Roleplay Rewards System: ACTIVE!

[Tara]

Okay, so I've been talking about some kind of rewards for getting people to be active in the forums, both in VDex and the roleplay forums. I had written it all out, all my notes and everything, in a notebook, which I lost. I just found it this morning, and you'll never guess where it was. It turns out that I had written it in a blank notebook, then used it for my psychology courses, both over the summer semester, and for my current psychology class. I never opened to the front of it, until this morning. Good thing I did, huh? xD;

Notes

• The points you are rewarded for this are separate from the points that go towards ranking up. Instead, you can use these points to "buy" certain things, such as retros and points towards ranking up. I may include other things that you can buy, such as a custom title(like the ones Marche and Genepe have), or certain special things, like allowing you to increase your pokemon's level cap, or possibly the ability to buy items from me and being allowed to use them, such as held items or healing items.
  
• When I say that I am rewarding points for a meaningful post, it means that I expect it to have relevance to the current topic, be more than just a "hi there!" or an "I agree/disagree", and be in the right area. If you're posting in an rp thread, don't just post one or two sentences, or post a big post that has nothing to do with what's going on, and is just what we call an "aside". If you're posting in a discussion topic or the VDex thread, please make it meaningful, and try to keep on topic. In the VDex thread, it's a little harder to stay on topic, but I'd prefer it if you would make an attempt to at least look at the last few posts before you walk in and ask what's going on. And, if you're giving your opinion on something, please say why you agree/disagree. It's quite frustrating when you ask for someone's opinion and they just give you an "it sounds okay to me" or something. When someone asks for your opinion, they want to know what about it you like or dislike, and if you would change anything, how you think it should be changed. Also, if your post breaks a rule, regardless of its relevance to an rp or anything else, you will receive no points whatsoever. I may even include penalties for breaking rules, or failing to read the rules.
  
• I intend to make a thread where people have to post links to what they'd like to claim points for. I'm not omnipotent; I can't keep track of what everyone's doing at all times. I have school and many other priorities, so I need a place to go to that makes my job a little easier. Plus, some people are active just to be active, and may not want anything that they can "buy" with their points. This way, I can sort out who will want their points to "buy" things with, and who has no interest in "buying" this stuff.
  The thread has been made! Go here to claim your points and see how many you have.
  
• This system is nowhere near being complete, or set in stone. If anyone has any suggestions or feedback, please feel free to make them!
  
• I'm considering making it possibe for people to donate money/retros for these points, so that if people are already an Admin or something, they won't just get useless rank-up points if they donate.
  
• With regard to Key Items: I would like to implement them this way, or in a similar manner. If anyone has any opinions on Key Items, please post in here and let me know.

The Reward System

What you do to receive points	Points given
Starting a plot discussion	5
Participating in a plot discussion	4
Creating a useful suggestion	12
Following through with a plot discussion	6
Starting a roleplay thread that has some sort of meaning to it	4
Posting in a roleplay thread	2
Starting a player-run event or contest	8
Giving prizes for your event/contest (From the DD vault or self-provided)	3
Participating in a player-run event or contest	2
Participating in a club-run event or contest	4
Posting a meaningful post in the DD thread on VDex	1
Global Mods only: Doing your job.	5

Possible Rewards

Retros
Retro Type	Points Needed
Generation	Retros	Events/Legendaries
Gen IV or V	8	25
Gen III	18	32
Gen II	30	45
Gen I (RB/Y)	50	100

Rank-Up Points
Current Rank	Points Needed for 1 Point
Rookie	30
Grunt	40
Scout	50
Elite	70
Executive	80

Items
Item	Description of Item	Points Needed for 1 Item
Potion	One-use, instant item. +20 hp.	20
Super Potion	One-use, instant item. +50 hp.	40
Hyper Potion	One-use, instant item. +200 hp.	70
Full Restore	One-use, instant item. Fully heals hp/status ailments.	100
Full Heal	One-use, instant item. Heals status ailments.	30
Oran Berry	One-use, held item. +10 hp.	30
Sitrus Berry	One-use, held item. +25% max hp.	40
Lum Berry	One-use, held item. Heals status ailments.	50
Revive	One-use, instant item. Revives fainted pokemon with 50% of hp.	90
Max Revive	One-use, instant item. Fully revives fainted pokemon.	150
Gems	One-use, held item. Each gem has its own element. ____ Gem boosts power of holder's ____-type attack by 50%.	50
Big Root	Multi-use, held item. HP stolen by draining moves increased by 30%.	50
Shell Bell	Multi-use, held item. When holder deals damage, restores 1/8 of damage dealt as hp.	50
Red Card	One-use, held item. Forces opponent to switch to a random pokemon when holder is attacked.	30
Mental Herb	One-use, held item. Removes the effects of taunt, encore, torment, disable, and cursed body.	50
White Herb	One-use, held item. Removes any negative stat changes.	50
Power Herb	One-use, held item. Allows user to omit the charge-up turn of two-turn moves.	70
Focus Band	Multi-use, held item. 10% chance that holder will survive an attack which would cause fainting with 1 hp.	70
Jaboca Berry	One-use, held item. Causes recoil damage to foe if holder is hit by a physical move.	70
Rowap Berry	One-use, held item. Causes recoil damage to foe if holder is hit by a special move.	70

Special Features
Special Feature	Points Needed
Ability to use your own images for the pokemon in your party.	60
Ability to have a Customized Title	60

..that's all I've got so far. Any suggestions/feedback on it now?

...Does anyone know how to fix the tables so they look.. better? I used to know how, but I've forgotten my html/bbc coding when it comes to tables.

[DarkChaos44]

Woo! This sounds awesome Tara! Ranking up will be slighty easier for people that don't have luck finding and catching Retros.

As for items, I would have to say Revives, Max Revives, and all the other healing stuff. If its held items, I can only think of is the Red Card and Shell Bell or Leftovers.

[xxkarachan]

On the subject of items, I'm assuming that these are RP-only items, that would probably be kept track of somewhere and could be made use of in RP, for battles or what not?

Would they be only battle items? It could be interesting if, perhaps, "roleplay" or "quest" items were incorporated too. Like....... "You can only enter this RP/sub-forum/whatever if you have (item) or are of rank XXX or higher", where XXX would be, like, Admin or Boss or other "rare"/difficult to reach/impossible rankings.

Also, I suppose the points look fair so far, in terms of value/distribution, though it would probably be easier to tell in practice, unfortunately. =x= Like, until you can actually see how easily/regularly people get points, and where the points are most being put to use, so that they can be balanced and you don't have a person with, like, 99x Max Revives.
Items would probably need some restrictions too. Like, not so much about how you can carry, but you can only use so many revival items per battle, or only so many healing items per pokemon per battle, or something of the sort.

[minagi]

I think the problem with actual item rewards (outside the rp) would be that the items would have to come from somewhere. Typical things you'd expect to see would be things like balls, evo stones, etc...but it actually takes money for them to become available.....

It wouldn't make sense to allow people to donate said items or money in exchange for points either, since that's sort of taking away the point of getting people to be more active. I really DO like the concept of being able to get items and such from the points (instead of just rank or pokemon) but the issue would be trying to find a way for it to work out without it ending up too taxing on the pocketbook.

[Tara]

The items would mostly be battle items. Healing items and maybe held items, but the quest items is a nice idea. :o

Yeah, I'm going to have to keep track of things, so that I can adjust the points as they need to be.

That's a good point. I'd have to add in a rule as to how many items per pokemon per battle that you could use, and possibly a maximum to the number of items in your "inventory".

No, no, mina, the items are only on here. I won't be doing item rewards on VDex. This is so that people can actually start using items in the rp. Instead, I'm going to make a post that I keep updated that keeps track of everyone's "inventory" in the rp.

[minagi]

ooh, gotcha. I misunderstood again *needs to catch up*

[xxkarachan]

xD I just enjoy the idea of having items for specialized use. Like, if you have a certain type of [Card Key], you have access to certain Rocket or Police forums. Or even silly things, like... if you haven't bought a [Winter Jacket] or [Winter Uniform], you cannot participate in a certain quest taking place in, say, the Ice Path in Johto. Or requiring a [Bicycle] for quests on Cycling Road, or a [Ticket] for quests on the SS Awesome, or what not.
At the very least, it would be a good "drain" if there are too many points, like money sinks on VDex to balance the economy.

And yeah, I would think /some/ kind of item restriction would be a good idea, if only because it would be annoying if a battle was beng endlessly dragged out because someone had a ton of items.

[Tara]

K, so. Would you guys be upset if I asked you on your opinions with some of this stuff? Like, give me a list of items that you would like to see here, what it does (if it isn't obvious, like potion or revive or other items you get in-game), and tell me how many points you think the item should cost.

[xxkarachan]

I wouldn't mind giving my opinions, nope~

[Tara]

I'm considering making it possibe for people to donate money/retros for these points, so that if people are already an Admin or something, they won't just get useless rank-up points if they donate.

I also have a list of items ready. So far, here's what I have for items, and their prices:

Bicycle - ?
Card Key(s) - ?
Gems, Big Root, Leftovers, Shell Bell - 50 each
Red Card - 30
Mental Herb, White Herb - 50 each
Power Herb - 70
Focus Band - 70
Revive - 90
Max Revive - 150
Oran Berry - 30
Sitrus Berry - 40
Lum Berry - 50
Jaboca, Rowap Berries - 70 each
Potion - 20
Super Potion - 40
Hyper Potion - 70
Full Restore - 100
Full Heal - 30

If anyone has any opinions on the pricings of these items... please do tell. xD;

[wardnpendragn]

I think Card keys would be fun, and could even work for events/quests nicely. (say, one team tries to invade a sub-base somewhere; battle so-and-so for the Card key; something like that?)

..unfortunately I don't really have anyy thoughts for the other items. Maybe the points / pokemon gotten through points could be marked as permantent additions to that person's rp-specifc "caught" pokemon? that might get super involved, though. :s

[Claudia Donovan]

*raises hand* Do I hafta have 60 points for each Pokemon or 60 total for all of them?

[Tara]

It's for the ability to change the sprites. You only have to spend the points once, and you can use the images for every pokemon, on every one of your characters. It's more of a novelty than much else, honestly. Some of the other Special Features should, hopefully, be more useful.

[fakt13]

Hey, where can we see how many points we have?

[Tara]

...Hmm. I never made this very clear, did I?

For one, you go to the link in note #3 to claim your points, and I will keep an updated list of who has how many points in there. I'm working on making everyone an inventory list in the character profiles board.