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-   -   Feedback: PC's Competitive Battling Community (https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=332414)

MoxieInfinite August 4th, 2014 6:52 PM

Then youre begging to fall behind. And if thats what you desire, your choice. But if you want this place to get some "deserved" recognizion, stuff needs to be done. I'd love to tutor someone half-decent (I dont wanna deal with retards using Bellossom because its their fav mon), and though I rarely play XY, I'm good enough to see and understand the metagame.

Jake♫ August 4th, 2014 7:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoxieInfinite (Post 8385882)
Then youre begging to fall behind. And if thats what you desire, your choice. But if you want this place to get some "deserved" recognizion, stuff needs to be done. I'd love to tutor someone half-decent (I dont wanna deal with retards using Bellossom because its their fav mon), and though I rarely play XY, I'm good enough to see and understand the metagame.

I don't think anyone is asking for "deserved" recognition at all. The entire point of this thread was just general feedback of our current community, and where people think it stands. No one is disagreeing that Smogon is where you would want to go if you just want a strictly competitive environment. People are arguing that they would like our own balance on the battle server to be less like a general chat room, and have a better balance of off-topic and battling discussions.

MoxieInfinite August 4th, 2014 8:10 PM

If you wanna know where this place stands, its far behind. Youre coming to a second-tier community asking for advice, when nothing stops you from getting somthing better. If you want a rate, go smogon, or expect inferior advice. And TRYING to be the second best is just weird as a goal.

Kevin Garrett August 4th, 2014 8:12 PM

For clarification, I did not start here. I was already a member on Smogon. My reason for joining was to compete in a forum war. I come back from time to time because the people that are here are long-time members that I knew from years ago. The more relaxed atmosphere is a nice alternative to the serious competition on Smogon. That's not to say there isn't serious competition here, but it certainly has a different vibe and you shouldn't look to erase that. You won't ever beat Smogon doing competitive. My recommendation would be to build a competitive infrastructure that members here can learn from to build up the current base, but keep it at a point where there is a noticeable cultural difference between here and Smogon. That way you have a good chance of keeping members that participate on both sites because they understand the value of the community here.

Anti August 4th, 2014 8:56 PM

Yeah I think on the note of what Aero and Jake are saying, "laid-back experience" is a legitimate draw for some people, and more to the point, no one in our community really wants to get intense, get recognition, etc. It's just not in the cards at the moment with the competitive community in the state it's in, even if we did want it. Basically what Kevin Garrett said. And with that, I'd prefer to just move on since it's a discussion that probably isn't going to go anywhere except downhill, and there are real efforts we need to get working on right now.

(In case that wasn't clear: STOP WITH THIS TOPIC.)

edit: adding spoilers to make it less daunting so y'all will read it ;)

on clans:

Spoiler:
So to keep moving right along, I wanted to talk a little more about how we can build a battling community from the present community. I think clans and leagues are a good place to start. (I'll address tutoring in a moment as well since that's definitely something to look at.) I'll repost what I said in my first content post, with bolded emphasis on what I want to talk about now:

Quote:

While I am not against clans or leagues, I think we need to explicitly lay out what it is we would want them to accomplish for the community. I wouldn't want leagues to be noob pits that are disconnected from the server community entirely, for example. (Nothing against noobs, but I think that we should be directing them toward integrating into the battling community here instead of being isolated and never really improving.) So if we brought back clans, what would we want them to accomplish, and how would they define their niche on PC? I'm not a Battle Stadium guy, so my knowledge and vision with these things is more limited.

I do think that overall though, battling groups are a good idea that add variety to the scene here. And with events, I think we can do more tours but also more than just tours. I don't think it's terrible right now, but there is a lot of room for improvement at the moment.
I talked to wolf about clans a little bit earlier, and he brought up a good point in that a big part of clan activity was simply scheduling battles, since WiFi isn't as convenient as laddering or just asking for a battle in our server's main chat. I think that if we're serious about refocusing the community with clans as a part of the solution, we need to ask what the purpose of our clans will be, what their specific functions will be, how they will be organized to fulfill their purpose optimally, and how they fit within the more general competitive infrastructure, as KG just termed it, here at PC. Here is my general outline for that.

Since clans won't be doing much good if they're just a crappy way to organize battles that can easily be organized on the server anyway, I think that clans should be refocused to help newer players get into the game and compete while doing so. In other words, clans would be where there are experienced and new battlers, and those with experience would help along others. With tutoring, people have brought up the concern that we may not have enough willing and qualified tutors. Well, hopefully a clan environment would achieve similar goals.

Besides that, I like the idea that intra-clan competition for clan war roster spots would further motivate people to do well. Besides clan wars (which I think would have to be infrequent enough as to not become stale), I think clans would have to really think outside the box for being interesting. One idea I've had is each of the clans making a sort of CCAT (community create a team) where each clan makes a team to see who can make the best one. I think the main thing is that clans shouldn't be based around things like tournaments or discussions that are better created with the entire community in mind, or else they'll just be too contrived. Other clan activities might include creating unique/creative movesets or clan war-ladder races (where the clan war becomes the sum of each clan's ladder scores instead of direct wars with battles between each other). To be honest though, I'd want to see a few more ideas before being sold that clans are where we should focus, just because I wouldn't want them to flame out in a few months.


on tutoring and leagues:

Spoiler:
Alternatively, it may make more sense to just do tutoring "the old-fashioned way" and not restrict ourselves with clan groupings and to make leagues the focus of how we do battling groups here. I think the league thread that keeps bumping this thread down is evidence of the activity they bring (and the spam-ish shortcomings as well, but these can be ironed out with time). Regardless of what happens or doesn't happen with clans, I think leagues are clearly a good idea. Smogon has the Smogon Frontier, and I think that having something similar would be cool and would encourage people to get good enough to actually participate in or challenge that league.

If we do tutoring, we need to begin to discuss what the details of that would be as well.


Just some other thoughts...

on forum name:

Spoiler:
We need to stop changing this forum's name. I'd prefer if it went back to Strategies and Movesets (for symbolic reasons that I won't get into because I know it's not going to happen anyway), but since that isn't going to happen (!), we need to pick a name and stick with it. Why is this a big deal? I think S&M has rebranded itself enough--let's get down to business now.


on a potential team building workshop thread:

Spoiler:
I think a team-building workshop, maybe as a sticky, would be awesome for noobs and experienced players alike. Maybe something like this could go there: "Hey, I've been wanting to using RP Landorus-T and Mega Heracross as an offensive core that can challenge all playstyles, but I'm having trouble supporting it. Right now I'm considering Pokemon X, Pokemon Y, and Pokemon Z, and I really need a good lure for Gliscor and opposing Landorus and Landorus-T, any ideas?" Look at how many RMTs don't have six Pokemon. I worry this could get too crowded, but I think that team-building as a process is really neglected in this forum beyond the unbearably vanilla "what's your team building approach?" thread that comes up every so often. Why not actually have a place where we can put our ideas to work and have multiple minds work at something? I was talking with Aero about this idea earlier and he suggested having a sort of mini archive of good teams or cores or whatever in the OP as well, which I think would be awesome and useful for players of varying skill levels.


on potential truncated ou threat list thread:

Spoiler:
I think an OU threat list would be nice. Just a simple "huge threats / notable threats / niche threats" organization with basic typing/abilities/common movesets listings would be great, perhaps in the following format as an example:

[mini sprite, like the ones in the viability ranking threads on smogon]
LANDORUS [link to smogon analysis]
Ground / Flying
89 / 125 / 90 / 115 / 80 / 101
Sheer Force / Sand Force
Notable Attack Moves: Earth Power, Focus Blast, Psychic, Knock Off, Sludge Wave, Hidden Power [Ice] Rock Slide
Notable Set-Up Moves: Calm Mind, Rock Polish
Notable Support Moves: Stealth Rock
Checks: Specially Defensive Gliscor, Assault Vest Tornadus-T, Azumarill (RK), Mega Charizard Y, Chansey, Keldeo (RK), Thundurus (RK), Greninja (RK)

Short, sweet, and to the point, though it's pretty rough and is probably more optimally done some other way, maybe with a moveset focus but the point is that this might be nice. Also listing Pokemon and what Pokemon they check would be cool. (For example, on that list, Keldeo's entry would show that it checks Bisharp, Mega Tyranitar, Heatran, Landorus, Mega Mawile, etc.) We should have some kind of resource though, again for teambuilding help.


meh just look:

Spoiler:
Lastly, I think a team-building competition would be fun and I plan on posting one next week once the OU Tour begins to wind down. I think it would be a cool and unorthodox competition like ladder race (needs more participants only six people isn't that fun :( c'mon d00ds) and would further stimulate teambuilding which seems to be a significant barrier of entry here.

champagnepapi August 5th, 2014 3:35 AM

I think with the clans it might be worth having a sort of clan champiomship, as well as channels on the server for each clan, to promote competition and interaction.

MoxieInfinite August 5th, 2014 5:53 AM

I know the laid-back experience is why you'd go here. But my question is, why would you want a laid-back experience? If you post RMT's here, you're expecting second-hand rates, when you coulda gone Smogon and gotten a tier one rate at no cost. That's like choosing Ember over Flamethrower.

Also, Smogon isn't all 100% serious. Isn't that why Firebot exists?

champagnepapi August 5th, 2014 6:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoxieInfinite (Post 8386422)
I know the laid-back experience is why you'd go here. But my question is, why would you want a laid-back experience? If you post RMT's here, you're expecting second-hand rates, when you coulda gone Smogon and gotten a tier one rate at no cost. That's like choosing Ember over Flamethrower.

Also, Smogon isn't all 100% serious. Isn't that why Firebot exists?

Man we are not trying to compete with smogon. This is only a subforum of a general big Pokemon site. We're just here to chill and train really, but that doesn't mean we settle for mediocrity. Me and Anti hit up the ladder a lot, Pokedra and Dark Azelf were competitive back in the day as well. If you want to compete with smogon, or any other battling forum for that matter, you are not in the right place. You also talked about the 'random brazilian forums' popping out players, but those are competitive battling geared too; the whole board is meant for competitive and attracts competitive players [I'd wager they don't take themselves that seriously either though]. Most of the competitive players aren't okay with being subpar, but really it's futile at this point to try and be the next smogon, even when serebii, marriland, etc were active, they probably had the same goal as us: to be a strong community. If we get a bunch of people battling and eventually doing well on ladder and in tournaments, that's great, but the site and this subforum itself, isn't going to be putting up analyses or becoming the center of battling any time soon. Also if you are expecting tier one rates at smogon then you are sorely mistaken lol

MoxieInfinite August 5th, 2014 6:32 AM

Pretty sure if you put up a well-made RMT on Smogon, players like Chimpact, SS, Aim, whoever the ♥♥♥♥ that rates teams nowadays, will give you a top tier rate if you ask for it.

But yea, point taken. O_o

BeachBoy August 5th, 2014 6:51 AM

Anyway, we wanted to move on.

About clans, I like the thought of having various teams of players going against each other. If it jumped to a serious scale, a couple of world-cup-like tournaments would be refreshing. However, Anti makes a fair warning about them flaming out. It'll be all excitement at first, but needs some serious investment of players/(maybe artists to keep it fancy? Seriously, grab some talented folks from the artistic forums. If it looks amazing, people are more likely to be attracted to the cool-factor and they'll have a more unique flare than here-is-our-thread-join-us-look-at-our-trophies) to sustain itself. I'm not so sure it could be a let's-figure-it-out-along-the-way kind of project.

I'd comment on other areas (server staff/forum staff disconnect) but I've simply been too absent to fairly recommend changes.

Mana August 5th, 2014 1:20 PM

I don't come here much ;-;. I realise that this is a bit delayed, and the topic has moved on a bit, but I just wanted to give my point of view as an outsider to the battling community.

I only go on the server to play some fun matches, I don't play competitively and I don't stick around there for chatting. Some members have mentioned people asking for matches and being ignored, that has happened to me most of the times I sign in - which, admittedly, are getting rarer and rarer. I'd also like to address Chase who said...

Quote:

Server Atmosphere:

I don't think anyone has a big problem with this and they shouldn't. We are a very lenient server that allows a lot more than other servers do.
I think your overall lenience is offputting to members. I often open up BSS, see a very weird/borderline conversation - yes, I've seen some about masturbation, some with people just randomly swearing - and just quit. It's very intimidating and even if it's not always like that, and I somehow just always come at a bad time, I don't see a reason it should ever be like that.

champagnepapi August 5th, 2014 1:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magic (Post 8386981)
I don't come here much ;-;. I realise that this is a bit delayed, and the topic has moved on a bit, but I just wanted to give my point of view as an outsider to the battling community.

I only go on the server to play some fun matches, I don't play competitively and I don't stick around there for chatting. Some members have mentioned people asking for matches and being ignored, that has happened to me most of the times I sign in - which, admittedly, are getting rarer and rarer. I'd also like to address Chase who said...



I think your overall lenience is offputting to members. I often open up BSS, see a very weird/borderline conversation - yes, I've seen some about masturbation, some with people just randomly swearing - and just quit. It's very intimidating and even if it's not always like that, and I somehow just always come at a bad time, I don't see a reason it should ever be like that.

Hey Magic, thank you for the input! Its very valuable actually to see what users who are hesitant of being involved in this community want, and what is off-putting about it to them. I think chat control is definitely an issue that needs to be adressed, since you arent the only one affected by its content. Anyways we do have some more casual leaning tours and events from time to time that might be worth joining, and I know most of the people posting in this thread would love to give you a battle. We also occasionally have tournaments hosted on the server itself ("script tours"), many in non ou formats, which are pretty fun, although theyve been less common lately.

Sirfetch’d August 5th, 2014 6:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magic (Post 8386981)
I don't come here much ;-;. I realise that this is a bit delayed, and the topic has moved on a bit, but I just wanted to give my point of view as an outsider to the battling community.

I only go on the server to play some fun matches, I don't play competitively and I don't stick around there for chatting. Some members have mentioned people asking for matches and being ignored, that has happened to me most of the times I sign in - which, admittedly, are getting rarer and rarer. I'd also like to address Chase who said...



I think your overall lenience is offputting to members. I often open up BSS, see a very weird/borderline conversation - yes, I've seen some about masturbation, some with people just randomly swearing - and just quit. It's very intimidating and even if it's not always like that, and I somehow just always come at a bad time, I don't see a reason it should ever be like that.


Very good points here! I wanted to say though that these topics you are referring to are totally not OK at all. Before the server was recognized "officially" by PC, we did allow more sexual topics and weren't cracking down on such things but now everything must remain in line with what is allowed on PC itself. If I were to come on a new server and see them talking about masturbation I would immediately leave because as you said it is offputting. Eliminating these types of discussions is a top priority for us staff right now because if we are bettering the server overall we can't have outright explicit chats.

Pokedra August 5th, 2014 10:33 PM

I'd also propose to ban Twitter-like spam. I think getting rid of this kind of chat like this would go a long way to making newbies feel at ease since it's easier for a newbie to join a discussion on competitive talk or a topic (says some news) rather then 2-3 people talking about their lunch.

Sirfetch’d August 5th, 2014 10:58 PM

While I do agree that for newbies looking to battle that entering on a chat centered around competitive battling would be better for them, we aren't just going to ban certain topics. That is turning the server into a dictatorship. You can't just go and alter the rules to include things like "no talking about your lunch", "topics about your pet are prohibited", etc. That just sounds silly and is way over the top. There is no way with as small of a community as we have that the server will be 100% competitive chat 100% of the time. There is just nothing wrong with small talk. We can still make the server more centered around competitive without completely changing the way it's run. As a community we just have to find a way to make the chats more balanced. Right now I'd say it's 70/30 with 70% being small talk. I'd say a good goal for our small of a community right now would be to try to bring it to 40/60 with the 60% being focused on competitive. Compromise is the key, not exclusion.

Pokedra August 5th, 2014 11:19 PM

There's a difference between small talk and meaningless spam, I mean I don't tell my irl friends about where my dog did his daily deed...do you? I don't think it's possible to keep the server 100% competitive talk related and I wouldn't want it like that but I think we need to rethink what we define as small talk and what is essentially spam. We should chat like normal people and utilize the server properly.

I don't say this to be an ass to the people who do like to use PC this way but the server is much more productive when the chat is focused on competitive talk. I don't even visit the server that much and I can tell that much. If you want I can post some logs or something about the difference between the two.

Sirfetch’d August 5th, 2014 11:26 PM

That's fair enough. Still though rather than banning "twitter like spam" and punishing users for it, I think the best step it just to discourage this and encourage our users to be more mindful to the chat if it is having a competitive based discussion. When no one is talking, as long as it isn't breaking the rules for being explicit I am fine with anything being the topic. We have a very understanding userbase that I think would really do well as we start to transition into the more competitive chat. And for those who weren't around last year, our chat has improved beyond belief. This time a year ago, you were lucky to see the chat be about Pokemon 5% of the time. The usual topic was about the color of usernames. So things are improving. Just slowly.

Pokedra August 5th, 2014 11:41 PM

It's funny you mention that any topic suffices when there isn't chat since the main reason chat dies is because someone posts about their day and only one other is interested in discussing it.

Isn't the fact the chat has made little progress a worrying sign? We had this discussion about the server chat last year and came to exact same conclusion. We need to drive the chat to be more competitive. A year has passed and our progress is...coloured usernames to PC Twitter? Do we become PC Instagram next? There are times when good discussion gets going, sadly enough this is when most of these so-called regulars are offline. We don't need a massive ban but for mods to keep the chat on topic and actually do their job.

Sirfetch’d August 6th, 2014 12:05 AM

Not trying to sound arrogant but when was the last time you even visited the server? If it was recently you would see that it has in fact improved so much since this time last year. I don't see the issue that you seem to be having with the chat. It's improving. It's not going to change 100% to the way you want it overnight and it's highly annoying that you think us mods aren't "doing our job". Us staff have put a lot of effort into moderating the server, finding ways to bring it more activity, and just overall make it a better place. The issue isn't that we "don't have the stomach to tell friends to stop spamming" but rather we just simply aren't going to mute people or tell them they can't talk about a subject just because it isn't always competitive.


On another note, I am fine with staff stepping in and telling users to not interrupt the current topic with something that doesn't contribute, but for the most part this isn't an issue. I can say that I personally will pay more attention and try to discourage users from blatantly changing the current topic if everyone seems to be engaged in an all in discussion on competitive.



Also just one more thing, I don't know why the chat has become the center of discussion. It honestly is one of the smaller issues overall in the big picture. Just changing the chat isn't going to achieve what we are all trying to here.

Pokedra August 6th, 2014 12:31 AM

It was today and it was actually quite pleasant since the chat was of worth. And no, it has improved in it's consistency but when it hits rock bottom (which unfortunately is more then it should) it degenerates into something no better then the colored username fiasco. There is improvement but it comes from a small portion of the server rather then the server as a whole.

And I'm not saying it's going to change overnight, this exact discussion was had last year and the decision was made to change the server chat. A year and a bit is plenty to change things. And you don't want to mute people but what difference is there muting a spammer and someone who is contributing absolutely zilch to the topic at hand? Far as I'm concerned the two are the same. Not saying you aren't doing your job but rather I think being a little harsher is probably what we need. The modding team is well chosen as far as I'm concerned, maybe just a little too lenient.

Because the server has always been the backbone of this forum. Making the server a better place for newbies will create interest for the forum. Other ideas like tutoring and clans would take place on the server. If people want this forum to actually become active again, the improvement starts from the server.

Sirfetch’d August 6th, 2014 12:38 AM

I agree totally! Starting from the server and working up is the route to go. We just have to find a way to get the server regulars involved. I think the majority would love the idea of clans and tutoring programs as nearly everyone there is there because they have at least some interest in competitive. As more people become involved the chat will naturally fix itself.


(also i want to apologize if I have sounded arrogant in any of my posts. I have a high amount of respect for you because I realize you are a veteran and have contributed far more than I have to this forum and servers over the years. I understand why you want things to be a certain way and fully support that.)

Pokedra August 6th, 2014 12:48 AM

Believe me I had no intention of attacking anyone, it is a little frustrating for those who've been here longer to see just how active and fun this forum used to be. Not saying the current state is terrible but rather it could be so much more (sure you would agree with this?). And I agree, if we can get tutoring and competitions going and slowly cutting back on some of the server spam I think it'd go a long way to getting this forum back on it's feet. The userbase is there no doubt.

I'm sure you've done just as much as I have haha, probably more to be honest. And I guess I do sound like I'm trying to dictate what the forum should be but from past experience a more competitive-orientated server leads to a much more active forum. And it's not like we talked competitive 100%, there was more then a fair share of normal discussion ;D

Sirfetch’d August 6th, 2014 12:53 AM

mhm there is always room for improvement. As we are small we will be taking baby steps but I am really excited to see how things start to evolve over the coming weeks and months. I really expect to see the forum and server both improving as it seems everyone is serious about this. Moreso than last time this was brought up

.Aero August 6th, 2014 4:56 AM

Spoilers cuz a few long things I figure:

On Moderating the Chat Discussions
Spoiler:
Let me just backtrack a bit here. I don't think Pokedra wants the mods to tell people to stop talking about meaningless topics. I think what he really means is to have the moderators try to steer the topic of discussion toward something more competitive. I figure we're all friends on the server, maybe if something interesting in your life is happening and you want to share it with others, feel free. I do agree though that talking about incredibly menial things such as "I took a shower woo"-type stuff should be considered spammy.

Basically when moderators see a topic starting to get a little dry or just two people are talking to each other about their own little daily endeavors they should propose questions to everyone about competitive pokemon (or, hell, pokemon in general is better). The mods shouldn't berate those who are speaking about hyper off-topic stuff, they should just suggest a new topic essentially. Literally telling the chat to "change topic to pokemon" is doing nothing. It shows a lack of devotion to actually improving the competitive side of the server since having no questions / discussion ideas basically states that the moderator is incapable of being a mod of a battle server in my completely honest opinion.

Has the chat improved? Well considering I haven't seen anyone complain about how "ugly my username color is", I'd say it's gotten quite a lot better. I see Pokemon being discussed more frequently which is fun and interesting (mostly this is done by a few select members while some just sit and watch, maybe they're observing or don't know enough to weigh in, but hopefully they'll learn more by watching and can weigh in when they feel ready). Progress is happening, slowly, but it is and it's nice to see.


On Clans
Spoiler:
So we seem to all agree: Clans are a great idea. We should do them. But all of us just agreeing with each other isn't leading to progress. It might feel that way, but no plans have been drawn up, a system hasn't even been suggested necessarily, etc. I know some of you have discussed possible kinks (not those kind ;]) in a clan setup, such as wars becoming stale after a while, etc. But we can't work those out I figure until we have a basic foundation for clans in the first place.

So I propose we try the clan setup that Wolf, Karp, Vrai, and myself tried a while back but it fell through due to Football commitment on Vrai's end and Wolf busy with various projects (and then I left forever and Karp went to Smogon at that point I'm pretty sure).

Basically the setup was:
We have 4 clans, each with their own little unique styles. The draw to each clan is basically: Which theme do you like the most? For example, I remember mine was pirates themed and the mascot pokemon were the Kingdra family. The reason there were four clans, if I recall, was due to the player-base being rather small. If we allowed just anyone to make clans, then the member population of all the clans would be very small since people, let's be honest, would rather start their own clan than join someone else's in a lot of cases. But since we only had 4, members were essentially forced to choose among the 4 clans. I believe we planned on increasing the number of clans as the player-base grew, but we never made it that far.

So essentially, I propose a reinvention of that idea. Let's try it again.


On Server Atmosphere
Spoiler:
Having been around forever, I'm initially completely opposed to changing the demeanor of our community. I enjoy the more mature atmosphere of the server compared to the forums themselves. However, if those on the outside find the topics / language off-putting, I'm willing to put aside my nostalgic love for the classic S&M community if it means growing as a community that BATTLES.

Key word is battles. My opinion on the matter is: I value a battling-community over an adult-oriented community any day. I can still PM / skype / talk-irl with people about my adult-related humor / topics and get satisfaction there. However, I prefer an adult-oriented community over one where we talk about what kind of spaghetti I had today and that's it.

I, personally, see the only reason to disallow profane language is to attract new users. If these new users do not battle or TRY to battle, then I don't see why I should give a damn about their opinions on the server and its friendliness. I understand that the server is associated with the forums themselves, but I will sooner leave for good if the server becomes a place for discussing average every day tasks. (The main draw I ever had for coming back was because I enjoy engaging in random ♥♥♥♥ery with my friends here, if I can't do that anymore and battling isn't a priority on the server, I'll have no reason to come back).


On the UU Threatlist Project
Spoiler:
Not sure how many of you play UU, my suspicions tell me 2 of you (Anti / Karp and Anti is only sort of because he told me he wants to get into it but can't grasp what's good in the tier). However, I play UU, I enjoy UU, and it's way more stable than OU currently, especially after the Aegi ban. So I decided to start that threatlist. Hopefully its presence encourages some of you to give UU a shot.

I'm sure you've noticed I stopped filling in the Pokemon too. The reason for this is because I don't know where I want to go with the design of the thread. Its current setup just feels SO INCREDIBLY CLUNKY AND LARGE AND I HATE IT. So if any of you have ideas from a design standpoint, let me know. I'm very interested to hear.

Also since so few of you play UU, I'm not sure if I can get that much help with the sets. I'm literally pulling them from the smogon analysis page right now since I just got into UU about a week ago, so I, as you probably can guess, am not completely familiar with all the pokemon and their sets. So if you are familiar with common sets for pokemon in the tier, I'd really appreciate feedback as I add them in (as Moxie has done, which I appreciate btw).


On Elf Being Dumb
Spoiler:
Elf ur an idiot. :]

wolf August 6th, 2014 5:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by .Aero (Post 8385150)
I think the fact that I'm on rather consistently throughout various hours of the day (due to a horrible cycling sleep schedule) allows me to get to know various people on the server regardless of their time zones. As a result, I feel like I should know everyone who is on staff on the server, seeing as how those who deserve server staff status should be consistent members as well. However, every few days I see a brand new name pop up and I have literally no idea who they are (even after they explain who they are). My question is: Why are these people on staff? Clearly they are not consistent users on the server, and I highly doubt they battle at all, save a few random battles here and there (which I, personally, don't even count).

The BSS hasn't been particularly active lately, including myself. It could be attributed to the battle server's recent lack of activity in general, and it's summer break. As a result, we haven't been as interactive with the community as we used to. The problem certainly needs to be addressed, but I think it has more to do with the fact that the battle server has been rather boring lately.

Clans: Clans have two major problems nowadays: a) lack of reliable thread activity and content, and b) thread longevity. In the past, clans were kept afloat because of Wi-Fi battle scheduling (see: the current active league in this forum right now). When clans are completely reliant on battle simulators like PS, their threads lose a lot of activity for obvious reasons. Anti's suggestion of mentor/tutor clans would fix the first problem, but ultimately it comes down to our experienced battlers and if they're interested enough to consistently mentor people and keep the threads active.

If we don't have individual threads for each clan, we avoid these problems for the most part. Instead, we could make a league that's split up into teams. Within the league we could have clan wars, outsider challengers, and so on. Could also mentor in the league thread with every team/clan included, but a separate mentorship program would be better. Here is a more elaborate description on it (the spoiler contains the important stuff).

Miscellaneous ideas:

• Battle Dojo: An event that encourages people to improve their battling skills. Two major aspects of it: a) try to get as high as possible on Smogon's ladder (perhaps while using a specific Pokemon?), and b) after practicing on the ladder, everyone battles each other in a tournament finale. Can split everyone into teams to spice things up.

• Team Rating Event: Hopefully Zeffy won't mind me quoting him!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeffy (Post 8365569)
- Team Rating Event. In this event, the host will post a team. The team, of course, is rather well built except for a huge weakness. The task of the participant is to a) determine said weakness, and b) propose a proper solution for said weakness, including an informative explanation. Of course, similar entries are to be expected, so an aspect of creativity is heavily rewarded. Creativity in terms of proposing a solution that isn't always expected (like an underrated Pokemon / set for example) but also works and actually contributes to the team (basically not a useless gimmick).

We could even do in-game teams, where the host posts a team for a certain game (ie Emerald) and the participants are to determine how it would fair against the gym leaders, elite 4, battle frontier, etc. Since almost anything works in-game anyway, we could introduce themes like monotype teams, monocolour teams, and the likes.

Also could help improve everyone's team rating, provide a nice resource for good example rates, etc.

• Community Create-A-Team: Should be self-explanatory. The community develops a team together.

• More small tournaments with fun themes. I miss making these.

• A battle server rule that states battling related topics as a higher priority over off-topic chat, which essentially means that BSS will take action if people attempt to change the topic when there's already a healthy battling related chat going on. Probably isn't practical or needed, but I figure I would throw the idea out there.

• More noticeable prefixes. Could help discussions stand out. Here's a mockup that I'd like feedback on:

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolf (Post 8388897)
I'm playing around with stuff when I should be doing other things. D'oh.


Thoughts? Too flashy perhaps? I was thinking it would emphasize the prefixes and their usefulness, but I don't want them to be overwhelming or unappealing.

Voice: The staff plans to remove the current form of voice, then replace it with senior (=) and rename it to voice. We did consider making the senior rank (aka the future voice rank) exclusive to active battlers, but there were concerns about it. A PM of mine explains the counterargument well enough:

Spoiler:
Re: Voice: Major contributions to the community that aren't related to battling include: a) promoting a welcoming and friendly atmosphere (e.g. greeting people), and b) providing notable off-topic chat (the type that isn't always generic like what Pokie referred to in the thread). Wouldn't you consider these contributions worth recognition? It means little that these contributions aren't currently prevalent, as the same could be said about battling contributions.

I'll also point out that promoting non-battlers to voice doesn't mean battlers won't receive recognition for their efforts as well. Would this be a happy middle ground? Understandably you want more emphasis on battling and you see the battle server as predominately a place for battling discussion, but others view it differently. Some like to use the battle server as a medium to purely enjoy time with friends without participating in battling discussion. "Battler-only" voice would no doubt undervalue all of these people.

I'm still on the fence about it so feel free to comment.


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