Future Suggestion Box Plans (Patreon)

I'm sure that many of you have been aware, Tigress has left us not too long ago. This was followed shortly after Chickie's departure, too. As many of you realize, the team is now down two members. However, with just FlyingDream, Sylvester, and I on the plugin creation team, we're wondering how we should approach this, especially since problems can arise again and we can get thrown into this situation again. And so, the current team decided to discuss things a bit and decided how we should handle things going forward in the future regarding these plugins. And here's the plans with what we came up with:

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Option A:

We look for two other plugin creators to fill up the slots. However, it will take them time to get used to the whole system with the plugin suggestion box and then create their first few plugins to get them up to speed. In other words, it will be a continuation of the current system. 

However, FlyingDream and Sylvester pointed out to me that this is probably one of the more risky options to do since we're all human and anything can happen to us at any time, and with the team being so small, it can throw things into similar situations we're in again. I personally have no problems with continuing the current system as I could fill in for the remaining two members, however, due to potential health issues, I'd prefer to not overwork myself lest I want my doctor to scold me again. But I do recognize the potential for it falling out of whack for the many reasons mentioned above.

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Option B:

We close down the plugin suggestion box and reopen the Tips & Tricks box. A lot of viewers and patrons have been asking about the Tips & Tricks videos. A lot of them enjoyed the battle-oriented Tips & Tricks, making unique battle effects, skills, equipment effects, etc. FlyingDream mentioned she had a blast doing these back in the day and so did I. There's always so much creativity flying out and about with it. 

But! FlyingDream also brought to my attention that she actually doesn't have as much time as she did since the times we did Tips & Tricks videos so we wouldn't be able to pump as much of them as we did before. There is also the problem of Tips & Tricks becoming too similar and samey, which was one of the reasons why we closed the Tips & Tricks suggestion in the first place, while the other problem being Tips & Tricks being unable to be made due to plugin limitations on Lunatic Mode. I also don't have problems with this one, but I can see the concerns FlyingDream presented to me.

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Option C:

We actually close down the plugin suggestion box and don't reopen the Tips & Tricks box. Instead, we go for a third type of suggestion box: Tips & Tricks-oriented plugin suggestions. Wait, what? How does that work? The answer is... Thanks to MV 1.5.0, we are able to implement Tips & Tricks-style Lunatic Mode code inside of plugins! So what does this mean?

This means that extension plugins will be made for each of the Core plugins (Skill Core, Buffs & States Core, Target Core, etc.) with the functionality to take in your, the patrons, skill/state/equip effect suggestions into account and turn them into actual plugin effects! They will work similar to how the Lunatic Packs worked from the Yanfly Engine Ace script library from the VX Ace era, which has also been another thing I've been asked about quite often. In addition to that, they become effects that are easy to adjust and augment on a surface level, capable of being recoded on a background level, and becomes flexible on a mechanical level. This, in turn, helps alleviate the restrictions we faced before in the Tips & Tricks suggestion box by certain Tips & Tricks being unable to be done because of plugin limitations.

As for this, it'd be basically the various plugin creators on the team working together to construct various Lunatic Mode code into plugin-format that can be editted thanks to MV 1.5.0. This means that if anyone would suddenly go MIA all the sudden, there'd be someone else to cover for them, too. This mitigates the worries from Option A. We can also add in more team members to help with the Tips & Tricks, too! Furthermore, it'd also be a revival of the Tips & Tricks that many people loved while getting rid of the limitations from Option B. Now, mind you, since these will be plugin releases, they won't be launched as frequently as the Tips & Tricks videos were from before as these will be actual plugins that can be downloaded, installed into plugins, but are tweakable/modifiable like Lunatic Code.

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Many of you can probably tell by my enthusiasm that Option C is the one I'm leaning towards. FlyingDream and Sylvester are also leaning towards that option as it seems to take the best of both worlds while removing the potential issues that come with Options A or B.

However, if there is one major drawback about this option, it's that this is only possible in theory so far. I haven't put it into practice yet as this is completely new territory for me. It's something on the frontier of plugin creation for me, which means there's no other cases of something similar to this being made yet. However, I am pretty confident I create a method to make this work out. Working on the batch plugin updates so far has given me a pretty good insight on what can be done with MV 1.5.0 and I think if we miss out on this plugin type, we'll be missing out on ways to bring innovation into our games.

So, what do you guys think? What options do you feel are the best and what other kinds of ideas might you guys have? All of us would like to know. :D