Feature Suggestion - A Store

[Chillingworth]

I'm all for showing board ranks but that is getting a bit off topic. I think the whole point of a store is to increase player longevity. Showing the ranks of our most active members isn't going to encourage newer players to stick around any more than having a normal title would.


So, let's get back on topic. If we were to have a store what would we sell?

If we don't want anything in the store to change gameplay (which is a reasonable stance) and we don't want to sell titles or colors (also reasonable), what do we sell? Well, there isn't much more than that outside of player ranks and entrance/exit messages. But what player ranks would we give out and how would players earn these ranks? If they bought them with a currency, how would you deliver currency to players to buy these ranks? Will these ranks be displayed in title form or will it solely be a rank for /whois? Also, what other things could we sell in a store on our server?

Some of the suggestions in this thread are about giving out things for achieving something, which is great and all(and even has the same affect as a store), but this is a thread about a store.

100% agree with this statement. These new /board titles will do no good in increasing player longevity as soap mentioned. We need something fresh, exciting, and not just a re-hashed version of a previous idea. Adding these hard-to-get titles will do no good for new players.

 

[SmoggyWaffles]

What if the winner of the round got a choice of something?
For example, if I survived the round by myself, I get to choose the next map or who started the hunt, etc..
But if multiple people survived, the person with the most blocks leftover chose.
And then, if people survuved AND had the same number of blocks leftover, the following round would just continue with a vote as usual?

 

[Fruit]

I agree on the title system like AoD has, like HypeBurst and Hockeyfan1852 have stated because these give players goals. Maybe for every kill you got you got some points. And if you get multiple kills in a row (x2,x3) or a kill streak (rampage,domintating) you got points as well.

The point system for humans however, i dont have a good idea for. You can get points for every survive, and rounds survived in a row. But i feel as if there needs to be something more. Maybe since runner is using less than 15 blocks, you can get points for getting runner. Say you used 7 blocks one round. You can do 15-7 and the person can get 8 points.

Like soapless a /board title system wouldn't be fun for the new players. Hype already has nearly 1000 survives, and I have over 3000 kills. That would take players forever to catch up, and with us being active, it's nearly impossible.

Even though I could do without a store, it could be a good idea. Giving a player a rank to try to achieve may make them more active. Everyone has had some good ideas with this. And it's rather obvious we aren't adding power-ups, and I am against power-ups too. Just way to overpowered and creates bad gameplay.

EDIT: JKangaroo you said the colors would be confusing for you. If the titles are red/white, and custom titles are limited, then how would it be distracting in chat? because i read some of that you posted before.

Also, if we were to go off of what I said, there should be human points and zombie points, just like with the karma, but i dont see kamra being used as a money system. This way they can buy human and zombie titles. But they can only have one at a time. (Maybe be able to use which title you want and have it stored away somehow. If you had a zombie title on, but you also wanted a human title you could switch them)

 

[77thShad]

I agree on the title system like AoD has, like HypeBurst and Hockeyfan1852 have stated because these give players goals. Maybe for every kill you got you got some points. And if you get multiple kills in a row (x2,x3) or a kill streak (rampage,domintating) you got points as well.

The point system for humans however, i dont have a good idea for. You can get points for every survive, and rounds survived in a row. But i feel as if there needs to be something more. Maybe since runner is using less than 15 blocks, you can get points for getting runner. Say you used 7 blocks one round. You can do 15-7 and the person can get 8 points.

Like soapless a /board title system wouldn't be fun for the new players. Hype already has nearly 1000 survives, and I have over 3000 kills. That would take players forever to catch up, and with us being active, it's nearly impossible.

Even though I could do without a store, it could be a good idea. Giving a player a rank to try to achieve may make them more active. Everyone has had some good ideas with this. And it's rather obvious we aren't adding power-ups, and I am against power-ups too. Just way to overpowered and creates bad gameplay.

Exactly this.

 

[le_badcop]

I think an intelligently planned out store could be a great idea, and to control people from stockpiling huge amounts of points/currency, just put a cap on the amount of points you can have at one time.

 

[Da Jinks]

I know this is over a month old, but as this hasnt been implemented and I believe I'm contributing I don't believe this is a problem to post rather then re-suggest.

I like the idea of a title/rank shop as it would keep alot of people playing. I think this would be possibly a good idea?

Have every round survive equal 5 points and every human caught 2 points. Also have every hour online equal 1 point. After you reach a certain amount of points you may buy a title/rank like AoD has. Other things could be added for people with extreme amounts of points such as log in/out messages, choose-next-map, etc.

Just my two bits :)

 

[thatclaasguy]

Why Blocktopia needs a store:

What I have found while playing on Blocktopia Zombie Survival is that it lacks the goals and achievements to keep players interested. No matter how many kills I got or no matter how many rounds I survived, I didn't seem to be accomplishing anything (I didn't get that sense of achievement). Although Blocktopia is the most amazing, organized zombies server out there (With the best staff), the lack in goals has always been a downside to me ):

This a just a thought but I believe a ranking system will be a perfect solution to this problem because I know I would've been a lot more active on zombies if there was one. This will give players an ultimate goal of becoming trusted and to do that they need to go through the ranks. Here are some suggestions of what I mean, but of course, the details may vary (the prices,names of ranks, number of ranks e.t.c).
1- Survivor - cost 250 points
2- Zombiepro - costs 250 points
3- Zombie-elite - cost 300 points
4- Zombiegod - cost 350 points
5- Trusted - 5 references

Btw, I also agree with hype about the kill-streaks that will enable players to earn bonus points because this will keep players even more interested.

You can use this to tell players that they must be at least the rank of zombiegod with 5+ refs to apply for trusted. This will ensure that players are well familiar with the /rules and that they have had enough experience on the server to apply for something like trusted. The opportunity to become a trusted will give players something to strive for, something more than just a pointless rank. This will most likely mean that the population of the server will grow (which is needed) and that players will be more dedicated and active. But trust me when I say that I have found servers with ranks (goals) a lot more addicting especially when it is in a manner like this and I'm sure there are others who feel the same way.

But in the end it is up to you guys and if you do decide to implement changes like these, dont wait too long!, seriously. It's time for Blocktopia to make some changes :D

 

[paceboys]

I played on zombie survival for over a year, and im just getting back into it. Implementing this might make me not.
But why, this seems so cool?
I remember zombie survival as hide and seek infection tag that my friends and i would play outside. If you had a tile, you were someone special that people should know. If ou had an exit/entrance title, then it was a rare thing to read them. If you sell them to people that get enough 'points' then they wont be cool.

Onto. Invisibility/invinipcible for 30 second ideas. There is only one thing i can say about this without writing an essay : No. These two ideas make me cringe. Im no saying new hings are bad, but these are not the ideas. I really liked the idea where the winner with the most blocks gets to pick the first zombie, but the map might be annoying for some people. And while i understand i havent seriously playd ZS in what, 5 months? From all that i remember, this would make the server chat an eyesore, and put a huge annoyance into the game.

 

[DarkHender]

I disagree with a /store.
I've went to other zombie servers.. I don't see a point in them. We're playing Hide and Go-Seek tag not " hide and go seek tag in a mall".
I think the new bloodbaths are working wonderfully.
Fan rotation is also a work in progress I presume.

 

[FWD]

I am a NO for /store. I think it would wreck the server, especially when titles and stuff like that are really cheap, it would look really tatty
However we should have alot of competitons and rewards like titles, loginmsg and so on i played a different server and it's really anoying when people buy revives and invisiblity just because they've played for longer

 

[JKangaroo]

1- Survivor - cost 250 points
2- Zombiepro - costs 250 points
3- Zombie-elite - cost 300 points
4- Zombiegod - cost 350 points
5- Trusted - 5 references

You can use this to tell players that they must be at least the rank of zombiegod with 5+ refs to apply for trusted. This will ensure that players are well familiar with the /rules and that they have had enough experience on the server to apply for something like trusted. The opportunity to become a trusted will give players something to strive for, something more than just a pointless rank. This will most likely mean that the population of the server will grow (which is needed) and that players will be more dedicated and active. But trust me when I say that I have found servers with ranks (goals) a lot more addicting especially when it is in a manner like this and I'm sure there are others who feel the same way.

I find this to be a terrible idea.
From what I am interpreting from this, and this does very much look specifically from your paragraph, that you are suggesting that through store-bought ranks, we essentially limit the playerbase to a specific number of players merely dependent on a meaningless rank only gained through gaining points by winning rounds?
Really... There is no point for this.
Becoming Trusted and any staff rank above is dependent on the maturity of the player in question. References are thus gained through friendliness, and trust that they have earned through they're time on the server; sometimes gained faster than others, which is perfectly fine.
It is true, that the only way to earn this is through playing on the server, as really, that is the only way to really perform anything in this sort of way, however, the idea that "points" are used from the store as an artificial means to limit this--- Feels absurd, as it doesn't follow that ideal rule of maturity.

"Points," since this is apart of the store idea, will obviously come from sources such as surviving rounds as humans, or determined by the number of kills each player gets as a zombie each round.
So, points are merely used to determine either 1) How well someone is at the server, which can be achieved quickly by some, and won't necessarily be mature enough to achieve Staff, or 2) Merely see that they have been on a long time, though may or may not be that well at the game, or show how mature they are; as in both situations, you can get points, but, depending on the person in question and their personality/how they act, they still may or may not follow the rules to a degree either way.

So really--- It's an unnecessarily obstacle that really shouldn't be implemented.

Of course... This is about a store...
You should already know my viewpoint on the matter from 2 months ago: I'm still against a store.
I already stated my reasoning, and really, to repeat it, would just cause the argument to once again revolve around into a circle and endless argument, because from what was read before, and now, both sides have essentially just roughly repeating what was already stated before. It really all comes down to personal preference and how you react/enjoy a store system. I already gave my comments. Read back and don't be all "tl;dr" if you want to know. I don't really have anything else to say.
I'm probably on the same boat as paceboys and his first statement.

I really don't think we need a store.
Add something that is actually worthwhile to the server as a whole:
-Add more Competitions to get creativity and competitive spirit with new maps and playing the actual game.
-Really think hard, and possibly come up with a new game-mode or two, possibly having special gimmicks added into it.
- The Bloodbaths seem to be working, though I haven't heard . I would love to join, though I doubt I could do to TimeZones and school.
The server just needs a bit more variety I guess... Though I'm normally fine with the same gameplay. The server feels solid as it is currently.

 

[Mach9824]

Honestly, JKangaroo has said it all basically.

Other servers that do have a /store with the purchasable ranks / titles / log in and out messages/ colours etc just seem rather tacky.

At least with our server. Things in the chat are organised, legible, and understandable. If someone were to log onto our server and see everyone with their own colour, title, rank whatever, they would be confused as to who is who on the server; may it be these non-staff ranks to actual staff.

I take this from experience.

Also, just because you have a purchased rank, or something else does not mean that a player is 'good' or 'well educated' with the rules of the server. They can be some random that just sits in a corner and farms points. So basing a staff rank off of pre-purchased ranks is a ridiculous idea; it should come from your own merit rather than playing the objective.


Now getting a little off topic. It has been said that there is a lack of acheivment in the game. That there are no "challenges" or "objectives" to complete. Now I'm sure that "challenges" can be added to the server and would most likely give you a /award that is already implemented. But I feel that the minute you give the majority of the player population the ability to control a "customization" of their server character, there will be abuses, misconceptions, problems. etc.

Just over all a terrible, tacky, over used, over rated idea.

 

[thatclaasguy]

Jkangaroo, Mach,

All I am saying is that those other 'tacky' servers that have 'absurd' things like stores, points and titles (Minemaniacs, ablockz e.t.c) are A LOT more populated than Blocktopia Zombies (which I see on a day to day basis). So we must wonder why this is... We need to add things which the target audience will enjoy and obviously stores, points and such appeal to them... If a 'tacky' image is what it costs to attract people to Blocktopia, then it will be well worthwhile.

 

[Mach9824]

Honestly the only reason that is is because the rules are either so lax or non existant and the staff is so bad at what they do, it attracts the crowd of people that we either don't want, or are banned from our server.

 

[DarkHender]

Jkangaroo, Mach,

All I am saying is that those other 'tacky' servers that have 'absurd' things like stores, points and titles (Minemaniacs, ablockz e.t.c) are A LOT more populated than Blocktopia Zombies (which I see on a day to day basis). So we must wonder why this is... We need to add things which the target audience will enjoy and obviously stores, points and such appeal to them... If a 'tacky' image is what it costs to attract people to Blocktopia, then it will be well worthwhile.

I'd rather stay with a lower population than have our server be tacky, ugly and out of control.
In all seriousness, this is what I liked about blocktopia when I came here. It's not confusing, it's do you this you're in trouble if you have this thing you've done something to earn it.

it attracts the crowd of people that we either don't want, or are banned from our server.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[thatclaasguy]

Honestly the only reason that is is because the rules are either so lax or non existant and the staff is so bad at what they do, it attracts the crowd of people that we either don't want, or are banned from our server.

For some servers that I have visited and played on (like Minemaniacs), this is certainly untrue. Almost every rule is the same and staff reinforce the rules with the same strictness as Blocktopia staff and I know from experience that the staff from Minemaniacs are great at what they do.

I'd rather stay with a lower population than have our server be tacky, ugly and out of control.
In all seriousness, this is what I liked about blocktopia when I came here. It's not confusing, it's do you this you're in trouble if you have this thing you've done something to earn it.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

All I am suggesting is adding a ranking system (which is not 'tacky' in any way), not colours and titles as this is where tackyness comes in.

I was just saying before that if we needed to choose between the population of Blocktopia and the neatness of the server, we should choose the population as there cant be a server without players...

I seriously dont see how a proper ranking system is 'confusing' or 'out of control' at all, its pretty self explanatory and easy to understand.

 

[JKangaroo]

All I am suggesting is adding a ranking system (which is not 'tacky' in any way), not colours and titles as this is where tackyness comes in.

I was just saying before that if we needed to choose between the population of Blocktopia and the neatness of the server, we should choose the population as there cant be a server without players...

I seriously dont see how a proper ranking system is 'confusing' or 'out of control' at all, its pretty self explanatory and easy to understand.

You're missing the point of what the message was clearly pointing to.
For the most part, I don't see anyone really saying AT ALL that a ranking system is "confusing" or "out of control" in the least, and I'm really not entirely sure where you are getting that idea, at least, from what I am reading and interpreting.
We've been largely focusing on the idea of a store as a whole, not just a ranking system, which has barely been talked about in any means.

Through experience on other servers, we have found, if I am correct in my assumption (for at least, this is how I feel), that the excess of titles, colours, and albeit a strange sort of chaos I'm not particularly used to on Blocktopia, tends to frustrate me and distracts me greatly from the experience of the game itself.
YES, ranks tend to be included in a store setting, and YES, it has been touched on in small details thus far, however, Again, from what I am interpreting from DarkHender 's response, it had to do with just the idea of colours, titles, and the like as well as the idea of a store AS A WHOLE (there's that phrase again), feels convoluted and a generally not a generally fun experience for certain people.


Once again, It feels like this whole argument is more of a personal preference and personal ideals than anything.
However!--- What is not as much of a personal preference is this:

I was just saying before that if we needed to choose between the population of Blocktopia and the neatness of the server, we should choose the population as there cant be a server without players....
as well as
If a 'tacky' image is what it costs to attract people to Blocktopia, then it will be well worthwhile.

Yes, obviously a server cannot run without its lovely playerbase to spend their free and leisure time within the confines of our fair server. Yet, the idea of "neatness" was not the main problem of the argument laid out against the idea of a store/rankings/whatever!... else we can actually fit into this store idea.

Mach9824 , at least I believe it was Mach, I'm feeling a bit light-headed at the moment and cannot seem to be reading names correctly, was pointing more towards the attitude that many servers (and this is also from my experience on said servers as I have as well, dipped a time into other Zombie-like servers), that stores and the like seem to, though albeit is not the root cause, and can very much not be, though can still be some source of a bad playerbase and a worse attitude brought about by the players in general.
EDIT: Said statement seen here is what I believe I was refering to:

Honestly the only reason that is is because the rules are either so lax or non existant and the staff is so bad at what they do, it attracts the crowd of people that we either don't want, or are banned from our server.

I want to give an example that I believe many people can relate to, and was once wildly discussed on the internet in the past, and that was the increased spoilage of newer, supposedly more "casual" (such a terrible term) gamer demographic, though was truly merely a vocal minority for supposedly "dumbing down the game" or just ruining what made the game quite a bit more enjoyable in the first place.
This was a bit of a discussion, which caused a quite large amount of subscribers to quit playing.
Although not my reasoning for leaving the game, it can certainly be counted as one of the factors.
Blizzard, as a company, from the naked eye in these conversations, seem to have catered to a less-appealing demographic of people, and brought about consumer "bad"-will from a good number of sources.

One thing is for certain: You cannot cater to everybody in the world. You can appeal to some people, but not others; that is a fact of life.

I have started, as of late, been cracking down on my own personal ideologies and what I want from a game/what I wish to believe in.
It doesn't matter if having a store, at least in my opinion, strengthens the server only to bring about a less-desirable community of players that I really don't want to be around. This is normally what tends to ruin many games as a whole, as it drives out the majority of the players that really want to support the game as it is, and what it could be in the future.

I really don't want the server to end up like that.

Of course, yes, the server is dying.
We can all probably see that.
I certainly don't want to see it die, as I've loved its fun and immersive gameplay for quite a while now.
However, there is the inevitable fact that everything that is good must come to an end.
If there are ways to prevent that from happening so soon, I would gladly that advantage of that, as long as it TRULY, at least, once again, in my opinion, will help the server in the long run.

I do not believe a "store" or "ranking-system" (since really, unlike Lava which you can restrict commands and perhaps blocks to improve the gameplay for older players without ruining it for newer/younger players, there really is no point in a ranking system other than, rather annoying bragging rights), is not the way to go.
I feel there are, and have been, many more ideas that can be used and possibly exploited to the benefit of the server, and I believe some of those ideas have already been stated in this very thread already, as well as new possible ideas already being formed or sprung up into the minds of those reading it at this very moment!
(One such example is the idea of challenges I believe Winx is currently working on and is going to be revealed in oncoming weeks!-- I believe!)

I will stick by my guns, and remain with my opinion that a store is not the way to go.
This argument still very much feels like it's merely repeating itself but-- Oh well.
~~~And thus, Another lengthy post is brought to you by JKangaroo, the Gentlemanly Squirtle. Thank you for your time.~~~

 

[mariosatr]

I think, maybe join/leave messages would be nice, and possibly even ranks in store (without color). But no rank requirement for staff, and no titles.

 

[Txboy1234]

Honestly the only reason that is is because the rules are either so lax or non existant and the staff is so bad at what they do, it attracts the crowd of people that we either don't want, or are banned from our server.

So is that why I have seen alot of former active players that used to be in our server in the other ones now? Yeah I don't think so.

We can't sit here doing nothen while these other servers adjust to what the players want and constantly have full servers. I'm not saying that we need more lax rules, that would be absurd but the rules arn't the issue since believe it or not Minemaniacs rules are very similar to ours.

Now about the 30 secs invincable/invisable deal. You can allow the players to use it until lets say the 5 min mark in a 10 min map. It's not needed in my opinion but that is how it can be used.

About titles, colors and rankups... We don't have to have name color in the store (So there would be no issues with staff rank colors). It isn't a bad idea to have a store that allows players to buy titles as long as they choose a title that is following the /rules, a title color can also be used with this.
The rankups can be bought with certain amount of points, these rankups wouldn't mean crap in the server but people who see their name up higher on the list means alot to alot of people for some reason.

 

[Awwwyea]

If I may make an analogy from the little bit of knowledge I've gained reading an article on... Communism, actually. Think of it like an economic system. Economy relies on human nature's incentive. Take Capitalism/Communism (as this was the article's topic).

Capitalism relies on incentive, and so does Communism. However, Capitalism works better because human nature permits incentive to better only one's self, whereas Communism fails because people have no incentive to better the community as a whole (Part of the goal of Communism, states said article).

So to answer your question Txboy1234 , it's incentive. People feel that getting to that rank is their goal on the server, to better themselves and/or make themselves more known on the server. Take our Classic Lava Survival, with it's rank system. It works beautifully because of this (with the exception of rankism, but when you have more than one option this is bound to happen).

And if I may reiterate what badcop90 said, An intelligently and heavily thought out store with intelligently planned things entailed. I only say this because I'm in favor of a store myself.

I honestly believe if you can plan out a store, and add INTELLIGENT items that don't allow either side to benefit too much against the other, you'll have added one hell of a good feature.

I'll post tomorrow after I've thought of some good ideas that could be added with some form of store.

Inb4 someone argues with me, so spoiler note below.

Spoiler

Please don't shit on me for comparing this to economy. I know I probably don't 100% know what I'm talking about, but this thread reminded me of that article. Don't start yelling at me over this, because I'll simply ignore you. ^_^

 

[Trap_Wolf]

No offense to the people who are for a store:

Even though myself am pro for a /store of some sort. The current directors have made it vehemently clear that none of this would be implemented and your contentions/opinions are viewed as null and void.

Sorry, but this still going on is just beating a dead bush. :x

 

[thatclaasguy]

No offense to the people who are for a store:

Even though myself am pro for a /store of some sort. The current directors have made it vehemently clear that none of this would be implemented and your contentions/opinions are viewed as null and void.

Sorry, but this still going on is just beating a dead bush. :x

Vatumok posted this... xD
Some sort of points/ranking (similar to AoD) system is debatable, however, a shop which gives players advantages is certainly not going to happen.

 

[paceboys]

Honestly the only reason that is is because the rules are either so lax or non existant and the staff is so bad at what they do, it attracts the crowd of people that we either don't want, or are banned from our server.

thatclaasguy
Think of it like this.
Quality, or Quantity? Would you rather have less but nicer, more fun people on ZS, or a ton of rule breakers?

 

[Awwwyea]

I actually do have an extremely good plan brewing in my mind on how we could set up some form of store, if it were considered, and I were allowed to explain myself. The problem is, I'm having a hard time organizing my thoughts on a store, as my idea is extremely complex, and maybe impossible.

I really don't know where to begin, but I do have two ideas -currently-
-Infection Vial
-Blocks (Obviously)

I know these two ideas do have a shit-ton of problems on the surface, so don't tell me why they're bad, I already know. I've thought of ways to counter those cons of these items.

However, I must note in a spoiler something a tad more important.

Spoiler: Important Stuff

I don't think a store is needed right now. Most ideas for a store have too many cons to be added, and a good store idea (like I'm hoping my own is) will be extremely complex and add a ton of work onto our already busy Developer. WinX64 is still updating the server to 4.0 with all the super-secret stuff the Directors have in store for us, and the idea of a store like mine would probably kill him at this point.

Another potential problem I see with this is the high staff. Most of them are pretty busy/inactive, and already have things they need to worry about (Wiki updates, keeping the Forum updated).

I suggest this thread be put on hold for the time being. Myself (and probably you) would probably feel more comfortable discussing the proposition of a store AFTER our Developer is done and such.

 

[Txboy1234]

Awwwyea : What if we got another Dev?