Something this site needs to become popular

This site needs uniqueness. While making a site dedicated to Role
Playing in and of itself is a unique idea, such ideas are (not to make
this into an oximoron) a dime-a-dozen.

This site needs something that absolutely sets it apart from other Role Play websites, and I may have just the thing.

A while back, I made a forum game for my friend's forum that was more or
less a RP/simulator of the anime series, Zoids. I drew up a bunch of
artwork for the zoids, their armor, their weaponry systems, and more. I
also created a battle and exploration system for the game, where the
zoid pilots (players) could battle it out against one another or against
enemy NPC's, with actual damage calculation, use of the weaponry and
armor, and zoid-specific stats.

It was a huuuuuge hit, and people from every part of the forum flocked
to play. Unfortunately, I got sidetracked by college and was no longer
able to update the game, so I passed it on to my friends on the site,
and took my leave.

Now that I've got some free time, I'd be happy to work with you folks
and draft my own development team to work on something similar for this
site; something that will really knock people's socks off and make them
want to join.

But for this to go down, I'd need some creative control, and the site
would need some complete retooling. I'd also have to talk about
potential systems this forum would have to incorporate.

If the few members who do post here are interested, please discuss this here.

I'll link a few examples of my Zoids stuff below:

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Before being able to play, you'd need to register for a Zoid Pilot's
license (create a character, make a small bio, and fill out a small
required form). Licenses were ranked, White being the basic license
level. Every player has a unique license with their own choice of
background color and with their own slogan at the bottom. The grayed out
areas are unlockable trophies from the tournaments that would be held
annually.




Players were able to obtain Zoid Points, or ZP, a type of credit used to
purchase items in the forum game. Players were also able to make a
donation to either the website or myself directly to either receive a
rare bonus item not released in the shop (changed every month). If they
donated to me directly, I'd make them something personal and unique.
Every zoid has its own basic stats which were highlighted on the
website.



Sometimes there were multiple variations of the same basic Zoid, with different colors or different stats.




Players could purchase armor, weaponry, and accessories for their zoids.
Each Zoid had multiple armor sets available to it. Each Zoid had a
specific number of "slots" that either a weapon or accessory could
connect to.


The basic Zoid body.


One of the above Zoid's armors. Equipping an armor added and/or subtracted from various base stats on the Zoid.


One of the weapons available for purchase; equipping a weapon usually
took up one (sometimes more) slots on a Zoid, added and/or subtracted
from various stats, and some times provided unique abilities to the
Zoid.


Players could purchase upgrades and accessories for their Zoids.

Before I forget, every basic Zoid came with one or two unique abilities.
For intance, some zoids would be able to fly over terrain on the map
that other zoids could not get passed. Players would have to work
together (or against one another) to make the game work. The players
completely influenced the game in its entirety.

After constructing their zoid, the player would send me the info for it
and I'd create the zoid for them. Here are two examples of actual
Player's finished zoids:


(This particular player donated to me directly in order to get himself a Liger model zoid with an X-shaped scar on the right shoulder. No other player's zoid had this trait.)



I created a map for every area in the game's forum. Each map was unique
and had its own terrain. Events would happen on various maps at any
given point in time, effecting the gameplay on those maps. There would
also be new weather conditions every week which changed the rules of
play and of battle. The squares you see are movement squares. Zoids had
different movement abilities that were unique to each Zoid. Some zoids
could move two squares a day, others could only move one. Each square is
unique and will either initiate an event of some kind, a battle of some
kind, or do nothing; it's up to the players to find out.



There were also NPC's to speak with on various parts of the map. Some
initiated side quests, others worked to explain the main story. Some
even had their own shops or gave hints and special items!



--

That's all I've got at the moment. What are your thoughts, forum-goers?

I like the idea of having something like that to make the site different than any other site. I am not great with coding and such, I mostly am good at plot lines, characters, things like that. I do agree that doing something like this could make our site popular in no time.

The difficulty here is that I don't know what would be unique/interesting. You could go the normal route and allow people to select a race / class / etc, and create their own fully customizable character to play in the forum games.

That's a bit generic, though.

I have no problem helping out, but the forum would need to be retooled, and I'd require full creative control over the forum game, and a development team to work with me on it.

What would be a unique concept, do you think?

Hmm.... well maybe for unquieness we could create our own species. I made this one creature called an Imbio (I think that was the name) They were these human moth hybrids. They were all females but I could make males too. They could be white, blue, pink, green, or purple. Their hair was normally white.

Forego the smaller details like race/class for now; focus on the bigger picture. Would a "create-a-character and play" thing be too generic? How would it work? What's the overall story, if any? Rather than include a specific story, make it a sandbox game where players can do whatever they want?

How would you manage player inventories? How would you manage player's total game cash? How would they earn game cash?

You'd need moderators for this as well.

There's a lot to it, but focus on:

What about this would be truly unique and fun?
How would you work to maintain the info for every member?
How does the game work out? (as in, are there stats? is there player versus player combat? how do players explore the "map" if there is a map?)

lmao, so I figured out the organizational part of this.

it's actually VERY simple, but will require diligent moderation (like... every day).

I'm working out the kinks right now.

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Would it be an adventure with humanoids, like a standard RPG with monsters to battle, etc?

there's a lot to this :O

Think about it. I'll do the same and post my findings some time tonight.

Sorry I took so long to reply. Was busy. Anyways I had an idea for cash. They could get cash by posting in the forums (not spam) or by winning battles.