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Hi All! In this post I'm going to talk about the general state of RP in Nin, try to understand why people dislike RP so much and provide possible solutions to the issues that stem from the latter. It's going to be a long ride, so buckle up. 1. Why Nin needs RP: In my understanding Nin has always been a very RP-driven game. Players are presented with the opportunity to create their own character in a Naruto-inspired world, make up stories and lore as they progress and have different arcs according to how their character relates to the world around it. Players can write about their character's lore and history in their Ninja Bio-s, which not only makes forums more interesting to browse but also helps players find others worth RP-ing with in a DZ before a fight or at GD when someone asks them for entrance to the Village Spa. There are however certain stories that are uniform to all players, such as the Land of Waves, Land of Toads and Land of Iron Arcs. Not only do these stories help players to lvl, but can also provide for some interesting lore when used creatively (e.g. People "befriending" a personal-summon at Land of Toads). These stories however only make up a certain portion of RP opporunites that Nin can provide, as the most creative scenarios are made up by the players themselves or ranked ninja (Chunins or above) hosting RP missions, which are predominant around the road to lvl 30. After hitting 30 most people are focused on grinding to 50 and learn their second mastery, and they seldom RP with exceptions such as the Chunin Exams or joining 2 Genin who have a Ranked to host them in order to help out. As players get closer and eventually hit lvl 50 they mostly tend to gravitate towards the PvP aspect of the game as hunts, spars and tournaments feel more rewarding, which brings me to my second point: 2. There are no incentives to RP: The lack of end-game content that most people complain about is mostly defined by the current lvl cap, hunts, spars, raids, tournaments and the occasional Toads fight to settle Nin Gen beef. It's ironic that the part of the game where people would have the time to create scenarios and RP freely as they don't really have anything to do besides AFK at their village's square / GD, spar or go out into the DZs to raid. There is no goal to achieve besides maybe going for a 0.01% drop from bosses which gets boring quickly as killing them doesn't reward people with much xp and they mostly drop nothing, attending CEs until one eventually gets promoted or pulling strings to become the next Kage or Council. Although most people complete their RP missions without breaking a sweat, the majority of players agree (based on previous forum posts) that RP missions need a complete rework that rewards the host as well as the Genin. There is also the feeling that RP missions are 4 mini-events where people have to be in-character when it would only be natural in an RP game to stay in character for most of the time, instead players are basically themselves wearing a Ninja skin. There is no continuity to Teams: forming after graduating the Academy, getting a Sensei to guide them through the first part of the game, doing RP missions, attending the CE, etc. are not things that are intergral to the game when these very things would make it more exciting in terms of player-interaction. The game should also reward teaming to discourage people from playing alone. As someone who has got to lvl 60 all by themselves, the routine has always been log on - do dailies - hang out - log off - repeat. If I were in a team it would have been way different as doing dailies with my teammates + sensei (let's say we'd set a certain time to log together) would be more efficient and fun. Many old players are also dissatisfied with the lack of content when they don't realize that we, the players, are supposed to create content in the late-game when we have nothing else to do. But unfortunately... 3. People don't like to RP: It has always hit me as a bit ironic that people do not like to RP in an MMORPG. In fact so much so, that RP is considered anything from cringe to almost taboo in some communites of the player-base. Of course many remember the (in-fact) cringe ERPs that some players took part in when talking RP, which is understandable, but it would be wrong to shoehorn these instances in with the basic RP that would be healthy for the game's vibe. Yet the lack of RP is not entirely the community's fault since the game is designed in a way that promotes PvP over RP at any given time. One example would be that the game has become over-saturated with tournaments as GMs don't really want to host RP events as they are tedious and require long-term planning. Players are also awarded more by mindlessly killing the closest enemy ninja that that shows up in a DZ regardless of lvl which is reinforced by the "it's a harsh world, suck it up" mentality communicated to new players in the final exam at the Academy. I personally, do not have anything against the PvP aspect of the game, in fact I've come to like it quite a bit even though I'd consider myself barely decent in my own right, but the fact that most encounters usually end with the enemy standing above the defeated player saying anything from "trash, dogwater, etc." to slurs getting thrown around in-game like candy truly breaks immersion. Just to put it in context: Imagine Choji defeating Jirobo, barely standing on his feet above the enemy and saying "L" instead of some badass monologue about how no one gets to eat the last chip but him that he had in the show. I mean let's at least put a little bit of effort into it. Another issue is, people who consider RP cringe often go out of their way to ruin events for others (I'm not pointing fingers, every village and their mothers have done this in the past) which does not only break immersion but objectively ruins the fun for others who were enjoying the event. The fact that these things go unpunished just further proves my point of RP playing second fiddle to PvP in Nin as everyone is expected to just suck it up and move on, or raid the village back when they are having an event of their own, creating this never ending cycle. If GMs were to enforce RP and actually punish people who ruin the fun for others it would probably make for a much healthier atmosphere during these events as players wouldn't have to be on their toes 24/7 about when to expect getting cloak bombed into next week by some enemy village. 4. Improving the RP in Nin: I've been thinking about different ways to provide RP with a more significant role in the game, which mainly fall under 2 categories: GM-based RP and Community-based RP. Below are some ideas for each of them: Community-based RP: Clan Meetings: As the name suggests: Clan members sit down in their respective Clan houses to discuss activity, events, village politics etc. There is also a possibilty of Clan leaders discussing inter-clan relationships in a map where they can't be disturbed by a possible raid. The former could be done every month or so, while the latter every 3 months. Clan Wars: A longer RP scenario (like the Warring States Period) in-between Kage terms where Clans can declare war on rival clans to settle political or personal scores / establish which one of them is the strongest in the village. Of course as the new Kage is elected it would be heavily suggested to hold a meeting between Clan leaders to make peace. Times of Peace: Kage sign a treaty at the 3 Kage summit depending on which village they want to have peace with. There is also a possibilty of all 3 Kage signing the treaty which would lead to cooperation, easy missions in enemy villages and joint operations against rogue organizations. Plots of Assassination: During times of peace Kage can send their ANBU to assassinate high-ranking shinobi from enemy nations (Council, ANBU, PB, 7SM, LMPF leaders or even the Kage) which can, depending on how they react to the situation, lead to war between villages. Academy Entrance / Graduation Ceremonies: Teams getting assigned to a Sensei: Players can form 3-man cells based on who they want to play with and what time they can usually play together (can be done in village Discords). They are assigned a Sensei after Graduation who helps them do missions, maybe host RP missions if they didn't do them before and train with them for their first CE (around lvl 50). If anyone from the team quits or goes rogue they can be replaced by anyone who doesn't have a team and would like to be part of one, or in the case of a Sensei going missing the Kage assigns a new ranked to the team. GM-based RP: War (Between 2 Nations): If 2 nations declare war on one another it could be for an extensive period of time: Raid points could be added that have more durability (would need days to take down) and the village which loses the war (e.g. loses the raid points) becomes a DZ. This would mean that villages can opt for different tactics ranging from a full blown assault to guerilla warfare. The DZ debuff would last for a few days (rebuilding the village from an RP perspective). All Out War (Shinobi World War): Basically the War Event but with more RP. Kage summit, followed by an FFA where the village which manages to win gets a buff (e.g. 20% on exp and drop rates for a week) with the other villages getting a debuff (minus 5%?). Rewards for attending (War Armor, Exclusive Cosmetic Items / Weapons) These war events could be held every 3-6 months. War between 2 nations could happen at a maximum of twice per term while an all out war could only occur if all 3 villages declare war on each other. Joint CE: Basically a joint CE but with heavily inforced RP rules to avoid trolling / people being out of character. Toads Dojo Challenge: Once every month GMs could host a tournament with the winner getting the title of Dojo Champion or something along those lines. The winner would then have to defend their title in a Best of Three against a challenger. If the challenger wins, the defender loses their title which is transferred to the winner. Of course there could be overlaps where the community wants to initiate change with the help of a GM. Such instances would be: Overthrowing the Kage / Council: In Leaf (since it's a democracy) people who are dissatisfied with the current Kage or Council (this has to have a strong basis, e.g. abusive or corrupt Kage / Council) could hold a protest against the 'leadership'. If enough people attend, GMs can set up a vote where if the majority agrees with abolishing either Kage or Council they lose their title and are (optionally) exiled from their village. In Sand as the village works as a monarchy and the sand siblings are next in line for the seat of Kage, the top-brass of the village can plot an assassination against the Kage (e.g. ANBU leader, PB leader and SMPF leader hold a meeting where they decide to dispose of the current Kage by challenging them to a fight below the Sand village in a 10v10 or a 5v5. If the Kage and his supporters win, the people plotting against them are exiled, if the coup is successful the Kage loses their title / gets exiled). Mist already has the Blood Challenge. Bijuu hunt with the Akatsuki: Kage / GMs settle on "sealing" a tailed beast into one of the villagers (presumably the strongest one in terms of PvP), who receives an item which only drops if killed by the Akatsuki and whose identity is kept a secret outside of the villages. The goal of the Akatsuki would be to find out who the jinchuriki are (through spying, interrogation, etc) and hunt them down. Once they have collected all 9 tailed beasts and sealed them into the Gedo statue, they receive a huge buff on every stat and a state of war is declared across the ninja world prompting a 3 Kage summit. The goal of the Akatsuki would be to destroy all ninjas from the shinobi villages opposing them (in a GM map) and if they win they retain their buffs for a week to ravage the land (rings), but if they lose the organisation has to disband. If the villages opt for a Shinobi alliance, then there's an automatic peace period of 1 month between all villages. This event could happen through the course of 6 months (hunting period) and a specific date should be set for the war so the summit can be held and troops can be mobilized. To wrap it up: I know most of this is just wishful thinking which would require reworks or additions of new features. As of now I think that the community RP scenarios are possible if Kage and Council + Clan leaders agree to doing them, although some GM or GM/Community RPs could be tried out just to see where it would take us. Anyway these were just some of the RP ideas I had in mind for a long time, so I thought I'd sit down on my day off and put them out there for the community. If you've got any remarks, comments or additional ideas feel free to drop them in the comments. Thanks to all who took time to read through it, I told you it was going to be a long take. See you around, Peace!

Time to bring back a fun topic for everyone, we have all seen primal complain about chidori and how they want to add "ys chidori" this got me thinking how could we make chidori more similar to anime whilst still keeping it viable. Now time for amazing idea, why don't we have chidori have a 2s slow run to charge up chidori then after the 2s you have a 4s run cast with a 3-4 tile dash, this not only makes it more similar to anime as you have to cast it but then you also have a dash instead of a homing. The 2s slow run cast allows the user to either book it to the mountains or to cancel and having the 4s full speed run allows the lightning user time to try catch up and dash to the enemy. This also removes 1 less beloved homing from the game, feel free to add comments and suggestions and let me know if you like it.

(Pre Notes: 1. Nothing we come up with is guaranteed to be implemented even if we all agree its a good idea, this thread is only meant to give the Dev Team some ideas to work with in the future. 2. We are not at the true cap yet of which the current cap is 60.) Dear Veteran Ninja, I've been brainstorming about what would help keep players interested in playing once they hit the level cap (Currently Level 60), So far I have two ideas but of course this is only based on what I see and personally think, those ideas are the following. So now I'm encouraging you guys to drop a few ideas, discuss it, improve upon etc.. ~Erox

Hi All! As I finally managed to grow my toad summon to full size, it occured to me that compared to other summons (Monkey, Weasel, Ninken,...) Toads do look a bit basic in terms of appearance. So I've been thinking: Lore-wise we've got all these different Toads (Hoshitomo, Momotomo, Satomo, Yoshitomo, Taitomo, you name it...) at Toad Mountain, right? In the anime there's also an abundance of toads coming in all shapes and sizes who excel at different things (e.g. Gamabunta - Toad Oil Flame Bullet; Gamaken - Weapons; Gamariki - Genjutsu, Gama - Taijutsu etc) and have signature clothing / armour or colour. I think that one type of special attack is more than enough for summons in terms of game-balance, so there's no need to add genjutsu or other special attacks to toad summons in general. What I do suggest however, is adding some sort of clothing to the summon to make it look well... less like just a giant toad. We've been brainstorming with players in-game and came up with the following ideas to improve the looks of toad summons: For War toads: - Gamabunta's happi vest (with the kanji "ebi" on the back) - Gamabunta's kiseru pipe - Gamabunta's dosu blade - Gamahiro's katanas - Gamahiro's sash - Gama's bead necklace (with the kanji chū) - Gama's samurai armour - Gamakichi's cigarette - Gamakichi's tanto For Toads: - Gamakichi's vest - Gamatatsu's vest - Gerotora's obi For Tadpoles: There's not really much to add here as tadpoles are as small as they come. (People's reactions to my tadpole mostly varied between "sweet" and "disgusting" but I was mostly proud of that little speck) Some people have also suggested that there could be a total of 3 different toads wearing the respective armours of Gamabunta, Gamaken and Gamahiro. When the player utilizes the summoning jutsu they would randomly summon one of the aforementioned three or one could decide which toad to sign the contract with (as sort of a personal summon) upon acquiring a summoning scroll. A whole new idea on the latter would be the creation of a "toad customization" menu where one woud be able to customize their summon in terms of colour, armour and clothing. Of course these are just suggestions which, in my opinion, could benefit the overall atmosphere of the game so please don't take them as me making demands or anything. I (like most of us) feel strongly about my summon and would like to see more of- and improve this specific game feature. Thank you for making it this far, feel free to react / comment as I'm curious about your thoughts on the matter. See you in-game!