Team Rocket Input request!

[indigo_league]

Hey there Rockets! So, as you may have noticed, there have been a number of player characters leaving the Team to head out into less criminal pastures! Some…more explosively than others. Now, we as mods are all for characters going for whatever is IC for them, but ICly…the Team Rocket admins are NOT happy at all about these developments, and at this point it’s happened often enough in a relatively short span of time that they’ve noticed a trend that they want to try to put an end to asap. While several ex-Rockets are already playing with conflict and consequences for their characters, we felt that some IC shakeup within the Rockets was probably warranted too. Whether that’s by offering more rewarding incentives to stay, putting out more internal propaganda, being stricter with Rocket reports and punishments, implementing new methods to ferret out potential traitors…there are a lot of options!

However, we ALSO aren’t looking to suddenly implement a new system that existing Rocket players wouldn’t have fun with, or would feel they were being punished by. So we want to hear from YOU, our current batch of Rockets, what sorts of things you think you would have the most fun with! What would give your characters an incentive to stay with the Team, or provide interesting conflict? What would you NOT enjoy playing out? Please let us know in the comments below, so we can take your thoughts into account.

Comments

[thedifferencebetween]

Obviously Jack's not going anywhere, he's sticking with the Rocket thing, but I definitely think some IC in-team addressing of the exodus would be a lot of fun to play with. I really like the sound of propaganda, honestly, and more vigilance within the base. That strikes me, personally, as something that would be a lot of fun to work with.

As far as incentives, I personally think what we have for Team Rocket already is pretty great. Plenty of starting perks, the option to advance ICly - which I really need to get on myself - access to all kinds of Pokemon, rewards for missions and jobs well done/participation in Rocket plots... there's a lot of sweet perks and incentives already.

But one thing I think might add to the whole Rocket experience may be more things where characters are working in pairs/randomly paired up to work together. OOCly, it helps rocket players get together when they may not be likely to through IC daily life, and ICly it can foster bonds between rockets and loyalty to fellow team-members and hopefully the team overall.

But really, I am very happy with how Team Rocket is done and really appreciate the thematic perks and bonuses.

[puzzlemonkey]

So, obviously I'm a newer Rocket so forgive me. I spent today learning about old Rocket stuff, just so I had a good point of view as well as pinpoint reasons why Rockets are leaving.

I polled some of the ex-Rockets and found the top reason for leaving involved the Pokemon abuse. I know it’s pretty ingrained into what Team Rocket is so it would be hard to deviate away from that. Newer characters that don’t fit that ideology and characters that have developed past that point will always run into issue with the puppy kicking aspect of TR. I don’t know if it should be scaled back or maybe just hidden. A good propaganda or PR strategy could be “Nah we don’t do that anymore!” if actively moving away from it just isn’t viable.

While TR’s schtick involves Pokemon abuse the current tone of the game is at odds with what they represent as well.

The secondary reason I’ve noticed Rockets leaving is more based on new Rockets. There’s no “vetting process” so to speak (Finn as an example entered intending to bail immediately, which fits his canon but doesn’t do much for TR) for new characters. Also, the lack of activity and responses I think is also causing new players to drop. It’s become a painful pattern, because there’s so many good people that pop in but then they seem to disappear.

As for incentives…

The starting incentive of 2 Starters is legit! Also, the looser restriction on adhering to capture rules. Being able to capture higher rarity Pokemon (or steal or say, cheat the Game Corner) is certainly pretty awesome. Because Shiny/HA breeding was removed, perhaps an implementation of stealing a shiny or HA of a certain level/rarity after a set period of time (like the current 4 mo for Trainers, maybe 6 mo for Rockets) though I do know they’re currently set as mission rewards, which I’ll touch on that in the next paragraph or so.

An allowance is weak compared to what someone could make at part time job in game. Also once you start taking on gyms or small time breeding it starts becoming a moot point. Unfortunately, making a change to that would require a stronger overhaul and heftier monitoring. A lot of income is handwaved for the most part, because it can be understandably tedious. It would either need to be properly watched or would need to be a different perk in regards to allowances.

As for moving up in the Rocket’s Ranks, that requires missions and I would hate to handwave that kind of thing.. A lot of Rocket activity is currently handwaved, for example the reports and stolen Pokemon submissions. I think missions would be something you wouldn’t want to handwave, so there’s accountability. The thing is, since joining as my first character (Ignis, not a Rocket) months ago I’ve only seen one Rocket mission. And actually, McGucket’s post on February 2nd was the last Rocket post that wasn’t related to ex-Rockets forming Strike. It seems Silph Co. is only used by newbie Rocket members to announce their arrival in the base and isn’t used for any purpose past that. In character Rocket posts could just as well be put onto the main community with a ‘Closed’ header.

If a single mod was handling just Rocket business it could alleviate stress from the other mods, as well as allow one person to focus on coming up with smaller scale missions. Like Faye said, pairs would be a great idea to get people interacting but there would have to be a reason for that interaction. A person focusing just on Rocket goals could work great! Players could submit their ideas for just Rocket stuff and have one person able to respond and implement, while the rest of the team can focus on the broad scale of the game like the rehauls and such.

Having a Rocket mod also means one person able to focus on putting out Mod Missions, which should be a core thing with Rockets. There are people who are shy and struggle with bringing in plots as well as those who just struggle with staying engaged with a group that is pretty inactive as a whole due to the heavy reliance on player plots. Player plots are great but they’re infrequent. Something like simple Mod incited weekly or monthly ‘mini plots’ could do great in injecting life into TR again!

This also would enable things like the Big Brother is Always Watching aspect of Rockets to work better. Even if it’s just a “submit a thread where Rocket Activity occurred” type thing. Someone would be able to review quickly and respond accordingly, positive or negative.

Currently, it seems that we have the option of field work or research as indicated in the Rocket Ranks but there hasn’t been a lot of science-y things outside of McGucket’s robots. I’d be super interested to see more things on that end too, especially since Team Rocket were the ones who funded the Mewtwo project in the canon! It’d be super cool to see that science side come up .

I suppose, in summary, Rockets have some good perks, though some become moot after a certain point within game. I think a lot of the stuff being handwaved might be making it too “easy” so to speak. A shift away from abusing Pokemon into a different pathway of being antagonists could definitely help in Rockets not dropping as well as a more active central community for Rockets to participate in.

Admittedly, Team Rocket just doesn’t feel all that active or engaging at the moment. The last plot was a player-run plot and prior to that was Prom, which I wasn’t present for but sounded awesome! It’s just I feel like they’re not too much different than Breeders or Trainers at the moment.

[logical_lioness]

Erm, I know my current chars aren't part of Team Rocket but there are a few things actually preventing me from apping a Rocket character which I thought I'd mention.

I think that it could be good to have a Rocket Training log each month which is led by the trainers, and gives newbie rockets (and some of the older ones) a chance to interact and feel more 'part of the team'. Right now it sort of feels like Rockets aren't really part of an organisation and everyone is working solo.

Also, the missions listed are kind of... well, boring and hard to post about. On top of the ones listed, it would be really nice to see a list of more specific missions posted each month that players could choose to take on - with say, a pokemon minimim level requirement, number of rockets required, reward for success etc. I know that obviously players can come up with their own missions but it would be good to see some ICly posted by the Rocket leaders, and would encourage Rockets to work together and not handwave missions. Once a mission is taken, it's unavailable for anyone else unless the Rockets undertaking it fail.

Something like:
Mission: Item acquisition
Minimum pokemon level: 30
Number of Rockets required: 2
Mission information:
Team Rocket has heard that Celadon businessman Mr Alberto has a collection of rare stones. Your mission is to infiltrate and steal these from his vault.
Risks: Known to have strong Guard Pokemon and the latest security technology.
Rewards: TM Thunder Wave

I'd be much more likely to app a Rocket character if Team Rocket was more structured, given they are an organisation, unlike breeders and trainers.

[logical_lioness]

Forgot to add, the above suggested missions shouldn't be able to be handwaved - there should be proof the mission was done, otherwise everyone will just handwave to get the reward.