Post by Vio on Aug 11, 2023 4:15:20 GMT -5
It’s time for the second poll to begin! Remember to apply your vote to the previous poll if you haven’t already! Something I also forgot last time is clarification on which each choice means, which I’ll provide further down.
This poll focuses on Devil Fruits, their immediate relation to the Rainbow Mist (as initially mentioned here), and another change that we’re strongly considering. I’d like to take the opportunity to elaborate on these points:
Devil Fruits Beyond The Mist
So, One Piece is about crazy fights and adventure, yes? It becomes increasingly more difficult to do any of that when almost every conceivable power is taken off the table, either by canon or by other members, and there’s also that element (for some people) that taking a power for an NPC villain still feels cheap even if they’re only temporary? That’s a facet of the world we allow that already breaks the “worldly continuity” we supposedly have.
As we work currently, if somebody makes a one-off villain with a Devil Fruit and then a player comes along and wants that power, they typically are allowed to have it. That then breaks the continuity in a very minor way. As an example, if my character ran into somebody (an OC) with the same Devil Fruit as an NPC they had faced in an earlier thread, that breaks my character’s continuity in a static world. In my experience, it’s often the reason most “villains of the thread” never have Devil Fruits, and that’s a bit boring when there’s little room for the truly crazy Fruit-vs-Fruit fights.
The Mist enables this in a better way, no longer forcibly breaking continuity, because there’s then an explanation (whether your characters understand or not) for why these things are even possible.
Cost Reassessment
This is a more recent discussion that’s been had, with the intent of enabling better character conceptualisation from the start of a character’s life. While we were originally talking about having Devil Fruits be placed into the brackets of 200, 400, and 600 X-Poinz, we’re now steering towards an overall reduction in their costs.
Zoans, Paramecia, and SMILEs will still sit at 200. Ancient Zoans and Special Paramecia will sit at 300. Logia and Mythical Zoans will instead sit at 400. This, together with the 400 X-Poinz starting budget we’ve decided on, means characters could start with the more “powerful” Fruits. The reasoning behind this is simple: Some character concepts just don’t work without certain facets being active from the get go—and it really doesn’t feel good to play a character that isn’t fully within their most basic intended vision just to get to the point where they can reach that. It’s a slog. It’s not fun.
One of the original reasons for hedging off Logia and Mythical Zoans was based on a “trust” idea, where if a member could reach a certain amount of progress then it was clear they could be trusted to have one of these powers. In theory, it sounds perfect! In practice, it doesn’t work. If a member’s going to break rules or be a problem, all it really does is force them to temper themselves for a very short span of time until they get what they wanted, so it’s ultimately a useless hurdle that otherwise respectable players would have to work with for the sake of a small few.
This doesn’t undermine other types of Fruit, either, just because Logia and Mythicals are available from the start. Not all character concepts work with a Fruit—the same can be said of specific types of Fruit. Using one of my own characters as an example, Aluco wouldn’t work as a Mythical Zoan user because her concept was based around the idea of an owl (her Owl Zoan does what I need it to do).
Another advantage of the Mist and allowing Fruit replicas between it is that Mythical Zoans no longer have to be a “crutch” to getting a power concept you’d want, which we feel is a common “trope” on site because of certain powers being limited because they are canonically owned, and so on. Mythical Zoans shouldn’t be a necessity to get those powers, but an option that can be explored.
With the topic of this poll explained, I’m going to clarify what each answer generally means:
“I like the idea” means that you generally see this as a positive for the site.
“I have no strong feelings either way” is exactly what it means.
“I dislike the idea but am fine with it” means that while you do not like the concept, you aren’t completely opposed to its existence and can see the benefits it brings as a whole. A willing compromise.
And “I do not like the idea” means you don’t feel it has a place here on the site.
