Group Morphs

[Leroy]

Jun 18, 2009 14:54:18 GMT -5 Jamilan said:

2) This is a question. On missions, I bet certain kinds of morphs (for example, to get through a cave, the Animorphs in the books all acquired and morphed bats) will be needed. It's only realistic, IMO. What if there is such a mission on here? Would those who don't have the morphs have to acquire them from their post-count, or would they all get them? I think the latter would be best, and it wouldn't be cheap, IMO. Since most people would want to save their morph pool for their diverse animal collection that makes this site's characters unique.

Alright, I have thought about this for a long time now, trying to come up with some ideas. First I was trying to think of ideas for how it could work, then I tried to think of ideas for how it would be worthwhile to implement. I talked about it off-site as well, in order to get some extra input from others. Here are some of my views/what I came up with:

Now, my original thinking was that people could just coordinate OOCly in order to gain the same morph, but as I found out, it isn't so simple. Me and Johnny are going to be getting the same morph pretty soon (last I knew) and it was kind of a pain. But I like the idea of people acquiring the same animal, because it seems like it would realistically happen from time to time.

Personally, I think it would be awesome if a group of animorphs morphed flamingos to stand watch in front of a fancy hotel or something in a flamingo exhibit. But something like that is unlikely to happen the way things are now. So here is a possible idea that I have planned:

1. Every two months in real time, each city is allowed one group morph. (I'll probably use the calendar to keep track of this)

2. What morph is chosen must be decided on by the members of the city. Please make acquiring it believable.

3. Only members involved in the thread where it is used will be allowed to have the morph.

4. Once everything is decided, each city should inform me which animal they will be acquiring, who is acquiring it, and why they need to acquire it.

5. If the group morph isn't used/decided by the time the city gets its next group morph, they do not get two group morphs (possible exceptions).

So, please give me any and all of you comments, questions, concerns, potential improvements, and potential flaws. Thanks in advance for any help.

[Johnny]

3. Only members involved in the thread where it is used will be allowed to have the morph.

So, even if it is acquired in another thread the character is in, they will just come up with an excuse to not use it?

5. If the group morph isn't used/decided by the time the city gets its next group morph, they do not get two group morphs (possible exceptions).

So it it you don't use it you lose it? Okay, are you saying that say, we don't use February's morph by April. Does that mean that we only lose February's and April's? Or do we also lose June's as well?

Oh, yeah, and so far we're still planning on the same morph.

[Leroy]

So, even if it is acquired in another thread the character is in, they will just come up with an excuse to not use it?

No, if it was acquired in a different thread, everyone who acquired it would be expected to also be in the thread where it was used.

So it it you don't use it you lose it? Okay, are you saying that say, we don't use February's morph by April. Does that mean that we only lose February's and April's? Or do we also lose June's as well?

If you don't use February's morph by April, you only loose the February morph. But then if you don't use the April morph by June, you also loose the April morph. However, I was not going to include past months when I implemented this idea anyway, so right now there aren't actually any group morphs to be using.

Hope that made sense...

[Johnny]

Okay I got it now. And I was just using February and April and June as examples.

[Hope]

My biggest comment would be, these morphs are permanent right? Once gained the person can use it again if it ever becomes useful in a future event.

Also, as far as only people involved in the thread gaining the morph I see two good things about this. 1: If you have a majority vote for the morph, those who don't want it can opt out of the thread and getting it. 2: Activity. Meaning you obviously have to be active and posting in the thread to get the morph. That was the biggest thing with the post count morphs too is it shows activity and you earn it so you're still earning this group morph in a way.

All in all I like it, and two months means if you don't get a morph one time it won't be too long until you can try for the next.

[Leroy]

My biggest comment would be, these morphs are permanent right? Once gained the person can use it again if it ever becomes useful in a future event.

Yes, these morphs are permanent. You can use them whenever you want after you acquire them. It just doesn't make much sense to me to not allow people to morph something they acquired.

[belnoah]

where are people deciding the group morphs? i can't find any threads about it... except this one and the one in lists

[Leroy]

If you have some ideas for group morphs, you can post them here if you don't have a specific city you would like to see them used in. Or if you have a group morph idea that you would like to be used in a specific city, you can start up a brainstorming thread under the corresponding city's sub-board in the Help/Suggestions board. I'm looking forward to seeing what people come up with.

[Johnny]

Well, I've taken a different angle. I've just messaged Hemington about the group morph, if that's okay. I can always put it in a thread.

[Leroy]

There's nothing wrong with using messages. I'm just glad you are all discussing it.