NPC Shopkeeper Idea

OK, I don't know if this idea has been thrown out there yet. But it seems to be a problem that the higher-leveled and older members all have in common -heck, even low-level members and new members seem to have this problem.

That problem is: influx of useless items.

How many times have we heard someone complaining in chat *cough*Draco*cough* that they have way too many items that they're never going to use, and that no one is really going to buy from them? The sticks, the major influx of the easily-rolled evolution items like leaf stone, Sun Ribbon; the tons of orbs that are not Trawl Orb/Itemizer orb -most people find all these items completely useless in their RPs except for flowery descriptions to add to their post.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have an NPC shopkeeper that bought these items at a fixed price? Probably a lowered price than what the item is actually worth, but it's better than nothing and having all these items sitting around in people's inventories, gathering dust and cluttering up the Character Records?

Not to mention, if a Record Checker decided to go and check on items to make sure people aren't giving themselves stuff willy-nilly.... -shudders- The older member's records are just cluttered with items... so many items... -looks at Aku's inventory and shudders- So... yeah. Just an idea. It would be nice to be able to dump the items with a small amount of poke to go with.

*Sits innocently with a mountain of useless shit* I roll a lot :D

I for one keep and use a lot of what I roll, but it would be nice to be able to sell the things I'm not interested in keeping that no one else wants. The Eevee Lord approves.

Also dear god Draco will have more Poké than he could ever possibly hope to spend if this goes through.

For poke is an immediate 'no' for me just saying this right now. I'd rather they get traded in for something else like with the spinda cafe. Like for example trade in like 20 'useless' items for a trawl orb, a mega charge, or maybe a discount in some store that the store keeper will still retain the normal price while fewer amount of poke is taken from the one buying.

I do not suggest combining certain things to make certain things since that is the point of some user shops.

Actually, I like that idea more *throws in 50 sticks for a strange ticket*

Strange tickets are a no go, you have to go roll those. ;P They're easy really, i've already rolled three.

I think it sounds like a good idea, having an NPC shopkeeper. Personally I'd be fine with either getting poke in return or swapping items for others, or just discounts. We'll probably have to put some charts together either way, find the useless items that exist on the site and figure out what you can get from the NPC shop for a certain amount of items. Would we think about saying only useless items can be traded in, or could items of use be traded in too? Like maybe say certain useful items have an amount equal to like 5 useless items or something? I'm just spitballing things we might need to figure out.

I'm probably a bit too new to weigh in on things like this, but I think that getting Poke for "useless" items would be catastrophic.

You know how in the games, it is very easy to obtain money by selling dungeon items, and there's eventually a point where you have more money than you can spend? I feel like that would happen on here, too, no matter how cheap the items would be sold for. The site's currency would end up being devalued, and things like shiny characters wouldn't be special anymore.

Here's my take on solving this: just use the "useless" items for their intended purpose: roleplay. Maybe they're not worth any Poke, but they could make your posts much more interesting.

Alternatively, you guys could implement some practical uses for items that currently do nothing but "fluff up" roleplay. For example, items that have the chance to incapacitate foes could influence the amount of energy lost from fighting them. Let's take the X-Eye Seed. Maybe you could roll a dice, and there's a certain chance that you could lower the energy penalty received from encountering the Pokemon. If something like this already exists, I have yet to see it being used.

Something else that might help this "useless item" crisis would be to make a section specifically for the sale and trade of items on the forum. Maybe a TM, berry, ect. is useless to you, but someone else might actually want it, and if you guys make it easier for people to buy items from each other, they'll do it.

Making items like evolution stones rarer could help, too. Then, people might have a chance at selling them to others who need them.

SilverScepter wrote:

You know how in the games, it is very easy to obtain money by selling dungeon items, and there's eventually a point where you have more money than you can spend? I feel like that would happen on here, too, no matter how cheap the items would be sold for. The site's currency would end up being devalued, and things like shiny characters wouldn't be special anymore.

Exactly my reasoning for saying 'no' to poke. Some people already have poke they can just throw around simply because they have all the characters they want *coughmecough* and end up giving away their poke which in return will breed more people in the same manner until poke is generally useless and everyone is rich because everyone has what they want, or hoarding their poke unless something pops up in the future that they want and leaving the others in the dust.

The mega-evolution system was a method to help drain that poke while the lottery system that was stopped was a method of pumping money into(while also draining) the system.

I was thinking about suggesting perhaps people can donate poke to have another dungeon be unlocked/made but despite having a lot of poke people can still be stingy about it even if they had like 15000. (I would even with nothing to really spend it on, which proves that poke still has a value for now, either that or i'm really fkin greedy for nothing) That and people keep flocking to Pecha and Shadowhue forest, and rarely ever stray to the outer areas even if they had the energy to. For pete's sake the last person to post in Scorchfall was back in APRIL and it only takes away 16 energy! That's just as much as The Ruined Chateau and just one more than Cattail Marsh. But that's a rant for another topic. I swear though i'm tempted to just replace all the items there with plain seeds and all pokemon be -500 energy just to get people to GO THE HELL SOMEWHERE ELSE

The main problem with items right now is people save them in order to sell them or trade them rather than use them. Problem is, everyone is doing that. They'd rather keep the item rather than use it so they can get something better and permanent like say a joy ribbon or a stamina band. Draco being a massive contributor to this problem ikidikidbutsrsmanuseyoshit They can be used to make rp more interesting or even used in some shops to make more interesting items
(For example To-Goat shop can take a blast seed and an apple and make a pokemon-equivalent of a grenade. Don't ask what the hell was going through Aries's head he just thought it'd be a good way of splitting apples for smaller pokemon)

There's also the method of making the use for something, for example before Sylveon evolution method existed gummis were utterly useless save for getting a few extra energy that doesn't really matter. I made a shop that gave those gummis a use, and now Gummis can be crafted with a few other items to permanently increase your base energy. Zincs and such were useless, and now they're used to boost the effects of a joy seed when brought to the To-Goat shop. I've been trying to think of something for Elixers(are those even on the site?) so far, but i've got nothing for now. Something will eventually come to me. My point being that shops also serve a purpose in creating a use for those 'useless' items.

Like SilverScepter said, we could also put an energy effect to use with them. Like perhaps every item takes away 1 energy from an encounter or something but each one does it in a different way? Another problem is characters don't seem to have a need for those items, the enemies are always too easy that they're brushed aside with a mention of getting serious and or the characters simply don't use the items because the RPers want to save them for trades. C'mon people put a bit of umph into those wild pokemon, it may be a cascoon and this may be a pmd forum but this isn't a place where everything does 1 damage every time it hits and you do 50, give that pumpkaboo Destiny Bond, make that Dustox know a bit more than poison sting!

I'm a bit concerned by the idea of raising the difficulty of the "starting dungeons". Is this going to make it impossible for new characters to gather items and level up without getting slaughtered? This will certainly make it more difficult for new members, which could be a bad thing.

Why aren't people using the other dungeons? A lot of us, particularly the newer players, are completely unable to visit other areas, since our energy is too low. It's really not fair to "punish" us for using these two dungeons, when they're the only ones that we can even use. Personally, I can only get a few rolls in before I run out of energy. Now, my character will probably get murdered by a Stantler before he can do anything.

But then there's the players with characters that have their max energy well above the requirements to visit other locations. This confuses me. You would think that they would go to these dungeons for rare, desired items (like Joy Ribbons, for example), but I seldom see anyone roleplaying in these other dungeons. Maybe there needs to be a prize of sorts, or rarer items. Some kind of motivation to visit these places.

I like the idea of "commissioning" a dungeon to be made, but people are too stingy on here for it to work out, and a new dungeon (unless close to Grassveil) would probably go unused for a long time.

Another thing I noticed, aren't IQ requirements one of the more prominent methods of evolution in the PMD series? I'm pretty sure that anything with the "evolve with friendship" type of evolution in the main series games evolves with IQ in PMD. I don't see how Gummis could be useless; Sylveon shouldn't be the only Pokemon who evolves with Gummis.

@SilverScepter - No, it is not going to make anything impossible for any characters, and yes, you CAN visit other dungeons. If you can visit Shadowhue, you can also visit Pricklemist Hill and you should be able to visit Fallen Leaf Copse. Besides, with the starting energy of most characters, you can most likely visit a lot of other places right off the bat. On top of that, energy restoring items are all over the place if you can't handle not having much energy. Plus, this is a ROLEPLAYING site, the main point is not to be able to have enough energy to flood your character's inventory with goodies, it's to roleplay. I assure you, you can still roll plenty to use in a thread in Pecha Forest. The entry cost is still 5.

And before you say "My character only has 16 energy so I can't go anywhere else," I'm just gonna clear that up for you right now. If you get a measly ONE level on your character, you now have access to almost half the site. Many of the areas cost 16 energy to enter. And yes, your character will be left with only 1 energy, but that's what energy restoration items are for. If you don't want to deal with that, that's fine, but Pecha Forest isn't gonna be infinite free rolls anymore. That doesn't mean you can't go there, as it is still the easiest place on the site, it just means you won't be able to indefinitely roll. There should be no trouble at all in eventually ending a thread and starting a new one.

Onto the reason people don't go to the other dungeons, that'd be because Pecha Forest and Shadowhue Forest are too easy. That is the point of adding in some annoyances. They don't actually stop new characters from going there and you can still get enough rolls out to have a full thread. This change affects veterans looking for free stuff a lot more than newbies looking for a place to roleplay.

^Sova is correct, you can still go there, energy items will still be there, veterans just wont be able to spam the dice every page and collect all them goodies known as Reviver Seeds and Sitrus Berries. Also Energy does not equal health, it only equals health when you want it to.

Making an item that is desired that isn't overpowered as balls is kind of difficult. People want Joy Ribbons. People either buy them off the other people with spares, or get them from events instead of going out looking for them. It's kind of hard to top a joy ribbon without completely breaking everything and even then people would ditch the joy ribbon for the new item. The stamina band or whatever it's called was meant to combat the joy ribbon, but has obviously failed as people prefer levels over free items and 2 energy off every encounter. Pretty damn OP in my book.

Espeon and Umbreon already need the Soothe Bell and Solar/Lunar ribbon, pokemon that evolve via happiness evolve via soothe bell rather than the gummis. As with the IQ System it seems a bit stupid. Using it would end up meaning that every character is forced to start off as a complete idiot that just walks straight into lava or doesn't use type advantage moves as if they've never fought before just because it hasn't eaten a gummi or two.

Just to throw in a couple of serious two cents, I actually believe the NPC shop is a necessary thing. While "poofing" in items/money is never a good thing, with the way people act on the site when it comes to money, it's really one of the only ways to get them to spend it. I'm literally selling stuff just to gain money in order to spend it frivolously. Seriously, I spent 2000 poke on Laurel's berry shop just to show that I could spend 2000 poke at Laurel's berry shop. Other than that, I have no reason at all to spend my money on anything. There's no incentive. There's also no incentive for me to use many of my items or sell things. I've got most of what I want, and I mainly just use items or sell things just to declutter or add an rp flare. That or to gain money to spend it on buying sticks.

As of right now, I believe the player economy is supposed to work like this: New player joins the site and begins playing in the starter dungeons. Veteran who doesn't want to play in the starter joins runs out of energy restoring items and despite having 50 bajillion energy needs some sitrus berries just to make sure he/she can roll for those rare items he/she desires or just wants to have for the luls. Veteran player then gives New player some goodies and cash to get the many energy restoring items the new player has rolled in the starter dungeons. New player then spends said money on buying items in order to quicken his/her exploration of more and more dangerous dungeons, thus quickening his/her accent into Veteranhood. Then the process repeats once another new member joins.

The problems, which are quite obvious when pointed out:

-Veterans would rather bore themselves with spamming in the starter dungeons for items they have an infinite amount of instead of going to those more dangerous dungeons for the luls. I would say I was an exception, but looking back on it, I stayed around Grassveil for many many threads, and even though they're not the majority, I certainly haven't really explored the more dangerous dungeons enough to really counteract my camping in Pecha, Shadowhue, and Monochrome. This makes money useless in end-game scenarios.

-New players would rather keep their items than get cash. Much like how Blue said, the only real item worthwhile to get is the Joy ribbon, which can only be bought from other players, made/bought at my boutqiue, or won in an event. I don't even know if it appears in dice anymore, and if it does, it's in one of those more difficult dungeons nobody goes to unless they already know Joy ribbons spawn there. So for the most part, new players don't want to get rid of their items because getting a Joy ribbon is a sort of mid-game goal that makes money a bit useless early game.

-Players who are neither veterans nor new have only one item they would ever want. Joy fucking ribbons. Other than that there's only one thing people EVER spend money on. A character. And you know what happens when someone doesn't give a fuck about having more characters? *Points to his inventory and money* Granted I have actually spent money on characters, that was only 15000 poke, and I'm already back to over 10000, and unlike Blue, I'm not generous enough to donate my poke to good causes or other players addictions. Also, I bought a shit ton of items I didn't need for shits and giggles which includes but is not limited to: A bajillion sticks, a second fucking mega stone, an Eevee tail (suck it sova), Rare fossils, Corsola Twigs, several tms, and...I completely forgot what I was typing about.

Anyways let's just have an NPC shop for me- I mean those of us who have way too many items, to throw stuff in for moneyz and/or items.

Yeah, Joy Ribbons can be rolled in at least one dungeon as far as I know! When it comes to Stamina Bands, they have been a bit too difficult to get in the past so now with the added dungeon that has them, at least I feel like I have a chance to actually get one, heh.

Kind of off-topic here for a moment, but here's a thing about Stamina Bands and Joy Ribbons: what if I want to use both? Not in the same thread of course, but if I'm using the Stamina Band in some thread and the Joy Ribbon in another... How am I supposed to keep track of when I level? I'd assume that only the pages in the Joy Ribbon thread count towards that 3-page level, but would you have to keep track of a separate 5-page level for your Stamina Band threads? I'm confused already.

Stamina Bands also are actually more useful at low levels in my eyes. 2 energy off Pokémon is a really big thing when you barely have any energy and when the encounters are around 4 or 8 in cost. It'll also stack pretty nicely if you manage to reduce a roll to 0 and get more energy easily by getting another page! But 2 energy doesn't really seem like it matters much when the encounters instead cost 20 or more: the chances that I will run out of energy with or without that Stamina Band in one or two rolls are pretty high unless I have a ton of energy. In that case, the Joy Ribbon is better as it actually gives me something - and if I want to get tons of energy, getting more levels faster might be worth it.

Seems like there might be another item that would reduce more energy or is based on a percentage, so that it's better for the actual high level dungeons.


Back to the shop topic! I could see the idea of exchanging your items for new items to be nice, maybe things that are normally rare or things people would like to have, like trawl orbs? Could be some kind of system like, give items to the NPC and pick your reward from the list, have the harder and rarer ones cost more traded items. They don't have to be equipment, consumables only gotten from dungeons are good when you have bad luck with your rolls. Energy-restoring items, maybe things like Joy Seeds or some of those rarer items the Café needs for certain recipes?

*resists the urge to mention the original use for Stamina bands was knocking off 30% of the energy cost of all rolls but was changed due to seeming too op*