Still plugin away at concepts to make BotB more RPG-esque...

Items will have their own Hit Points or Break Index. Every time the item is used it looses these Hit Points until finally they reach 0 and the item breaks/crumbles. The item's degradation would be noted to it's owner with messages a few times in it's lifespan. Different varieties of each item will be available and the boon value will be decided by a combination of the items' base value and amount of Hit Points.

Non-Player-Characters (or Non-BotBr-Characters) will be who you buy/sell items from. We've already seen the potential in this with the random messages. Perhaps you might also be able to find them in an NPC Barn. I'd like to make the NPC's a little complex. For instance, if you wake them up in the NPC Barn and don't buy anything, they will get annoyed with you and deny their services a couple times in the future.

In the works are a few item types --

Humility Helmet - Keeps BotBrs' entries from auto-favoriting, also allows unfavoriting own entries.

Totem Cloak - Someday a user account will be able to manage multiple BotBr accounts. This item hides login/logout info from the IRC chat room for BotBrs with the cloak while shifting between BotBrs.

Tally Goggles - Allows BotBrs to view tally sheets for Major Battles.

Slide Gauntlet - Protects a BotBr from negative votes on their entries. For every vote under 3 the vote is replaced by a 3. The Criticist will see their vote has been altered and may thusly continue to recast their vote until the item breaks.

am i to assume that you are also hinting at custom auras? because my dull boring greyness is getting on my nerves.

as for item suggestions: maybe a cloak of lurking which masks your online status, or the battle horn that lets users create major battles

There should be a Staff of the Sawtooth that fires a magical bolt dealing 3d6 sonic damage and has ten charges.

Staff of Sawtooth is hilarious. Maybe it replaces 1d6 samples with saw tooth waveforms in a major remix battle bitpack. xD

Jajajajajajaja xDDDDD, yer all silly!

Recycling Bin - Recycles tin cans to pay BotBr 50 nubs each.

Novice Staff of Swift Retribution - Item available to levels 1-5 purchased for 1500 boons that zaps 200 XP away from a voter that votes 1s in 3 or more voting categories. Levels may not be lost from its effects. Its use is only good once equipped and disintegrates after the battle; either OHC or standard compo. Staff is cloaked from all BotBrs when equipped. Staff may only be purchased twice during levels 1-5.

Hippo "The Hypocrite" Doll - Given (not awarded) to those caught voting three or more 7s per entry 10 times or more without favoriting the same compo entries. Hippo doll has no effects. The doll disappears after the BotBr is caught favoriting 20 or more entries that he/she has given more than three 7s on in future compos.

Ball gag - Given (not awarded) to those caught not tagging 20 or more entries they've favorited. Ball gag has no effects. The ball gag disappears when the BotBr is caught tagging 40 or more entries in future compos.

epic items b00d
*fez of hate - disables autofavs
*false idol - doll awarded for being idle in irc for 10+ hours
*dunce cone - given to botbers lvl 15+ who havent added a lyceum article
*the golden waffle - award given out at teh boscars
*fake beard - item has no use except to help the beard challenged with their self esteem
*botb art colij digree - given to botbr if 5 or more users set one of said botbrs pallets as default
*pedaphile registration - given to botbrs who create 10 or more lyceum articles
*novelty famicom tshirt - 1 time use, botbr get double chipist points bonus if they win an nsf ohd
*wardrobe - allows botbr to have more than 1 "clothing" item (hat, shirt, short-shorts,ect..)

Pleasant Surprise — When acquired for 10b (will items cost boons?), one is able to do one of three things (they get to choose):
• Receive 300b to host OHCs.
• Receive 100b to make palettes.
• Receive 128 Schizo points (if puke7 implements them; etc. points).
• Moar??!???!!!?!?!1/

For the first two, if the boons are not used after two days they go away.

For the last one, I think the amount should depend on how many points a BotBr has? 128pts would help me a lot, but for people in the top 10 128's pretty much nothin'! At least I think...

Obviously, this item should be extremely rare, with chance of a BotBr feeing it being once in 1.5 or 2 years.

:O

That Pleasant Surprise sounds like a pretty good bargain. Of course, if you wait too long, the bargain is soiled.

r0d of influence - doubles your influence while voting in the next battle but any sevens your entries receive count as ones :D

Just my 2 cents: i don't like the idea of a song scoring better or worse than it should have because of quirky items. I like the idea of items, though.

I likez SoiledBargain's idea, but instead of awarding b00ns, how about...
OHB vouchers, palette vouchers, etc.?


Moar suggestions... ITEM SETS?! additional effects if you collect all of one set. Each set has teh name of one fellow botbr and its items have effects somehow related to this botbr.

E.g.
UI's Mighty Cookie Cutter - can be forged from 25 tincans, allows botbr to cancel an OHB and get back their b00ns if it doesn't seem to be getting more than 2 entries
Chipchop's Turing Complete Stopwatch - allow to host OHBs that are (slightly?) longer or shorter than one hour
B-kn0x's Beard - Click on (=stroke) it once a day to receive extra b00nz

Also, get yer source file analyzer workingz...
B00daw's Favor - awarded after having submitted more than 10 tunes for obscure platforms
Strobe's Poop Waffles - awarded when botbr submits an nsf that is larger than 200kb
Lunar's Gold Shower - obtain 1 b00n for each maj7 chord used in yer tunes

Okay, this is getting silly!!1

Silly is right! Are we supposed to name items after our own kin?!

Teh Anvil of Hate — Choose a BotBr, and for the next three OHCs they participate in their score will be deducted by 7. This can be acquired when you win two OHCs in a row.

In depth, how will this really work? Will the NPCs give us random messages? Will they're be some sort of interactive ui-pixeled-powered market out in a forest?

If so, that'd be kind of cool...

miau -- I like the pokemon ideology of certain "collector sets". There could be certain items if collected together form an power or disadvantage. That's something to think about more. :)

Some of your items are impossible, but others seem like fun promo or ultra-rare, random-encounter items. :)

champ -- "*novelty famicom tshirt - 1 time use, botbr get double chipist points bonus if they win an nsf ohd"

I love this idea, but I think it could be pushed further for example:

"The Famibomb T-shirt". The Famibomb T-shirt has infinite uses. When worn during an NSF or NSF+ OH*, the BotBr wearing said shirt obtains x3 points for a gold, x2 for a silver and x1 for bronze. If a shirt wearer does not make the top 3 during that compo, the shirt explodes, subtracting (vote points x 10) from BotBr's XP. BotBr can drop levels from the explosion. Famibomb shirt's effects are nullified if OH* has less than 4 participants.

SoiledBargains -- That Pleasant Surprise thing could be pretty neat. :D Vouchers like miau said too. :)

~~~~

Jack -- A jack (from the game jacks, signifying Jack of all trades) is awarded to BotBrs over level 10 who are evenly matched within 250 points between Chipist, Mixist, etc... If a BotBr possesses the jack, the BotBr does not pay for OH*s, or bumping or creating threads. When the jack is lost, such privileges are lost with it.

Alcohol -- Purchased (or stolen) by BotBtown Drunk. When alcohol is consumed, BotBr's view of BotB.org is distorted. For example: Themes, spelling, link order, pictures are distorted until BotBr logs out and logs back in to BotB.org.

Lots of nice ideas. Seems like you guys got a B00Ner? Dunno where to begin for feedback.

Woah, more ideas here than I can shake a stick at! :O

I've come up with two additional items --

Flag Mask - change your country or invent one!

Aura Scarf - custom aura tile (aura color used for borders and other things remains natural)

One of the major concerns about items is when they have an effect on Battle results. Helping a BotBr out when they are getting slammed with negative votes is one thing but hindering BotBrs is another. The goal of items is to increase the fun in using BotB. This RPG idea has the problem in that we use real world skills to battle rather than arbitrary character stats.

At any rate, it'll be a while before any items are implemented.

NPCs will actually be BotBr accounts. Sometimes they will roam the site and other times they will be dormant in the NPC Barn. If you land on a page they are visiting they will greet you, otherwise clicking on their name in the 'Whos On' box will take you to them. The NPC Barn will be guarded and require a bribe for entrance. NPCs in the Barn will be sleeping (or something) so, if you wake them, their prices may be inflated. If you don't do business after waking them they will remember you and deny services for a while in the future.


Another item idea --

Bit Sack - stores a bit/sample that can be used in a Pit Fight (duel)

Alcohol is a great idea. BotB could do meta redirects every few seconds with a randomly chosen palette. And maybe javascript could randomly click links that are being hovered!! xD

lol 6 pack of space viking bear

DICE

could be boon leeching item, or a selectable item, it'd roll the dices and multiple the results by the number of b00ns to be handed/shared/pooled in a remix deallie.

If selectable, it'd be cool. If leeching, the botber would need to find a way to get rid of it since the item would continue to roll dices in ohbs potentially making him lose (or gain!) extra boons.

specially considered for the +b3000 users ;D

Hey, luck could balance positively...or negatively...;D/

Flopswitch - reverses 2 votes on your song in a battle. the votes that are reversed are chosen at random, so it could be for better or for worse.

Hostist's Discount- cuts the prices of starting a battle in half. awarded to those who have hosted 50+ OHBs.

Hat of Knowledge - awarded after submitting 10+ Lyceum articles.

Good ideas, arlen! =o

I have one thing to say regarding some of the item suggestions posted in this thread: it looks like we're treating items as trophies? Take False Idol, for example (don't mean to pick on you personally, chippie X)). There isn't any described use for it, it's just given to a BotBr after, in this case, being idle in #botb for 10 hours.

:?/

Got an addition to Alcohol:

Depending on how long the person sleeps and if they acquired water and vitamins to take before logging out, the BotBr will wake up with the Hangover Theme for two log-ins. xD

For example: To avoid getting a hang over, buy/trade/find/steal water and vitamins to take before BotBr passes out. As long as BotBr's slept one hour -- stayed logged out for an hour; or logged in two times since waking up, BotBr will avoid the hangover and go back to BotBr's default theme. :)

i am already drunk

Bump so the pplzz that joined after this can read, discuss, etc.

I'll edit this post once after I think of some item idea... so within the next few days, if not 24 hours.

hello! since puke is so busy bugsquishing, now is as good a time as any to harass him with the prospect of more work! ^_^

botb items have been in the hopes and dreams of many for quite a while, and maybe it's time the new botb blood had a chance to chime in with ideas.

KEEP IN MIND THAT MOST OF THE POSTS HERE ARE 5 YEARS OLD and like most five year olds, they need to shut the hell up and take a nap.

*Items in a new botb age*

with badges, i think botb has become more "collectables" heavy so item degradation wouldn't gel too well. items would probably be best served as either cosmetic or single use (ie host non badged ohb, ect...)

i also think being able to gift items would be cool. there could be a whole class of giftable items, flowers and such. this would give you cuties a better outlet to crush on each other than all 7s all the time. (hover over item on profile page would say who it was given by)

item rarity is also an important part of collectables, so it would be good if there were some rare shops that have a very small chance to appear (and only one chance per 24 hrs instead of new chance every page view so no refresh spam)

maybe there could be "mighty" and "ascended" shops as well that only appeared to botbrs of that level.

so... what kind of items would you fresh noobs like?

single-use items issued to you would be a problem because then nobody would ever want to use them

i would like a purchasable token that automatically decredits all plays you have on a song
e.g. if i have seven plays on Strobe Sucks.ogg and use the token, those seven plays will remain there but no longer count as mine

this would of course mean the item acts as an indirect unfavouriter

i like the idea of an item to host an OHB you don't have a badge for

^ yes. It would be cool to have a one use item that would in some way transfer like for like entries' progress. ie if you wanted a dmf sid entry in spring tracks to count towards your sid progress, or a sexmodit that so happened to be under 24k to be transferred over to 24k progress

We should perhaps try to think of ideas that take up as few database attributes and as few lines of code as possible, bearing in mind that items don't programmatically exist yet!

***

I like the insta-battle item idea too. Perhaps its cost could scale exponentially (ie. x_t = x₀ * (1 + r)^t) based on how many points you already have in that format.

So for example, given the base x₀ = 750b, a growth rate r = 0.2 (+20%), and t = however many points you have for a particular badge, you get the following table:

0 points = 750b
1 point = 900b
2 points = 1080b
3 points = 1296b
4 points = 1555.2b
5 points = 1866.24b
6 points = 2239.488b

I chose the standard OHB cost as the base as this would encourage people to try more formats than just NSF and S3XMODIT. Perhaps this could be set slightly lower (and increase the growth rate to balance).

Note that this scaling method makes individual purchases largely accessible, but discourages people from "buying their way to the top" (as this would cost 9686.928b - more that what most n00bs can afford).

Therefore, if you can't buy your way up to the top, you'll have to socialise and communicate to get someone else to buy the SVG compo this time!

You don't even need to store the items! You can have them readily available* with their effects taking place immediately (just call hostBattle() or whatever)!

_{*perhaps cycling daily?}

***

EDIT: I forgot about the deposit!!

Let's say the item's cost still scales, but you will only ever get back 750b of that after the battle ends with 3 or more participants. That way we can afford to use a higher growth rate and not make everyone poor*.

A growth rate of r = 0.5 (+50%):

0 points = 750b (-0b)
1 point = 1125b (-375b)
2 points = 1687.5b (-937.5b)
3 points = 2531.25b (-1781.25b)
4 points = 3796.875b (-3046.875b)
5 points = 5695.3125b (-4945.3125b)
6 points = 8542.96875 (-7,792.96875b)

A net loss of 18,878.90625b... maybe this is too much. But you can balance it however you want anyway...

_{*Well, maybe I've given a bad example...}

interrobang pie, are u saying we have to socially engineer the adminz or badge holders to get the rare formats we want if we don't have enough boons???????????????????

*rubs hands together and plots*

though, i feel like the base cost should depend on how common the format is instead of a flat 750 (is there a list of how many ohcs have happened per format???????????), like if the boon cost is too high, it'll only encourage people to coerce common format ohcs instead of trying out new formats. and if the rarer formats are cheaper, then people will probably be more inclined to spend less boons to learn a new format (ie: nsf and s3xmodit should probably cost liek 2000 or something as a base and something like tia or panda can cost like 70 (these are not scaled/exact values but examples))

the scaling up of the prices can also depend on how many total ohcs have happened as well so rarer formats still stay cheaper, while common ones are ever moar expensive....

actually, maybe it's not such a bad idea to be able to buy your way to the top....

you earn boons by doing stuff on the site and i feel like all these boons should have somewhere to go...........the boon wouldn't be inflating so much

maybe the same idea of increasing the price per non format hosting (0-4 is easy but 4-7 gets harder) but not make it unattainably high (more liek high enough)

still, rarer formats should be cheaper at the start (ohc list????) if total ohcs per format is tracked already...i'll have to work this out a bit more lol

How about a 'hosting pass' that costs something like 250b and then when you go to host an OHB w/o an earned badge it costs the number of entries of the selected format in boons? That way s3xm0d1t would cost 3kb+ and channelf (currently) would cost a total of 268b.

That obviously makes it the same price for everyone. Part of my idea was that if someone wanted an OHB but couldn't afford the 6th price, then someone else in the IRC can make it for them and feel like an ultra super hero that saves the day!!

You dont have to ask admins or badge holders - non badge holders might be able to host it for cheaper!

Alternatively a small group could come up with a strategy to get a format that they all want while paying very little in total - it would probably cost one person about 1000b if the hosting was split between a few people, as opposed to one person paying about 5000-6000b for all 7 battles. Obviously anyone else can also join in on any of the OHBs they host, so other people can gain from their strategising as well.

I like the idea of scaling the cost based on popularity. Somewhere around 250b sounds like a good base for the least popular formats.

Strategy is not really anything BotB has right now but I think it fits in with the (MMO)RPG aspect you're aiming for!

i think i like some combination of interrobang pie's idea and puke's idea

the shop would basically have a bunch of "hosting passes" with all the formats you don't have yet and their calculated prices

maybe do puke's idea*(nonbadgeohcsyouhostedwiththatformat+1)? (or some variation on this) (ie: channelf would be around (not taking into account the fact that more channelf entries would be added on) 268->536->804->1072->1340->1608->1876)

if a botbr can afford all of this and not get their boons back (cuz no one else lieked it!), that means they're pretty dedicated to this format (it's unlikely someone has enough boons to to this for every single format they don't have (unless they already have liek almost every format)) and if more than 3 people entered, then they would get their boons back anyway........

....maybe if you can't really afford a format at the 5-7th times, ....you could....ask someone else to host it who has a cheaper hosting pass for the badge or an admin to host....

also i think there should be an item that lets you view botb as the APRIL FOOLS CLINK page (why has no one said this yet??????)

botb items are the only way to fix this boon economy! *chip champion shouts from his podium with totalitarian zeal


items like the "box of chocolates," an ideal gift item!

each box contains 10 chocolates which can be consumed for 1 playa point each. consuming all the chocolates will give you an "empty box of chocolates." however, eating chocolates from a box that you bought yourself will lower your Self Esteem, reducing your next ohb points payout (including hostist) by half. this effect will stack continuously but points will be rounded up to the nearest whole integer.

can u break up the chocolates to multiple botbrs...... ( i think you should be able to )


this next idea isn't as much of a standard item as an idea i wanted for a while now but i think it could fit here, an all the heartz(devil) button for comments for when u really LOVE a comment! using the all the heartz button on a comment will give 500 (or any other medium cost value) of your boons to the poster and they will also get 100 (or any other semi-significant value) playa points for their cool comment! and a big heart will show on their comment (multiple all the heartz = multiple big hearts on the comment) (this could also be implemented as a standard item though....)

only use this on comments u really love as they cost some b00nz tho! (you might even liek never use it or use it once ever)

another item (cosmetic item): a visa! a visa allows you to change your botb flag temporarily (this depends on how much u spend on the visa) to any country you want. the time the temporary flag lasts is boons_spent_on_visa/100 weeks (ie: spending 400 boons on a visa lets you use a custom flag for 4 weeks)


another item idea (similar to b00daw's jack): the spammer. the spammer allows you to bump 4 threads for free. this item can't be bought in the store (because that would defeat the purpose?????) but has a rare chance (once a year?) of appearing as a message box (the merchant?) and you can accept it (or decline......)

Loud Pencil: Allows user to make a tag with a weight of five tags (you know, to make the tag use a bigger font size), but limited to only ONE tag (so you can't use commas to make like twenty tags at 5x size because wtf where's the fun in that)

Also I think there should be a tiny chance to receive a Bronze, Silver, or Gold variant of an item (which gives it more uses or a more pronounced effect), but the chance would be like, 10% chance of bronze, 1% chance of silver, and 0.1% chance of gold.

Is a botbr's inventory visible to other botbrs? Like, if I had a totem cloak, would someone else (who's not an admin, lol) know I have it if I don't tell anyone?

going back on the chipchop's turing complete stopwatch (5 years old post wow), yea i think that would be a good idea though i think you should be able to assign the compo time ranging from 15 minutes to 1 day

Artificial Intelligence Bomb: allows you to superficially turn a single BotBr's flag into another for a day

can maybe be countered with a missile defence item also named from some famicompo entry

A major/OHB can distinction would also be nice. Perhaps cans and aluminimum foil wrapping or glass bottles or something.

A trash compactor compressing an amount of cans into a mega can

could spruce up a BotB's page a bit!

It could also be "automatic" - i.e. displayed like a pictogram (think Puyo Puyo's junk dropping mechanism). So if a mega can was made from 20 normal cans, and you had 46 normal cans, your page would show: [mega can] x2 [tin can] x6

good idea w/ the mega can but i think the art could be better for it : (

also i like the idea of distincting between ohc cans and major cans (maybe brass cans???) because winning cans in a major is way more significant than winning cans in an ohc

also i liek the idea of displaying some joogle data on botbr profiles http://jangler.info/botb/profile/goluigi

like format based accolades (ie: mario paint master) could be displayed as rainbow badges and non format accolades could be displayed as....something else (some art based on the accolade), these could be placed in the same area as like mighty/admin badge stuff probably

profiles can have aura style hearts and the number of favourite of botbrs can be displayed next to it and aura style skulls w/ the number of nemeses displayed next to it (and also maybe linking the botbr's favourite and nemesis on the profile as well?)

goluigi: the "art" is an explanation of the joke, it's an E-Tank from Mega Man.

@goluigi 's all the hertz should say "goluigi REALLY liēkd this, I mean... *blush blush*

though i don't think the point payout should be nearly that high. buying points with boons should be extremely prohibitively expensive with buying normal items being much more appealing.

i like flamings idea of random bronz,silv,gold items. maybe it could only be cosmetic though like holo pokeman cardz? then maybe an item trading system could be implemented.

perhaps upper teir usable items (host non badged ohbz) would need to be "equipped." say a botbr has 3 slots of equipment initially. then there could be inventory expanding items like a backpack, stolen shopping cart, shady looking van, ect...

ive also considered items for non battle stuff like tags and lyceum edits but i don't see how that immediately devolves into abuse and general scrubery

I seem to be obsessed with the badge collection for some reason.

Collectionist/completionist points? Maybe with bonuses when you get a normal/bronze/silver/gold badge in a particular category.

I guess it can also apply to collecting any of the items/trading cards/love hearts that you end up implementing!

chip champion, if you're talking about my all da heartz idea for points, you would not be buying points for yourself, the botbr that gets all the heartz would be getting those playa points....not the sender.....

"then onthevote screen any given voter will have the ability to guess a) the author of the entry and b) the user they are attempting to imitate, if so."

this sounds really fun, then again i just really like the idea of pastiches so anything remotely resembling it, i'd support.

that said where can i get a mootbooxle plush

This is a comment from 2010, but

"Aura Scarf - custom aura tile (aura color used for borders and other things remains natural) "

So, a custom background for comment boxes, while the square around the icon remains the same? Am I reading that right? Because if that's possible I think it sounds pretty neat.

Liking the idea of somehow obtaining a token to host an OHB while you're not having enough euh 7-thingies to get a badge to host something. Personally, I like the idea of theme-ing BotB as RPG but would also like more focus on the battles themselves, not too much about the dressing up of profiles.

I also think the balance between n00bs and Mighty Botbers regarding b00ns and influence is a bit lost. Have to admit: I am not the most competitive myself and did not get much b00ns and such.

I feel the 'old garde' is not really spending the b00ns; perhaps some more play in loosing them? Like, depending on your experience/level you'll risk more when entering an OHB or Major. If as a Mighty BotB you rank top 3, you'll win some, if you have a tin can you gain nor win and with less you'll loose some points, depending on your level (the higher your level the more you'd loose to a certain limit). I feel n00bs should be excluded from losing b00ns, so you could climb up. As a Mighty you could lose your 'Mighty' title if you get below a certain amount of b00ns, thus not losing all your b00ns but you'd have to earn you knightihood again.

And perhaps a way thet people can team up in a battle, 2 teams against each other (teams chosen at 'random' taking Janglers statistics into account).

Just some n00b ideas. Oh yeah, I'd like to have a hat to go around with please! Donate the p00r, donate the p00r, bless you sir *bows deeply* thank you

i'm preemptively founding "team sadboys 2002", accepting applications immediately

Also a few thoughts about items that affect other BotBrs...

I think that even harmless things like MKSTAR's Artificial Intelligence Bomb suggestion, while fun, might end up annoying some people. Seeing what happened somewhat recently I just worry about people getting on each other's nerves.

And about the heart button idea, while it would be nice to give someone a gift like that, I think it would make more sense to be on a much smaller scale. 100 playa points can make a n00b jump from level 0 to nearly level 5 just because they said something that someone enjoyed. That could also change someone's class (especially at lower levels) to something that they haven't been working towards.

_{Like I'm one to talk though, I've given golgi over 400 points from listening to his songs.}

if u really love something a n00b said and u really think they deserve to jump 5 levels......i think they deserve it............................

when u get to liek higher levels it's not as significant but like i said, the heartz button will be pretty costly to use so it's not like you can use it all the time.

i also don't like the idea of having boons represent ur mightyness and taking it away if you don't have enough boons............i liek donating my boons 2 the poor a lot ;____________; but i do like the idea of having some sort of "stakes" for entering majors, maybe instead of losing boons, apply the principle to points?

edit about the stakes thing: i think actually it should stay how it is in terms of entering but there can be an option to stake some points you have in return of even moar pointz than you would have gotten if you didn't stake those points....idk...i feel like doing badly in one compo shouldn't discredit everything else u did idk lol wtf

"might end up annoying some people"
everything

Yes, some people are annoyed by everything. I was just thinking that if people are given the ability to do more stuff to each other deliberately then there's more opportunity for people to mess with each other, and impatient people are probably going to get even more impatient.

I'm sorry if it felt like I was shooting down your idea; I intentionally said "while fun" because I personally wouldn't mind and do think it could be fun. But yeah, there are some people who are going to get mad at that stuff (And sure, I guess they're the people who get mad at everything else).

Re: losing boons: no. There already is a downside to not doing well in a battle - you get a smaller reward. Taking away boons then is just rubbing salt into the wound - we should be encouraging people to do better rather than punishing them!

See also goluigi's post. I think the Mighty badge in particular shows your loyalty to the King Of BotB, so you should lose your that by doing the opposite - being dishonorable (similar to troll, scrub, etc. statuses).

Re: stakes: I think these are already inherent. Consider the NSF/wildchip and AdLib/TIA categories in Winter Chip X. Obviously there were a lot of entries in the former two, hence there is greater competition, hence it is implicitly more difficult. It could be nice if it was opt-in though.

Also, re: items affecting others - I hope that these are only beneficial functions! If I had been away for two months because of circumstances outside of my control (e.g. not having broadband at home!), and found out that several people had attacked/robbed/defecated on me while I was gone, I'd be very annoyed! Again, maybe if it was opt-in (similar to specifically PvP servers).

I think a big part of "what is annoying" is what can and can't you control. Let's take the major teams as example - some people will be interested in the head-to-head competitive side of it, and the more casual users will just want to enter a major to see how they do (and not really care about winning)! To force the casual players into a competitive game is crossed out and sealed away for a million years. Don't do it!

TL;DR: sure, as long as it's opt-in.

regarding the team suggestion: I was thinking of ohb-team-style, so everyone who signs up within the sign-up time participates in the battle and an algorithm would devide the participants in two groups, both being as challenging as possible (depending on the subject to battle on, so you won;t always end up in the same group).

Regarding losing b00ns: a little regulation in a capitalistic world would be fine imho. I'm not really envisionising de-throning mighty peepz, just thinking of something to keep botb competitive between both "the old guys" and the n00bs. But as said, I'm not very competitive myself and do not care too much about being "p00r". The only thing I'd like to do sometimes is starting an ohb, which is not happening often enough lately! ;P

...but....botb...is supposed to be a peaceful communist utopia

Then equal b00ns and medals for everyone ;D

Sharing our medals? You won't get a single one of my cans made of TINNY TIN TIN.

_{note: some crows enjoy collecting garbage, and will often get territorial when they feel their "hoard" is threatened.}

<snip>
17:02 < electronoob> when i first came here, i thought you know what, those restrictions make huge sense
17:03 < electronoob> but since i can seldom join an ohb that i like
17:03 < electronoob> it pisses me off
</snip>


Long story short...


It's too damn impossible to become a host and it totally destroys my enthusiasm for this place because when a battle comes up it's often something that I consider dumb or just not my cup of tea at all.. In the rare occasions lately that I see something I might want to join in with, I don't, mainly because my buzz has mostly been killed off.

I believe those that earned the right to host are awesome, but hey, it's taking all the fun out of it :(

Can I maybe donate or something for the right to host?

electron00b asked me to post my thoughts too, but I already did. Buying my way up is a bit difficult with the amount of b00ns I have tho. But perhaps some dice, a little n00b-casino, giving us n00bs hope of ohbs.... :)

I've been monitoring this thread and everytime I think I'm ready to respond there is so much more to read. I'm trying to amalgamate my various ideas with all these various ideas into a cohesive direction.

First off, let's speak of points and boons. Boons in possession of BotBr is their property and will not be automatically removed unless agreed upon in some way by the BotBr. Points are more or less metaphysical, that is, boons being material can't have an effect on points and vice versa. While marking a comment/post with a heart is doable it shouldn't be worth more than 1-7 Playa points. Also, how can I let a heart sticker exist w/o a skull sticker?

Anyways, the only instance of losing points is when resubmitting an entry you lose your initial 5 point bonus of submitting. Get it right the first time, n00bz!! Waaay back in day you would lose points if someone gave you votes below 4; that was dissolved.

Obviously I should address the ongoing OHB hosting issue. Electronoob makes an interesting point that while they believe the badge concept is a good one, it fills them with utter rage, contempt and blind seething hate. I can understand this. The best solution I can come up with in my head? Well, if we had an "OHB Hosting Pass" item that might solve things. But do we let anyone use such an item or should they at least have a certain amount of OHB experience?

BotBrs should be able to give items to other BotBrs.

Distribution of items could be both by chance (NPCs dropping them) and NPC ran shops or traveling salespersons.

I dunno... too much data/info to grok and make a proper response to.

Sorry, I seem to (have) see(n) b00ns as points.... My eyes are wide open now ;D

Like, a definite baseline for hosting an ohb of some format should be having done at least one entry in that format.

That said, I'd love to host a few 16k's if the hosting pass goes through.

Additional idea, which I think would actually tie in well to the RPG theme as well...

A marketplace feature where botbrs and the internet as a whole, can seek commissions... Sayyy, chuck in 50 quid and let players battle it out for the right to claim victory and sell their warez to some needy individual who wants custom work done.

This is what inspired me:
http://99designs.co.uk/pricing

I'm not saying charge that kind of money though.

idea:

think vector synthesisers, but with the four corners replaced with arbitrarily designed icons
give each botbr their own vector graph that maybe enlarges on click, a small node (initially centred) displays where the botbr is on it

you can buy items that shift other botbrs' nodes horizontally/vertically

a nice silly idea that adds to the charm of botb imo

I like the idea that opening an NPC but not buying makes the made. Maybe just raise their prices until a purchase is made? (Or maybe a week or something.)

When you said NPC barn, all I could think of is... Fellatio Barn

oh, team compos sound awesome, but i don't know how they'd work. (note: if we're gonna talk about that, then let's make a new thread for it.)

it seems like we all agree that a hosting pass item is a good idea, given the expressions in this thread. i also like the idea of purely aesthetic "bling" items that would just show up on your profile along with your other swag icons. easy to implement and fun without stepping on any toes. of course, there'd have to be an element of chance involved and a relatively large pool of them, so that there'd be excitement and prestige in being the only owner of a certain bling. and you could trade!

the idea of having plushies of other botbrs is also really neat, but i'd want it to be much simpler than exactly what kfaraday proposed. and i'd also want super-cute 16x16 sprites for them... so maybe it's a pipe dream :~)

botbr plushies, do want

edit: more useful input to the whole item/accolades discussion, i've noticed that "badges" are super popular in social environments like this, i.e. simple icons on your profile that represent some kind of achievement. then you can brag about your badges, compare badges, work toward them, etc.

they could be awarded automatically or manually. simple ideas are things like "perfect 30", "perfect 35", "tin can grand slam", "spring tracks 4 completionist", "5 years a botbr", "palindrome entry number", "irc top speaker", "underdog of the year", etc etc the possibilities are quite literally endless. i feel like it would be simple to implement and a lot of fun.

i like aji's idea! more novelty type badges ; )

some could also be like "medals" (like ohc medals/major trophies)

more ideas for novelty badges:
[format] master (most gold medals in a format)
2 slow 2 late (botbr with least latist points (latist points are negative wow))
most punctual
true winrar (wow 7zip is better...) (highest placer on average)


medal ideas:
perfect [divisible by 5]


(more to come...)

Plushies! :D

I legitimately like this idea. I suppose we could submit sprites for such? O:

Also, goofy random badges and "bling" are neato ideas too. Hats, anyone? :P

Hopping on the plushie bandwagon:

Yes please!

Like Xaser said about submitting them, perhaps that could be a setting in "Edit Profile" (like under the avatar image uploader)? I dunno, it sounds adorable.

golgi, the thing about those badges is that they can be taken from you. something like a s3xmodit badge or perfect 35 badge is that if you earn it once, it's yours forever.

aji, yes that's what i meant with the badges, they're badges and they get taken away from you and given to the new leader u get passed.....

i think perfect [x] should be like medals though because i think if you do it more than once you should get multiple perfect [x] medals for doing it more than once..... (it would look like ohc medals and cans)

re-reading this, did some one mention 16x16 sprites for botbr plushies

?

"Ear glasses" (looks like a pair of glasses with ears for lenses.)

BotBrs will be able to see who is listening to their music.

*crashes this 5 1/2 year old thread*

hey guys; i vape. i vape all day. every morning i wake up, grab my $100 ecig i bought at the gas station;, fill that fucker up with the b lue raspberry fluid (that's the good shit) and just get to vapin.

but also custom auras

custom auras means i can make an anime aura for myself to compliment the anime in my avatar

I think custom auras would be cool, mainly because I don't like when my aura gets that poopy-brown-orange color =_=

If it becomes real, then, your real aura should be displayed on your profile page, so people will know what kind of voter you are :^)

hey these are a lot of cool ideas! ^o^

so is puke still working on these?

pf

items by 2025

That's way too quick of an ETA. What do you think he is? A wizard?