Because the game is currently under maintenance I decided to spam the forum with some ideas to improve the gameplay. Some of these could be implemented very easily, some of them are for long-term.
Note: when I address "you" it means the developers, but it's shorter to write just you
1. Make room for the modders!
The first group of ideas are easy to implement and could give a big fun factor to the game. As every game, PWO can be modded as well, and could be rely more heavily on modders, although it is obvious that an online game can't let modders to be able to change the gameplay, so they are limited to areas which do not affect the mechanics of the game. These ideas are all targeting the expansion of modability of the game.
a) Add more music: The game operates with relatively few musics. For instance, it has only a few themes for all the cities and routes. This could be expanded and assigned one music file to every area of the game. This does not means necessarily that you have to compose more music (although it would be awesome), just duplicate and rename some of the music files. But this would give the ability to the modders to create a wider repertoire of musics for a game music mod.
Extenison: It would be awesome if in certain cases more musics could be played randomly, namely in the battles. Example: you fight a wild pokemon or a trainer, there should be 3 battle musics which would be randomly played, and so the battle theme of Gen I, II or III would be played during the ballte.
b) Add more fields: Currently we have 3 fields we can battle on and these fields show up depending on where we are during the battle. This could be extended just like the music idea above, by duplicating the image files and assign them to different areas (Gym, PvP, cavern, desert, road, city, tall grass etc.), and let the modders make the new texturs.
c) Add more animation: Currently animations are very limited in the game. When you explore, it is fine, but in the battle scenes it could be better. Just like above, with the duplication of the attack animation files the modding possibilities could be extended singificantly. Assing an animation file (empty if it's necessary) to every attack and let the modders to make their animations.
Extension: With a bigger sized animation file it would be posible to make more complex animation, for example a beam starting from the attacking Pokemon hitting the other one.
2. Extend the gameplay
These changes are already more complex. Lot of people is complaining that they have nothing to do in the game, because they got all the 16 badges in a few months and now they are awaiting for Hoenn to be added. So the goal of these ideas is to extend the gameplay before it gets monotonous. As a side effect this would save some time for the players when they only grind, because during the exploration of more maps their Pokemons train more.
a) Extend the map: I'm not referring here of adding Hoenn and Unova as soon as possible, but the extension of the existing regions. Suggesting of making the maps bigger would be too much, but as a long term goal, it could be set. At least the cities would look like actual cities and not only 3-4 houses... But you could add pathes, more maps, sideroutes etc. Just as the anime extended the game's map you could add some new maps, like a Pokemon Ranch here, a few more maps for the forrest there (I love Viridian Garden!), a mountain to climb there, a hidden village there. So more maps to be discovered. There are really talented mappers among us who already made some excellent maps which could be used to extend the gameplay.
b) Add tons of quests: Maybe the best way to make players occupied is to give them nine quadzillion quests to do. With great stories and challenging goals the players can be entertrained for a long time even if they got all the badges. Quests also make gaining money easier so getting a surfboard wouldn't be anightmare any more. There are some very good quest ideas around on the forums, but writing good and interesting quests is a great challenge for both modders and developers.
Extension: You could make a quest editor for the game which sends you the quest automatically, all you would need to do is approve or reject it.
Extension 2: You could add some quest-specific content to the game, like quest-specific music or sprites (like being able to place a pokemon sprite on the exploration map so the player should have to find that pokemon etc.), or maps only accessible with certain quest(s).
c) Make the game more "living": Currently there are only a few NPCs in the game. Most of them say really nothing, most of them are only good for battling. But there could be more NPCs, especially in the cities, in the houses or on the road, who would only tell you a story, or would just be there and "wait for someone" etc. So that you really feel that you live in a world with full of Pokemon AND people. These NPCs would be great to teach basic things to players. Just some ideas: Negative XP, Pokemon catching, IVs, rarity, chat commands just to mention the most common questions on the Help chat. Because most of the players don't read the messages on the tutorial island
d) Add roleplaying elements: These are only vague iedeas, but like personalities to trainers (players), character development,NPC "rivals", pourchasable real estates and possibility to furnish them, accolades/memory items (personalized player sprites were suggested about a million times).
I stop here now or this post will be too long to read. I hope that you'Ll find some useful suggestions there.
Note: when I address "you" it means the developers, but it's shorter to write just you
1. Make room for the modders!
The first group of ideas are easy to implement and could give a big fun factor to the game. As every game, PWO can be modded as well, and could be rely more heavily on modders, although it is obvious that an online game can't let modders to be able to change the gameplay, so they are limited to areas which do not affect the mechanics of the game. These ideas are all targeting the expansion of modability of the game.
a) Add more music: The game operates with relatively few musics. For instance, it has only a few themes for all the cities and routes. This could be expanded and assigned one music file to every area of the game. This does not means necessarily that you have to compose more music (although it would be awesome), just duplicate and rename some of the music files. But this would give the ability to the modders to create a wider repertoire of musics for a game music mod.
Extenison: It would be awesome if in certain cases more musics could be played randomly, namely in the battles. Example: you fight a wild pokemon or a trainer, there should be 3 battle musics which would be randomly played, and so the battle theme of Gen I, II or III would be played during the ballte.
b) Add more fields: Currently we have 3 fields we can battle on and these fields show up depending on where we are during the battle. This could be extended just like the music idea above, by duplicating the image files and assign them to different areas (Gym, PvP, cavern, desert, road, city, tall grass etc.), and let the modders make the new texturs.
c) Add more animation: Currently animations are very limited in the game. When you explore, it is fine, but in the battle scenes it could be better. Just like above, with the duplication of the attack animation files the modding possibilities could be extended singificantly. Assing an animation file (empty if it's necessary) to every attack and let the modders to make their animations.
Extension: With a bigger sized animation file it would be posible to make more complex animation, for example a beam starting from the attacking Pokemon hitting the other one.
2. Extend the gameplay
These changes are already more complex. Lot of people is complaining that they have nothing to do in the game, because they got all the 16 badges in a few months and now they are awaiting for Hoenn to be added. So the goal of these ideas is to extend the gameplay before it gets monotonous. As a side effect this would save some time for the players when they only grind, because during the exploration of more maps their Pokemons train more.
a) Extend the map: I'm not referring here of adding Hoenn and Unova as soon as possible, but the extension of the existing regions. Suggesting of making the maps bigger would be too much, but as a long term goal, it could be set. At least the cities would look like actual cities and not only 3-4 houses... But you could add pathes, more maps, sideroutes etc. Just as the anime extended the game's map you could add some new maps, like a Pokemon Ranch here, a few more maps for the forrest there (I love Viridian Garden!), a mountain to climb there, a hidden village there. So more maps to be discovered. There are really talented mappers among us who already made some excellent maps which could be used to extend the gameplay.
b) Add tons of quests: Maybe the best way to make players occupied is to give them nine quadzillion quests to do. With great stories and challenging goals the players can be entertrained for a long time even if they got all the badges. Quests also make gaining money easier so getting a surfboard wouldn't be anightmare any more. There are some very good quest ideas around on the forums, but writing good and interesting quests is a great challenge for both modders and developers.
Extension: You could make a quest editor for the game which sends you the quest automatically, all you would need to do is approve or reject it.
Extension 2: You could add some quest-specific content to the game, like quest-specific music or sprites (like being able to place a pokemon sprite on the exploration map so the player should have to find that pokemon etc.), or maps only accessible with certain quest(s).
c) Make the game more "living": Currently there are only a few NPCs in the game. Most of them say really nothing, most of them are only good for battling. But there could be more NPCs, especially in the cities, in the houses or on the road, who would only tell you a story, or would just be there and "wait for someone" etc. So that you really feel that you live in a world with full of Pokemon AND people. These NPCs would be great to teach basic things to players. Just some ideas: Negative XP, Pokemon catching, IVs, rarity, chat commands just to mention the most common questions on the Help chat. Because most of the players don't read the messages on the tutorial island
d) Add roleplaying elements: These are only vague iedeas, but like personalities to trainers (players), character development,NPC "rivals", pourchasable real estates and possibility to furnish them, accolades/memory items (personalized player sprites were suggested about a million times).
I stop here now or this post will be too long to read. I hope that you'Ll find some useful suggestions there.
