Ideas beneficial for the ACAU!

There is nothing better for a RP board than development, so I think it is time to add some more of that in. We already had Gina’s thread that was mostly focused on making this RP’s workings more attractive and the staff is currently working on the things we consider possible.

But there’s still a lot more that might have to be done. So I decided to ask you people, the members (all of them!) for opinions and ideas on future changes that you see as something beneficial for this board, hence a stepping stone for future evolution.

If there is something on your mind, go ahead and write it down.

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Nope, I won’t open a thread without giving a suggestion myself!

My idea is about that sidebar we currently have: We could replace that Canon Face Claims module in the sidebar by a list of important links, that’d help new people and all other members to get a better overview of the board, taking away the troubles of searching for important info, like the face claim list etc.
There isn’t much interest in canon characters atm anyway and the list hasn’t been updated in quite a while.

I have some suggestions I would like to mention

1- I think either the faceclaim thread or the rules thread, or actually any where you find appropriate, should mention not only the open canon slots and taken ones and characters to be introduced later, but also the non playable characters. If a canon is a staff NPC or even not a playable character at all, I think it's better to add it somewhere so that new members don't pick characters like Aiwass as their PC by mistake.

2- I personally have always found this rule confusing.

Spoiler:

And I think some of the new members have too. I mean, it happened to have new members making accounts with usernames different from their character names right? I think it's because of this rule, rather than them not reading the rules. I know in the rules above it says the account should be named by your character's name. However, this rule makes that confusing. Personally, when I first made my account, I didn't know if I should make an account to introduce myself and post the application with it, and then make a new account for my character after the application is approved, or if I had to make one account for everything.

I know I mentioned this before and some of you told me it generally doesn't work like that in RP forums and that it's generally one account, but the thing is for new people to RPing (like myself), don't know how things are supposed to be in RP forums. And the way this rule was phrased was confusing.

I don't know what is the problem exactly, maybe the "new account" made it seem like we should have an account and then make a new one? I am not sure, but I think it should be either re-phrased or explained further.

3- In the application making, some of the rules and conditions aren't mentioned in either the application or the forum rules thread themselves, but rather in other rule-related threads like the Background Information forum, the Archbishop Guides, etc... But the thing is, it is hard to find new members reading a lot of threads before joining, so they might easily get past those points. I thought they should be linked to from either the rules (well, background info are), or from the application templates. And I think it should be mentioned that reading them is an obligation too, just like the rules. Because even if, for example, the Background Info are linked to in the rules, some members could assume they are not important and skip over them.

4- There is something I've actually been thinking about for some time now. it isn't really an important thing. It isn't even related to the forum directly. It is just an idea to make this RP forum stand out and have something special. I thought: Why not make a Trailer/PV video for the forum? Like, a clip to introduce the forum and explain what it is about, etc...? Kind of to attract new members when they visit us and make them think: "Wow, this sounds cool *-* I wanna join too!".

This is it for now. I will add more suggestions if I think of any.

Is... Is that a tumbleweed?

...

I'll just get to my suggestion.

So, as we all know, the science side of the forum (Academy City et al) has the system coined as ‘Urban Legends’ in place. Out of character, they are basically special bonus quests that people can accept with others, and in character, they are unique events for characters to get involved in. Really, they’re all around great! Full of interesting ideas and unique RPing opportunities.

However, as I noted at the beginning, it is something that the science side of the forum has. Not only are there no urban legends set up for the magic side, the way that the system has been implemented wouldn’t work nearly as smoothly outside Academy City, either. Academy City is completely cut off from the outside world, and not just because of its technological advancements. It has been noted to have a unique culture not found anywhere else in the world, people coming and going from the city are a rarity to put it lightly, so there is little to no cultural diffusion, and it is remarkably self-contained. If a rumor starts in the city, it spreads like wildfire, bouncing around in a small cage, quickly reaching everyone without any effort required.

Outside the city, however, it’s a different story. The magic is spread out through not just cities, but even nations and continents, so any urban legends would be on a much smaller scale. Not only would that limit user participation, but even the idea of rumors spreading through a single organization is unlikely, since magic cabals are not nearly uniform enough for information to spread evenly, whether due to the member’s varied temperaments, as is the case in classic cabals, or due to a strict hierarchical structure, as can be seen in the various churches. And if it were spread in a single city, then it would just be a mote of dust in the midst of a sandstorm, hardly anything to take note of, unlike in Academy City.

However, even though we can’t simply copy and paste the existing system, we can create something that serves the same function. I suggest a bounty board, of sorts. It would hold requests and missions by various factions such as Necessarius and Annihilatus, as well as smaller scale events that would be more slice of life. In both cases, however, it would be impossible to have them to be open to anyone, like most of the Urban Legends are. Something that pops up in South America, say, wouldn’t exactly be heard of over in London. So the ‘bounties’ (name subject to change) would have to be limited somehow. Personally, I recommend having the prerequisite to be that participating characters have to be of a certain faction. For example, a ‘bounty’ (name subject to change) where a chupacabra is sighted in the Mexican wilderness would likely be restricted to Annihilatus members, and one where Washing Machine-kun has gotten sick and is in desperate of medical assistance would be restricted to female members of Necessarius.

Since the magic side has only a very few players and has been opened comparatively recently, I think it’d really help to open this system up. The existence of ‘pre-made’ threads might get people to be less reluctant to make a magician, and if there are interesting ‘bounties’ (name subject to change) that can’t be taken because there aren’t enough people in a specific faction, then it might encourage people to make magicians that are in said factions.

In conclusion, make 'bounties' (name subject to change) a thing, or I'll use my magic wand to convince you.