least the script wouldn’t be long. See:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4tIi2Q_LWc Counting 100 Sheep
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFBZBAbbKt8 an Azumanga Daioh scene
and many other works.
*73: I’d like the ability to use a card when it’s above my level IF the game’s average level meets the requirements. While comebacks in this game are real, this would make it more enjoyable when someone can’t even get their 1st level down, and have all these worthless cards on them. Not a great feeling. This feature could also potentially allow for a bit of strategy, and seems interesting. Naturally, it should have some special indication to show why it’s suddenly usable. (While it would also be possible to require a higher cost, this would just be hurting the lv1 player even more, especially since they receive stars less quickly from yellow tiles, and are often still lv1 because they keep getting KO’d, losing stars. That being said, it’s better than no option at all. You could require +10 cost, or perhaps even 5+x cost per actual player level, like 5, perhaps, since they can handle it better as the level up. Another issue with this system, though, is that cards that, at least in theory, “weren’t meant to be used much or early,” would see a significant increase in usage. Depending on design, this could be a lot more interesting, or affect balance detrimentally.)
*74: 4th player is at a disadvantage. They start late, and chapter stars affect player 1 in a way that he can immediately get a star norma (or use a card), while player 4 is just a more attractive target until he gets to do the same (which would mean loss if they were tied at lv5). While the disadvantage may not seem huge, it is real, and somewhat constant. You can argue “this is chance, too,” but it’s a handicap right from the start for the rest of the game. A small balance change could help for competitiveness and for feeling better about getting put last.
…One method is to reverse turn order for one turn. This doesn’t change a lot, but it allows them to not get immediately sniped on tight maps, cementing the disadvantage more.
…You could allow them to make some kind of decision, like starting position (maybe a certain distance from home, possibly causing them to reap the square’s effects), an extra card vs extra stars (vs a free win maybe) to start with, or who knows. Depending on what it is, deciding first may put the other players at an advantage or you at an advantage more, so give the most advantage to the latest players.
…You could argue that boss appearance slightly favors player 4, in that it appears at the beginning of next chapter, allowing you to more freely attack the player that became level 4.
*75: I’d like to be able to adjust the frequency of map events. As long as there is a countdown displayed (see first +Adjustment), it shouldn’t be a big problem. Replay value. You can set some limits still, like 3-10 for most events, maybe 3-12+ for Battlefield (potential continual battlefield).
…Should not apply to Random event.
…Re: “Let us see which map events are in effect,” let us see the frequency as well. This is likely in a tooltip.
*76: Match history, with players’ names, characters (with coloring), and player levels, as well as map and map events. This will give more weight to each game (feeling of accomplishment), and is a nice feature.
*77: I believe the game needs something(s) more permanent than drops to keep a player base. Here are some ideas so far:
…A: Tournaments. They could use a bigger player base, but if they exist, people that play will play more often, and more people will be interested in buying the game, so it will help itself work.
…(1.) Minor Tournaments. These would take place on an announced map, with announced map events. Over a week, people would join at any point to enter their weekly tourney game(s). Tourneys could last 4 weeks. The idea is to get game wins, not to have a bracket, per se, because of the large potential player count; however, it could behave as “double elimination” in that one loss wouldn’t kick you out for the rest of the tourney. Could require maybe 2-4 games per week to stay in. Losses from week to week stack, and if you hit the limit (maybe 2-4), you’re out. Players who survive the last week get trophies based on how many losses they had. Gold would be 1 or so losses, then silver and bronze. 0 losses would get a special trophy: platinum, diamond, or pristine, sparkling orange, or something. These trophies are kept in the player’s profile records and are also used for entering Major Tournaments.
…Every 2 weeks, a new, unique Minor Tourney could start, to keep things alive. (Undecided, but that could just apply to this type of Minor tourney, and not team ones, which could be held on opposite weeks; so, a Minor tourney a week.)
…In order to get a full house of tourney goers, there can be 2 options: a) Don’t start game until members get in, or b) start a normal game and play while you wait for tourney members to join. The game could have a label that it’s gathering them, and next game will be a tourney game if everyone stays and agrees (they agree/disagree when they initially join; if a spec comes in and agrees to participate, they’ll take over between games when tourney starts.)
…(2.) Major Tournaments (Scheduled). These are less accessible, but would allow anyone with certain trophies or a certain amount of them to enter. They have specific times they have to play, or they drop out (there can be a list of “almost qualified” players to take their place in the first round, to keep things going and to even out the numbers). It will be an actual double elimination tourney, with best out of 3 or 5 per round. A round per Saturday, probably. Trophies gained in these could have a label attached as to how many players participated. This acts as a drive to compete in higher #s tourneys, to help get itself going.
…(3.) Team Free Minor/Major Tournaments. If either of you on your team wins, your team wins. Choose any character to an announced map and map event(s). Any team you’ve won trophies with will be remembered in your team trophy records. If you team up with the same person, that team will get more trophies (though you can potentially change the team name, it will be the same team). KO’ing a teammate gains no wins/stars. You should be able to see each others’ cards. Team chat, perhaps only. Could potentially have a pick & ban system for characters, and have one team select characters first and last, and the other team select 2nd and 3rd. **
…(4.) Team Locked Minor/Major Tournaments. Create a team using specific characters with someone. You cannot change once your team is formed. Compensate each others’ weaknesses in all situations and get multiple trophies for this team.
…(5.) Team Character Minor/Major Tournaments. A team can only consist of one character. It’s character vs. character, and you have to try to beat them out with your decks. Map pick&ban system and map event pick & ban system are a must. The reason this isn’t done in other tournaments is to keep them fresh.
**
…B: Alternate Game Modes. There could be different sets of rules and such, like how games may have a Capture the Flag mode, etc., sometimes having maps devoted to the modes.
…(1.) Guaranteed Hyper. When someone reaches level 4, they each are given a hyper when the boss appears. This is more like an additional rule to be added to whatever game mode you’re in. The idea is to not only make it more fun for everyone (as getting no Hypers the whole game is rather not fun), but to give characters more distinction, so things don’t feel so monotonous. There would also be some strategy involved.
…(2.) Hives. Red squares are now aggressive (different design) and cause wilds to attack first (not bosses, and battlefield squares are normal). Additionally, they spawn tiny sprites of wilds (1/4 or 1/5 of each dimension) that travel along the board after the 4th player’s turn. They are docile unless you decide to attack them. Squares do not affect them, except warps. This could also be an event, since they might spawn at intervals anyway. Either way, when they spawn, there should be a maximum number allowed out at once. This could be from 3 to 6 perhaps. They could also spawn whenever one is killed, initially spawning from random red square locations to max on chapter 1 or so, or when someone reaches level 2. No need to show their rolls; just move them.
…(3.) Batsu Zone: Using a warp square always teleports you to Batsu space, a darker version of the current map (background color scheme and square shades, perhaps dark character/boss overlay as well), which others in the normal space won’t see unless it’s your turn. Batsu Zone features a roaming, aggressive boss that attacks first (as a player would) and always rolls a 6 to move (or at least higher rolls). All yellow squares are warps, and all those and normal warps send you back to normal space, to a random warp square. This is to keep most of the game in normal space, and gentler maps keep their relative gentleness. Bases still exist in Batsu space, but don’t heal. I’d like to keep Batsu (penalty, x-mark) untranslated, as it sounds more other-worldly as a different dimension (x would be pretty cliche), and the idea of batsu games is a Japanese-y thing. Could technically be an additional rule instead of a mode, or an event.
…** Need to consider a version where it would turn batsu on/off for everyone at once.
…(4.) Mercenary Mode: You play as normal, but you also move a boss character of your choice (real boss, not weakened) on your turn. Boss gets no cards or interaction with yellow/blue/green (and perhaps not red) squares. They take stars as normal when they win, but I’m undecided on whether the stars should disappear or be able to be won back (as it would often be a big sum); if latter, then they should probably keep half still. It might be interesting to have a choice whether to move boss or character first each turn. If the boss gets the stars, your character doesn’t, and you can’t attack your own boss, so who moves first is important.
…(5.) High Five: A tag team mode where you pick up to 5 characters, and put them in an order you’d like (the same character can be used more than once). When you reach norma, your character tags out with the next in line. Hypers would keep track of original player owners, changing to whatever the current character’s hyper would be for that owner (so it would change for the card holder regardless if they owned the card originally). This is partly to prevent easily breaking the game by planning what character would get what hyper(s), but also has an interesting dynamic with the opponents who hold your hyper.
**
*[A13]: Event Ideas:
…High Speed – Every move gets +1 distance added.
…Low Speed – Every move gets -1 distance. Could potentially land on the same square if 1-1 = 0 distance, or default to 1 distance (I’d stay away from making them simply lose a turn). Default timing/duration should differ from High Speed, perhaps ending just before HS begins, or if that’s not consistently possible, they can be inconsistent, like Battlefield and Miracle. High Speed would dominate.
…Scrambled Squares: There are a few ways to do this:
……x[Won’t work normally with multiple paths; would require anything not considered “main path” to trade within itself or each other (even weirder).] Advance all non-base squares by one square clockwise or counterclockwise. Effect could be permanent, eventually cycling back to default, or it could just go back to normal. If the squares advance forward, you could potentially hit the square you were on again, assuming the character doesn’t move with the square (probably best, to avoid being moved past a base).
……Flip the colors of squares, or randomly trade (preferred out of all of these). For the former, you might trade blues and yellows, and then reds and greens, maybe leaving purple alone. For the latter, you would basically give the colors a variable from A to D (or E if you include purple, which could get annoying), and then shuffle each color to a letter, 1 for 1. You could also randomize it so that you could end up with all the same color even, though balance could get pretty weird (not much more than Battlefield though). Shuffle or randomize, this effect should revert back to defaults after a few turns, like Battlefield, but could perhaps last longer (with a longer down time).
……Mix their positions. The numbers of each square remains the same, bases stay put as with all of these ideas.
…Agility – Everyone gets +1 Evade. I don’t believe this would hurt balance too much, but I haven’t analyzed it thoroughly. It could be depicted by wings drawn behind the character (i.e., on their backs), or an icon above their heads (less interesting), for instance, in which case it could be called Wings. Clarity is also another option, though that could potentially be used for something else.
…Shadows – Your shadow (or pet, proximity sensor, etc.) gets dragged along when you move (warping keeps it under you initially), staying one tile behind. If an opponent steps on it, they have the option to attack you (special popup), but they defend first instead of attack. It gives them the option of stopping on a different tile, and does not interfere with choosing to attack normally if they refuse. They only get the option if the shadow isn’t in your tile, and it starts in your tile when the event begins.
…Second Wind – Everyone’s revive number is lowered if they are KO’d during this event.
…**
*[A21]: Square Ideas:
…Door – This is simply a path split option, but disconnected to the door it will send you to (requires another move). This could be any square, but with some border around it. This will give more flexibility in designs. If it is a dead end, it doesn’t ask.
…Ice – If you land on this square, you slip into the next square. This will keep occurring if the next square is ice. You may still choose a direction if path splits. A few consequences of this mechanic: Moves will tend to go farther; players will tend to land on the same square, causing fights and making whatever that square does happen more (you may, for instance, use a neutral square or a red/boss square).
…Heal – Simply a base square that doesn’t check normas. Naturally too many of these plus Regeneration event would generally be a bad idea. Could be white (or if you want 2 colors, a red “+” on white)
…Boost – Stat boost for 2 (including the turn you land on it), maybe 3 chapters. Either gives a specific boost (labeled), or a version could give you a random boost. Could be orange. The stats could of course include att/def/eva, but also +1 HP max, which would temporarily raise their current HP by 1 until it wears off (this can KO them “safely.”) Revive starting number is another potential stat (it could last a bit longer as well). If we want 6 random stats to get from a roll of a die, a final option could be a temporary hyper card. This may or may not force you to discard if you go over card limit.
…Switches: Step on one for different effects. Especially if there is more than one switch, there should be a marking as to what area on the map it affects that matches the switch, like “A”, “B”, etc. If someone is already on this switch, it won’t change anything if another player lands on this square. If there are multiple versions of the same switch (same label), then they should all be pressed when one is pressed, and do not re-press until players are all off of them. Could potentially be placed on any color square, but neutral would make the most sense, since it has its own effect. Art could involve a button in the center, or a flip switch to one side (especially if allowed on colored squares, to see the art) with a label at its base.
……Path Switch. There will be an arrow between one square and the next. The arrow can change to direct to a different path square. I also considered a path switch that would change whenever someone passed over it, but that would ensure they lost a pursuer, which is a bit too powerful. However, you could put the switch as the square that the paths branch from, so there is a chance the pursuer will accidentally switch the path, or other similar position variations.
……Event Switch. The event in a certain slot could be tied specifically to a switch, not activating until someone lands on it. It could stay pushed until a certain allotted time if necessary, but generally that might take the fun out of it. Battlefield would still last 3 chapters, and would either be toggled off or extended by an additional press.
……Other switch-specific possibilities, including game modes necessitating them.
…Overhaul how paths work. Have booleans for each direction that is permissible (and fix crashes from loops). It’s hard for me to imagine why a more straightforward system wasn’t implemented to begin with. The current system is limited and prevents certain path configurations, especially with adjacent tiles that aren’t meant to be connected. This would go great with a visual overhaul of pathing, showing your number of steps left (when you actually have time to see it, during a path decision), and un-highlighting tiles you can no longer reach, drawing various path lines, and, ideally, drawing different colored path lines for each path to take, as it is unclear at times. This makes maps with adjacent tiles that connect (or don’t) in various ways much more clear and viable-feeling aka fun.
…Triangles – Make 90-45-45 and 60-60-60 angled versions of triangle tiles for more map path flexibility. These could be used as joints between squares or on their own for designs and fitting more tiles on a path than normally would be possible. If you use Doors (see first item in this entry), this would solve any issues with not connecting smoothly.
…Norma Trade Stations – This could become a feature of default home bases, or it could be a special base, or its own tile. It would allow you to change your norma type for a cost to both stars and wins. Part of the reason for this is how it feels being handed 1,000 currency after currency has become worthless. It just has a bad feel about it, and not just frustration; it feels like we should still be rewarded in some way (in-game, not after it’s done). If it’s a part of a base, then I recommend they can’t trade and achieve a norma on the same turn.
……Switching from stars to wins could require: 2 wins and 100 stars.
……Switching from wins to stars could require: 100 stars and 2 wins. (bear in mind wins are harder to gain back than stars, so I felt it might be better to keep the same cost, which is simpler to remember anyway.)
…**
*78: Japanese Mode. If possible/plausible, I’m sure some of us would like to see/play the game in the original Japanese. I bet there are elitists out there that are more interested in games with this feature.
*79: Miracle: I’ve found it a bit ironic that Miracle seems to be less good for Aru than say, battle characters, since there’s 2x draw (bad for her Hyper)and now 2x wins squares, while maintaining 2x drop. I was considering that taking out 2x drop might ease the bias, if you perceive there to be some, and it doesn’t really fit “miracle” as much as “curse” anyways. Battlers tend to be pretty flexible norma-wise, since they’re taking out those with the stars, so 2x bonus helps them almost as significantly as non-battlers.
…Also possible to 2x heal on base squares, as it’s very “miracle”-like, if that doesn’t sound broken.
*80: Custom soundtrack support would be nice, as the game’s music gets old since it keeps restarting, and playing some rather different styles, some of which are a bit cheesy and/or cause painful memories. It would basically require us to provide a compatible file type, a start time, loop-start time, and loop-end time (0 to default to the end). It would also be an interesting option to allow us to have a different track for each level the character reaches, to not become monotonous much at all. This would allow us to have a theme pack for each character, which would be fun.
–Chance Alteration–
*81: I’ve heard a rumor that rolls in this game “aren’t exactly random” in reference to getting high rolls if you time it right to the animation. If this is true, please either make it clear, or make it random.
…I’ve also since discussed with someone that you might alter rolls in multiplayer in some fashion. If you do, please be nice and tell us how. We should know what we’re getting into. For instance, if you alter rolls to balance a card or a character, we really should be told, or we might assume it’s overpowered or under-powered.
*82: Potential Event/Mode: No 1 rolls. Result after stats can still be 1. This cuts the chance down a tad, and I was wondering if this would be more enjoyable than default play. Balance will be affected (as with any event). One thing is that negative stats normally can’t reduce the result below 1, so they would now have more relative chance to reduce your roll, which would affect low defensive rolls (again, relatively speaking).
*83: Potential Mode: Consistency. Probability of middle value rolls are greater than extremes. Takes away some of the seemingly abundant “all 1’s” annoyances, and lowers the “you couldn’t have possibly lost any harder” 1/36 chance rolls that seem awfully common. Rage exists at the extremities (more so than positive excitement), especially when repeated consecutively, and causes player extinction (or at least discourages them from playing for a while), which is similar. In other words, it’s good for the player base, which is good for the game. As long as it’s a choice, it shouldn’t be a problem philosophically.
*84: Potential Mode: Out of Luck. A mode where your rolls are rigged somewhat based on your previous rolls so far. This might be more enjoyable (feels more fair) and more tournament-worthy, where you can more literally run out of luck (more so, anyway). Let’s explore one mathematical method I’ve come up with:
…(Can potentially display each player’s “luck”, or chance for the best roll (usually 6, 1 if drop panel). This might make things slightly more exciting; more so if the effect is pretty significant, though I’d be careful with that.)
…3.5 is the target value between values 1 through 6. Let’s keep in mind for later that each chapter, a player rolls (without double roll cards) from 1 to 9 times (1 for move, 1 for bonus/drop or 1 to 2 for battle square, 1 to 2 for each of the 3 opponents you could fight).
…rolling a 6 (except on drop panels and perhaps wild/boss rolls [if they don’t have their own luck(s)], which would consider 1’s best) would be seen as a positive % difference of 3.5, so +71.4%, as the “divergence from the desired average” for a single roll (times some multiplier later). Over multiple rolls, this formula would be sum/(3.5*rolls) -1 (later times a multiplier), where rolls is # of rolls, and sum is sum of roll values.
…where multiplier is formula “influence”, and involves total rolls so far as “rolls”, an arbitrary cap (from 0 to about 1/3.07, eventually resulting in a 0 to +/- 1/6 max additional chance of roll to avoid going under 0%), an arbitrary amplifier “amp” that sets how fast rolls approach the cap, and a capping formula like -1/[x*amp+(1/cap)] + cap where x should be “rolls”. Example: -1/[rolls + (1/(1/12))] + 1/12. In this example, once you consider the first 12 rolls, you get halfway to the cap 1/12 (if amp = 1), or 1/24. The meaning is that if your first 12 rolls (about 5-6 chapters for a player w/ some fighting) are all, say, 6’s, you’ll only be affected by this formula half the maximum amount compared to if you rolled infinite 6’s in a row.
…A potential formula: -divergence*influence*thisDiv + thisChance, which in detail…
= -(sum/(3.5*rolls) – 1) * (-1/[rolls*amp+(1/cap)] + cap) * ([thisVal/3.5] – 1) + thisChance
where thisChance is a particular roll value’s chance; thisVal is the same roll’s value; thisDiv is the same roll value’s divergence % from 3.5. This formula is applied to each roll value to alter each chance before the actual roll is executed. An extreme example case: cap at 1/12, amp is 1, rolls have been all 6’s for first 25 rolls (about 10 chapters)…
-(150/(3.5*25) – 1) * (-1/[25*1+(1/(1/12))] + (1/12)) * ([thisVal/3.5] – 1) + 0.1667
= -0.7143 * 0.05631 * ([thisVal/3.5] – 1) + 0.1667 = -0.04022 * ([thisVal/3.5] – 1) + 0.1667
Now apply to each possible roll value (recalling all 25 first rolls have been 6’s):
1: -0.04022 * ([1/3.5] – 1) + 0.1667 = 0.195 = 19.5% chance [at cap, 20.9%] (instead of normal 16.7%)
2: -0.04022 * ([2/3.5] – 1) + 0.1667 = 0.184 = 18.4% [at cap, 19.2%]
3: -0.04022 * ([3/3.5] – 1) + 0.1667 = 0.172 = 17.2% [at cap, 17.5%]
4: -0.04022 * ([4/3.5] – 1) + 0.1667 = 0.161 = 16.1% [at cap, 15.8%]
5: -0.04022 * ([5/3.5] – 1) + 0.1667 = 0.149 = 14.9% [at cap, 14.1%]
6: -0.04022 * ([6/3.5] – 1) + 0.1667 = 0.138 = 13.8% [at cap, 12.4%]
(After rounding, they altogether total 99.9% [approx. 100%], which should be a sign it’s working. Also, all 1’s instead of 6’s would have the same %’s in reverse order. Keep in mind this is when rolling for “good” things. A drop panel would have the reverse chance, and be recorded as a reverse number, 1 for 6 and vice versa.)
You might note that the “lower half” rolls, normally 50% of the time, are currently 55.1% chance [at cap, 57.6%%], or put another way, about 10% more “lower half” numbers (10% of 50% is 5%), 1’s increasing by 25.1% frequency, and 6’s decreasing by 25.7%. As you can see, with a low cap, while the effect is real, it is pretty small even in extreme examples, so it should probably be larger.
Let’s see the other cap extreme for reference: approximate max influence, using a cap of 1/3.07 and infinite rolls all 6’s so far…
1: 33.3% (about double the default, or ~100% more.)
2: 26.6%
3: 20.0%
4: 13.3%
5: 6.70%
6: 0.000473% (~100% less)
A Realistic Scenario: 21 rolls have occurred for this player, 3 of each number, but 6 6’s; that is twice as many 6’s as any other number each. How will this affect his chances on next roll? Let’s try setting cap to max (1/3.07) but bring amp down to 1/7 so it takes longer to reach half-influence, being about on this roll.
1: 17.84% (about 7% more 1’s at this rate, if it remained unchanged. Not very much at all.)
2: 17.37%
3: 16.90% (“lower half” chance is 52.11%, 4.22% of 50%, higher)
4: 16.43%
5: 15.96%
6: 15.49%
Then let’s try with amp 1. That means it would be about half influence after the 3rd roll, but 87% of max influence after that last 21st roll.
1: 18.74% (about 12% more 1’s at this rate, if it remained unchanged. Still a fairly small change.)
2: 17.91%
3: 17.08% (“lower half” chance is 53.73%, 7.46% of 50%, higher)
4: 16.25%
5: 15.42%
6: 14.60%
As you can see, under realistic circumstances, the change it gives is fairly subtle. As such, it may be better to increase the cap beyond my set max, and allow for potential negative % results, counting as 0%, and the rest that will end up totaling over 100% would have to be ratio’d back to totaling 100% (not hard; just divide each value by the initial total of them); that is one potential solution. It would nearly never happen, but in case it does, that will fix it. If you’re absolutely against making any number 0% chance even in extreme luck, then you can pick an arbitrary minimum, and add the difference between the lowest chance and the minimum, adding the same number to all values’ chances, then ratio’ing back to 100% as mentioned. Apply whenever lowest chance is below minimum.
Cap 1/1, amp 1, same 21 rolls:
1: 23.62% (41.69% more 1’s at this rate, if it remained unchanged.)
2: 20.84%
3: 18.06% (“lower half” chance is 62.52%, 25.04% of 50%, higher)
4: 15.28%
5: 12.49%
6: 9.709%
Cap 1/1, amp 1, 21 rolls but all 6’s, to show averaging method:
(These total over 100% without the negatives, so we use ratio’ing back to 100% for positives. Positives = 144.596%, which we’ll use to divide them by.)
1: 65.37% -> 45.21%
2: 45.89% -> 31.74%
3: 26.41% -> 18.26%
4: 6.926% -> 4.790% (These positives now add up to 100% properly, with the same ratios between each other.)
5: -12.55% -> 0%
6: -32.03% -> 0%
Closer to what I’d recommend: 1/2 cap, 1/2 amp, “realistic” 21 rolls scenario, influence reaching 84%:
1: 19.73% (18% more 1’s at this rate, if it remained unchanged.)
2: 18.50%
3: 17.28% (“lower half” chance is 55.51%, 11.02% of 50%, higher)
4: 16.05%
5: 14.83%
6: 13.61%
…Rolls memory could extend the whole game, or the last 10-30 rolls, which are most present in the players’ minds. For tournament purposes and fairness, complete memory is best, so I’d choose that. However, there then needs to be a weighting balance for some amount of moves so the first roll being a 6 won’t cause a high chance for a 1 on the 2nd roll, so the number of total rolls should affect the amount of change in chance.
…Consistency mode and Out of Luck mode should work decently together. Rolls that already have fringe chance would be affected in a relative (to other roll chances) fashion for the Out of Luck formula, as is already in place with “thisChance”.
Soku Summary Pack v1.9
that you may not understand without being told. It’s essentially a crash course and a quick reference. The main info comes in 2 forms, being a word doc text form and a png image form. I prefer the image form, as it works as a cheat sheet, and you can quickly find the subject area (even if it just appears messy at first). The text form, on the other hand, has links (internal and external) and allows you to do searches. Also included is a Weather doc, which goes over the specifics of each of the 20 weathers (related loosely to the 20 characters). It has some helps with memorization, like color-coding, character relation, original meaning in Japanese, and a quick summary of the major effects. Much of what is in
these documents is verified or reasonably verified by myself.
Fixed Point of Reference 
