Neo-like game collaboration - Battle 1p & 2p/items/icons, economy generator, other items*?

[ItsPeteBrah]

Hey everyone, moving along with the neo-like type of game I want to develop. Would like to discuss a few ideas and topics that are up in the air right now. Would like everyone's thoughts on each idea... You can say good, bad, or better (suggest how to improve the system) for each idea please!

Please keep in mind I haven't played neopets in over 10 years so some of my ideas might be coming from how it used to be like back in the day. Also, I just took a look at the hidden tower and can't believe it has barely changed/no new items released or retired.

#1: I liked the 1 player battle system like the old neo where HP constantly increases every time you beat an opponent. Thoughts? Can also have leaderboards for each 1-player opponent (most wins).

#2: 2-player battle. Match ups with similar pet stats (obviously) and the same turn-based battle logic where both players select items and type of attack and hope for the best. **Would it be cool if each pet/monster had their own special ability that dealt slightly different icons? Or is it better to leave it up to the items equipped. I think having a normal attack, defend option, and beast attack (1.5x icons dealt AND received) is a pretty good idea. Any ideas how to improve this?

#3: I noticed card games are pretty popular these days. Instead of equipping battle items should we try equipping cards like a card game? They would work the exact same way. In my opinion I prefer going classic and having actual items over cards.

#4: How many different kinds of icons should there be. Options at the moment are: physical, light, dark, water, earth, fire, air. I'm thinking of limiting it to around 4-5 but I don't mind keeping all 6 of these types of icons. Would add more variety to battles and make it harder to defend with more icons (but then again I could just make items that defend more variety of icons as well).

#5: Pet/Monster types. I am thinking of starting with just a small handful of pets/monsters you initially select and have more rare/cool looking ones out there that you can either purchase (like a draik egg), or use a morphing potion to morph your current pet. What kind of monster/pet theme would be cool to use?

#6: Economy generator. At the moment I think the best way to create economy in the game is to for the player to build a "generator". This is kind of like clash of clans or game of war where you need to upgrade a special building that produces x amount of resource every hour. This way people can build up their economy without needing to spend hours online, they can simply collect their resources, upgrade the building, and so on... I think there will be only 1 kind of currency in the game, could be like a gold mine or a gold generator for example. Do you guys have any ideas for what other kinds of generators could be used? Players will also be able to gain points/gold/money/whatever from battling that way someone that wants to spend extra time in the game to try and accumulate resources, they can.

#7: For the moment, the game will have most emphasis on training pets/monsters, restocking, generator upgrades (to increase the player's economical gain/boost), and battling... Almost every item will be battle-related. I'm trying to think in regards to the restocking concept how I can increase the amount of items that will be restock-able and more importantly, can be of good use to the player buying the item. Right now, I have the idea to have 1 main shop (like a hidden tower) where high-quality items can be bought straight up with currency. The restocking shops could be: morphing potions, battle offense items, battle defense items. That's as far as I've come along... I'm trying to limit the amount of items that will actually be used in the game, so most items that will be restock-able will actually be of use (either decent battle item or pet-type specific item that is still of decent quality for battle usage). I want to avoid cluttering up the game with items that don't serve a purpose.

#8: What other ideas or concepts can be implemented to make this game more fun and addicting. I like the idea of avatar hunting, but with limited items and on a mobile device (not as many chances to explore a site), the concept of having avatars is pretty tricky. Would like to hear anything else you guys would like to add.

Thank you for taking the time to read this! At the moment the earliest I see the actual development starting would be in september/october, but I would like to take the next 2-3 weeks just gathering as many ideas as possible. Try to picture which concepts will work, and which won't. That way most of the game is already "designed" (at least in my head), before I move on to the next step.

[bagel]

What other ideas or concepts can be implemented to make this game more fun and addicting. I like the idea of avatar hunting, but with limited items and on a mobile device (not as many chances to explore a site), the concept of having avatars is pretty tricky.

Maybe they don't have to be avatars, just things you can collect. Some being easy like how clickables are, some you need to do some work for but not really hard, and really rare ones.

[Raposa]

I'm such a slut for virtual pet sites--if you make one, I'll play it.

[Vindictive]

People here really don't support ideas like this. They still too tied up Neopets anus. Good with your endeavors however. Glad to see someone else making an effort for something better.

[I_royalty_I]

Hmm, I think that's a pretty good list right there. I'm not sure about the generator option. It makes sense but it's definitely something different. I see that as something that could be exploited quite easily. For example... somebody makes 100 accounts, uses a bot to collect the gold every now and then, after which they automatically move it to their main account. I don't think putting together something like that would be too difficult for somebody to make, and that could be an issue.

I really like the idea of the HP increasing BD opponents for 1P. That was always a very popular thing on Neo.

As far as avatars, you could have them revolve around certain things, such as training/battling achievements.

Having something to collect is part of what keeps a lot of people around. Whether it's collecting stats, battle wins, certain items to show off, avatars, trophies, etc etc.

[ItsPeteBrah]

Anyone else would like to add anything?

[Kite]

1 - yes a lot of battledomers missed this function and I agree it was pretty interesting but I think it works better in plots because if you're fighting them over and over you'll eventually reach a point where you can't beat them at all, this could also be remedied by having weekly/monthly resets and a leaderboard on difficulty etc.

2 - having a "beast" attack seems pointless just leave it up to items imo, species having special attacks and resists etc. was always a cool feature in the old BD but they have to be balanced which is where TNT just dropped the ball the same relates to the disparity of actual usable BD weapons icons vs Weapons whos only real use is being a gallery piece

3 - literally there's no difference between having a "card" or item battle system since they're just pixels which will be doing the same thing in the end (deciding how much damage you deal and receive) the only real difference is putting the item picture on a "card" BG

4 - I'd recommend starting it with the 4 basic elements fire, water, wind, earth getting all that working and functioning correctly and then adding in light/dark/physical/etc as time progresses to keep the battle system from becoming too stale.. I never liked how physical never had an opposing element really also how your attacking elements have no interactions with your opponents, if I shoot water and he shoots fire shouldn't I do way more damage since my water will dampen the flames? :o logic/strats!

5 - No real opinion on this, the whole animal kingdom and world is your inspiration to draw from so not really limited at all aside from your creativity

6 - Gambling is always a strong easy choice when it comes to economy in games like these, and teh gold mine idea is good just put a limit on the amount it can fill up before it has to be collected to guarantee people logging in to collect regularly

7 - Restocking as you can see from neopets is pretty much autobuyer central that really takes any and all the fun out of it so if you plan on going this route I would suggest adding captchas to the buy window etc.

8 - Live Chat with other players, no super op items they only release so few of that you'll never have a chance of obtaining unless it gets duped 1000 times, having items that are rare is nice and lets people feel MLG but, wanting something you'll literally never have just leaves me feeling bitter af personally and just turns me off

[ItsPeteBrah]

1 - yes a lot of battledomers missed this function and I agree it was pretty interesting but I think it works better in plots because if you're fighting them over and over you'll eventually reach a point where you can't beat them at all, this could also be remedied by having weekly/monthly resets and a leaderboard on difficulty etc.

2 - having a "beast" attack seems pointless just leave it up to items imo, species having special attacks and resists etc. was always a cool feature in the old BD but they have to be balanced which is where TNT just dropped the ball the same relates to the disparity of actual usable BD weapons icons vs Weapons whos only real use is being a gallery piece

3 - literally there's no difference between having a "card" or item battle system since they're just pixels which will be doing the same thing in the end (deciding how much damage you deal and receive) the only real difference is putting the item picture on a "card" BG

4 - I'd recommend starting it with the 4 basic elements fire, water, wind, earth getting all that working and functioning correctly and then adding in light/dark/physical/etc as time progresses to keep the battle system from becoming too stale.. I never liked how physical never had an opposing element really also how your attacking elements have no interactions with your opponents, if I shoot water and he shoots fire shouldn't I do way more damage since my water will dampen the flames? :o logic/strats!

5 - No real opinion on this, the whole animal kingdom and world is your inspiration to draw from so not really limited at all aside from your creativity

6 - Gambling is always a strong easy choice when it comes to economy in games like these, and teh gold mine idea is good just put a limit on the amount it can fill up before it has to be collected to guarantee people logging in to collect regularly

7 - Restocking as you can see from neopets is pretty much autobuyer central that really takes any and all the fun out of it so if you plan on going this route I would suggest adding captchas to the buy window etc.

8 - Live Chat with other players, no super op items they only release so few of that you'll never have a chance of obtaining unless it gets duped 1000 times, having items that are rare is nice and lets people feel MLG but, wanting something you'll literally never have just leaves me feeling bitter af personally and just turns me off

Great input!

As a player, do you prefer live chat with players OR forum feature similar to neopets where you can go back to a few hours ago and see other posts.. Forum is also different in the sense that someone can make a topic and people comment/reply to that specific topic.

Thanks for the notes, already had some ideas in mind... But looks like you know what you are talking about.

[Kite]

I like both honestly I mean people wont be on at the same time so message boards and groups etc are a nice thing to have but you can't really compare it to a live chat system but this is just random thoughts from one person you should definitely try to stay true to what you have envisioned

[j03]

Looking forward to seeing this project developed and launched.