To quote Bosco:

I think he's right in a lot of ways, and we need to up activity.

Note: Anyone who posts trying to derail this topic, or bitching about how we don't need activity will be warned. If you have a problem with an increase in activity, there's a simple solution: don't post here. I'm tolerating absolutely NO bullshit.

Alright, here's the deal. No one sees a problem with an increase inactivity, however, we don't think we should go about doing it simply because we're less active than FEF. If you want to be an active, successful forum, set goals for yourself other than to be better that a competitor.

Other than that.

1. Wasn't Hiei working on a new skin? Follow through.
2. The website wasn't working, you're not getting it bosco, give it up.
3. The RPG? It's dead, all that's required is a new one.
4. Staff? Inactive, but efficient when they are active. However, there are those few mods who are biased assholes who could use a good demotion. ;) (Actually, just one... don't wanna point any fingers though. :P )

Activity? Why do you car if the forums active? People do things other then post in forums and besides...I think this is a fairly active forum.

WARNING Hiei's note. Was basically "if you don't particularly care don't bother" but with some vaguely threatening stuff tossed in.

That being said, I agree with your sentiments. I wonder why exactly this needs to be on par with fusion and FESS in order to be interesting. More activity might be fun, I guess, but I'm certainly not going to do shit to help.

As far as skins go, I'm a big fan of anything on black backgrounds, if my opinion counts for anything. I personally find bright text on dark backgrounds to be easier on the eyes. Bright white/light blue screens just plain glow, and aren't as nice to look at.

EDIT-I do find it ironic that the last update on the FEW website is a little "we're finally going to start updating again". *Cackles*

As far as the RPG goes, you guys need to finalize any character creation crap (i still don't know how to make guy, there are two different topics on the same subject). Also, I think the arenas should be killed. They were good before we had a war system, but now that we have one, the arenas should be gone to promote country activity. That'll probably make the rpg more interesting. And also a FEW storyline for the RPG would be cool. Just make a gigantic powerful NPC army and make it attack territories, and let it go from there or something. Know what I'm saying?

Lets face it, the only thing we got over the other forums is an RPG, and without that, there's no point in being here. I've been gone for like 3 weeks and barely missed anything (I am missing a BIRTHDAY TOPIC, thanks) The "golden age" of FE Wars was when there was high country activity. Revive the RPG and things will roll. Capiche?

If you remove the arena, how do you plan to allow people to level up?

Also, my advice for more activity.

1. Advertise, but don't break rules... I'd like to see some people on here do that. :P
2. Get more affiliates, it's practically the same as advertising, but better. And if you do, don't go for FEF, they'll piss on you and remove it when you're not looking just like last time.
3. Since the RP is currently inactive, hide it to all but the staff, I mean, if someone creates a character now, they're not gonna get very far with it. :P
4. New Banner, one that's not crap.
5. ... Do something to either get the staff active, or maybe make a few adjustments. It's a good staff... for the most part.
6. DEMOTE ALL THE BIASED STAFF MEMBERS!

Back to this topic. The fact that FEF and FESS are doing better than us should not affect us at all. Sure, they're our "competition," but that doesn't mean that we need to be better. We should be focusing on how OUR forum is doing, not THEIR forum.

... Alright, I'm good.

1. I agree. This forum is big enough to get on google.... typically. But this is where all that competition I was talking about comes in. Not so much Fusion, but FEPlanet, and FESS dominate Google. Along with Fire Emblem World(s) >_<.

2. Why are you so harsh towards FEF? When that happened, it was a different Administration. Richie brought it up, and they decided it wasn't worth it. The current administration isn't responsible for how Richie acted before. In fact Richie was banned by the current Administration.

3. I agree. Or just kill it in general. I understand you guys think that the RP is important to you guys so maybe just keeping it to staff would be best. A working RPG/RP takes a lot of work though. I bet it would take 3 or 5 times until one is actually successful, unless you do everything right the first time.

4. It's not that bad... XD

5 & 6. Do you mind being a little more specific. It seems like you have a problem with someone, and I think I know who it is, and why, but why don't you explain to the rest of us?

About FEF and FESS, YES THERE WE GO, YOU GET IT! At least you're not using the IDC debate. We can forget about the rest of the fandom, as long as you admit this forum regardless of the others is not in good shape.

Yes, but in earlier topics you were saying that we should be better.

These guys know what they're talking about. Most forum team members (all 'cept me) have enough experience to know what's good and what's not. They get things really close, if not perfect on the first try.

Figure it out yourself.

What, you don't want the rest of the members, and staff members to know your opinion? You know that won't help get who you want demoted. :(

Guys, what you two are discussin right now have nothing to do with what we have to do with the site, you're aware of that, right?

Well, he wants to reform the staff. Yet he's only giving really bad clues to how it should be changed. I think it's a good suggestion, I just think he's being painfully unclear.

You know damn well who it is I'm talking about. I don't really want him demoted, because he can be a great mod. However, he needs to be put in his place by his supperiors. I'm not saying any names 'cause I know he'll just warn me for postin' my oppinion if I do.

Overall, I do believe this is a good staff, there aren't many changes, if any at all that need to be made. The only problem in my oppinion is activity. The staff's activity directly affects the forum's activity, thus it is not really the staff's fault. Something I've learned to understand in recent weeks.

None of the staff members have beenactive lately.. Just Reyde and Hiei..

Just because you don't see them, it doesn't mean that they're not here.

I'm on every day?

I made that mistake too when I went out and said stuff like that. All the staff members are on everyday, you usually just don't notice it. I've seen Ultima, 'Ivan, Strike, Hiei, Chou, and ZKX everyday for at least the past 3 weeks. The problem with the staff though, is that most of the forum team is inactive, making it hard to create a new RPG. Look at me, I'm active, but I odn't know crap about it. X_X

I was. Non of the other staffers cared enough to give any fucking feedback though, so I'm not going to waste my time on something for a bunch of apathetic members.

Isn't that considered mass-flame?

*cough*

I can't understand how a new skin can attract more people to the site. I mean, it's what's in the book you want to read, not stare at the cover all day long.

The gigantic army of evil will be a problem without Mr. Grondring... Only person qualified legally insane to the extent that we'd need.

Bosco: I'm on daily, I just don't say anything unless it needs to be said. But, now that I'm here, I'll humor you:

1. I don't care about skins. It's fine to me. But if you think it'll change anything, just leave my Avid Blue and I'll be fine.

2. Website was crap and Shadow couldn't pay for it this year, so it dies. Now, I have no problem if you want to run it. Maybe it'll be successful. MAYBE it'll help. ONly time can tell.

3. The RPG is again in a dormant mode as the RPG staff (which I am NOT part of it seems) try to make something that will work. I really like the idea of a plot driven RPG, not the beat-and-smash games of Ostia/WL/Sayelm/Grado/etc etc etc etc. There has to be a way for a system not to be mastered in a few hours so those of us who are in leadership positions and don't have time to try to figure out every little advantage we can from the current system. I dunno, I'm just a stupid vet who wants his old FEW community- "Struck by lightning aka IDEA" No, I won't say that. Bad brain!

4. The staff is fine. Yes, we don't have many of the individuals who brought FEW into existance, but we can get somewhere. We just need to get a certain couple members to quit running their mouths and pissing everyone off. Also, quit bitching at UW, Kaden. It's not helping anyone. But I think our staff could get somewhere if they had a domain to facilitate (Not much to watch anymore)

My Remedy: Give Bosco(Stick) a chance with the website. That's minor. What we need is the RPG. I don't know what to suggest, other that RPG staffers who know the system inside and out shouldn't be leaders. I'm sick of being spanked everytime. I don't know what to say. Just get that friggin' RPG to work this time. Oh, and how about this: RPG staff be the judges to get this shit done. That should remedy the problem of people getting lazy. Well, not really, but then we'll cattleprod them. Got it?

That is my cliche "2 cents". Take it as you will.

Sadly, Grondy went emo and cut all his ties with us. Saddest moment in my life.

However, me and Grondy did share ideas with eachother on occasions, so I kind of know the way he would've thought.

That, of course, I don't want anything to do with it, because for some reason, staffers always get hated.

I know, THAT was my point. He hates us all now. Poor us... Poor brilliance. POOR CODA.

Staffers are hated wherever you go, it's a fact of life.

The first time I remade the system there were just as many complaints proportionately to our population about complexity as there are now. The RPG still flourished then. The biggest problem with the RPG is activity. The fact that it is unenjoyable is a result of the decreasing activity of the site in general. If we had more members we would have more judges, players, etc.

There are only really two ways I can see solving this.

A. We go overhaul on revamping the site in all of its non-RPG aspects and take the RPG down for a while as Bosco suggested. We'd still keep a forum team to continue to edit and make the RPG for when the time is right. We'd need a new website, new skin, new look, everything. Personally, I think we should try to merge with one of the bigger FE forums.

B. We start a new RPG. We'd have to have a well manned forum team that is willing to dedicate a lot of time into judging and keeping a smaller group of people passionate about the RPG. Sort of like the way FEW was when it was younger. Honestly, I don't care about FEW enough anymore to put this much time into the RPG like I did in the early days. I don't think there are many members here that do. If there are, then they should be promoted onto the forum team immediately and given leave to start doing stuff.

I think that a merger would be the easiest and most effective means to bolstering activity. Both options A and B require us to find a handful of people who are willing to be dedicated to revamp something and go through with it. I don't know if we have those people, and if we do I think that our current administration is going to be hesitant in giving these people the power they need.

Since you guys are talking about a new RPG, I'll give my knowledge on the key to a successful RPG.

First, you have to have the man power to keep it going. I tried to make things easier by creating that inefficient, big-ass calculator, but the compiler itself was too big for most people... but anyways, my point is that you need to have enough people running it to keep it going.

Second, it has to be fun. You have to give the people a reason to check the forums daily.

Third, it has to be fairly easy to level up, at least to promotion. Maybe even start at promotion. That way, you can have a variety of characters. During the early levels, those that can double attack have a huge-ass advantage.

Fourth, you need to have people participating. Kind of obvious, but I am going over the requirements. ^_^

---

Man, talking about this really makes me want to get an RPG going... anyways, what led to the downfall in previous RPGs is:

-Lack of judging for everybody. Again, the calculator... blahblahblah... failed... blahblahblah.
-There was one main source of power, one or two minor sources of power, and the rest of the people were insignificant. The rest of the countries were weak. Thinking about it, starting at level 20/0 would solve this problem. Anybody can create a character and have an impact. Not only that, but the one source of power with the "power-members" aren't the only ones with promoted characters with their shiny skills and upgrade boosts. Also, this way, speed characters are not over-powered. The "tank" characters will have a high defense/hp stat and can stand their own against those speedy characters. In previous RPGs, the "tank" characters had a hard time leveling up while the "speedy" characters leveled up quickly.

Yeah, this would really be key to a successful RPG thinking about it...
-Some of the leaders were inactive. I have no clue how to fix this other than hand choosing established members to be leaders.

---

For the new RPG:
-eliminate clans
-keep the no stat caps/percent leveling
-only pick leaders that will stay active and are known for being active and being on steadily.
-have characters start at 20/0
-have a very loose starting requirements for characters and allow a lot of variety and freedom

Yeah, that's all I can think of right now.

Alex has a point with that post, but for the lack of leader activity he mentioned, I still say we should stick with ranks put in each country which are mandatory. This will be done secretly by the leader then updated by them as new members joined, everytime being returned to the Forum Team.

I agrizzle with most of it. I'm not 100% sure about the starting at 20/0 thing, but you seem confident. See what other people think.

Now, about the lack of judging, and crappy calculator, I'd say the best idea, which is kinda difficult for judges, but keep to letting them do the math. The judges automatically get say, 20 experiance for each battle. However, if people find an obvious, battle changing error, then the jduge gets no reward. This will encourage judges to do work without cheating.

Edit: Evil maniac country leader. I'll nominate Reyde. Not that he's an evil maniac, he'd just be the least biased.

I was babbling about that on MSN! Starting at level 20/0, Kaden! XD

But yeah, I posted the reasoning behind it already. I'll post it again, in a more organized manner.

Previously, the reason why some countries became so much more powerful than others is that they had promoted characters while other countries did not. The difference in a character that was 20/0 and -/20 was huge. Promoted characters got a skill, stat points, etc. Now, if everybody starts with that stuff, a country can't become too powerful with only a couple of uber judges *cough Luis and UB cough*

Also, if you start at 20/0, you don't need as much judging. For each character alone, to get promoted, you'd need AT LEAST 20 fights judged. AT LEAST. You know how painful it is to judge just 3? Exactly. If you start promoted, we can lower the experience base back to 30, instead of having it at 100 like before.

... that's basically it. That may only be two reasons, but it does solve a lot of the problems with previous RPGs. Less man power is needed on a daily basis AND countries aren't stacked.

Of course, other changes will have to occur, some necessary, some unnecessary...

*thinks*

Give me this week to think about this, and I MIGHT want to design a new, practical RPG. <3

We could have it so that one of a member's three characters can start out promoted, and the other two can't.

Karn, when you say the other two can't, do you mean they can't promoted, or they can't start promoted? I'd almost think it'd be better if they couldn't promote because if they could you'd still run into the balance issues. However, I guess with the starting with one promoted, the balance issue would just be the number of members per country.

Meh, I haven't really thought about the specifics yet. ^_^

The other two don't start promoted.

That just seems meh-ish. =/

WARNING: LONG POST. I have separated the serious stuff out with ~~~~ (tildens?), so you can either skip the more homorous or simpler stuff from above and the RP stuff below.

It does if they go all nazi on us and start making stricter TOS to "maintain a wider audience" or keeping off on posting because they're busy with shit or something.

In all seriousness, if you want shit to get done just say the name, and make the argument clearly without being offensive. "he" probably knows who you mean, though I don't. I assume it's Hiei, because random people have some sorta vendetta against him, but it's probably someone else, and they probably know you don't like them.

My feedback is one of the skins should be black background, and mild yellow, grey, or white text. Actually, I'm thinking maddox's backgrounds - haven't read the guy's stuff in a while but it was always easy to with the coloring. I understand if you don't give a shit, though, and I won't complain if the change is never made.

:( I MISS CODA :(
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I honestly don't think I'll go back to the RP, but I do agree with ya on this point. The country thing is very interesting idea, but requires too much time and stuff IMO because the system is too expansive to be done with pen and paper AND have even 20 people participate, specially because of the arenas IMO.

The calculating of battles also allowed the undeniable possibility of partiality on the part of the judges. In my opinion that in and of itself wasn't a huge problem, but the response was. It made everything really divisive and really hateful.

I am probably partially to blame for the collapse of the last RP because I wasn't able to think of an econ system which was important and useful without being unbalanced, so sorry.

Karn's stuff is solid gold. Same for Alex, though I wanna comment on one thing he said.

And didn't we do that the first time? I wouldn't be surprised if Arcan (who I haven't seen :( ) went inactive after a bit - though I didn't stay to watch the RP die - because although he's a smart, competent guy no one joined his country. I did, but then I left because I was bored with the RP.

You could simply start without leaders, and then choose them after a few weeks. This would be hard to manage and such, so I don't really know how it'd work, but it somehow seems like the right thing (you know, wait and see if people move).

As far as judging...IMO make the reward much smaller. Either a 1-4 exp reward or a 10-20 gold judging reward. If there's a slight reward it'll keep countries from becoming too strong...and at the same time, people will have to judge more because they'll want more and more of something. Get rid of judging your own battles and then they will want to judge after scheduling judges for their other matches. Or maybe have a 2 fight a day limit? At the same time, I could see how a small reward might keep anyone from judging (oh look, why even bother mentality) so someone else would have to think on it too, and change would have to happen quickly if it didn't work.

I actually like the idea of only one character promoting, because it'd make it necessary to have some unpromoted units in each battle. At the same time, I kinda don't, because while it'd make their be some weak and some strong units, at the extremes a 20/20 unit would make the 20/0 units useless. Not sure what you'd do for that.

But I suppose a prepromote and unpromotes would be fun too.

*Pantpantpant* Done

I've actually thought of a way to solve leader inactiveness. Just allow the forum team to take over for a country whenever it sees fit. Of course, this does require that the forum team is active. . ., which I'm hoping will be the case with the addition of Kirby and Kaden.

I agree. I think a merger would be on a level to exstremely difficult to impossible. The only forum that's in FEW's league is Fusion, and something tells me they won't be interested. On the other hand, we could do what Fusion did, and in my eyes this is what got FEF to where it is now. We merge with a website that has no forum. Fire Emblem Fusion lost their website because it became to difficult to manage after hosting was lost and I resigned. So what they did was merged with EFED (English Fire Emblem Documentary) it got content, and at least 20 or 30 members. Active ones too.

So maybe we could find a popular site that has no forums.

I'd rather just revamp FEW though. It would be very difficult, but I think it would be easier than finding a site that would merge. XD

Oh, and I'd like to apologize for stating that the entire staff has been inactive. Unseen is a better word to see. Because I do see them on all the time, but I don't see many posts out of them.

Now as far as things that I'll do: I could do the Website. Finding/making a layout could be difficult for me. But once I've gotten past that obstacle I can manage it, add content, and do basicly anything.
I can help with the RPG, and participate in it, but thats something I'll do because I'm a nice guy. :P I'm not that knowledgeable about RPGs nor am I good at them. XD

I'd say definite know to any form of merger, the member types would clash and oppinions would just screw the whole thing over.

Yes, I know. All we can do it wait it out. He still has the link to FEW memorized in his mind, and I think that whether or not he comes back is all up to his self-discipline. Pestering him won't help, as... well, simply put, none of you can contact him. I don't even know if I want to contact him at this time. If I do, it won't be to get him to come back. It'll be for my own selfish reasons. :/

About the judges... I liked the old rule; that you could judge your own battles as long as someone else gave the RN's. That way, things would get done faster due to selfish motives but there wouldn't be much room for cheating.

I can think of small things to tie the forum over while things get revamped, if you need me. I'm a big loser like that. :P

As stated everytime this is brought up, I refuse to the merger -_-

Hm, I think I want to at least try and help with a new RPG. Production forum access plz.

edit:

of course, only with your permission, Ultima. :P

What type of RPG do you have planned? Would it be a story, or just an RPG where we fight eachother? Or maybe both?

I would be interested to have a campaign that your group/country could try to complete. Then a different forum could be done where you cna attack other groups for territory (?), gold and supplies. Now that I'm talking about it, I'd be interested in helping out with the RPG. XDD

Well, in the FEW Discussion forum, we talked about producing both types, which will probably get done soon. I wouldn't be surprised if it took a few months, because with school, people can't spend hours and hours on a computer. Because of this, can I reccomend an Elected RPG Staff? Just one or two people who can see the production forum and help out. It'd help a lot.

Edit: They'd be similar to the Forum Team, except they'd have less power, and technically, they'd have no power, just simply access to one extra forum. The Forum Team, especially the way it is, can't do all the work.

I was sort of thinking that getting rid of arenas would be good and adding in campaigns/missions would be better. I haven't really thought about this yet because of school and the constant stress of it. X_x;