User blog:Sonasaurus/Survival of the Fittest: Season 5

Before you ask, no, I'm not starting season 5 of Survival of the Fittest right now. As some of you may have noticed, Actene and I are working to finish up season 4 by the end of the month if possible, since we really have left it too long, and I'm quite adamant that it will not be another abandoned season. It's almost done anyway, so it shouldn't be too difficult. I hope you haven't all lost interest in the season, and if you have, oh well. It's my own fault for planning out such an ambitious length for the season.

Although I did end up losing season 4's momentum, I must say that I'm quite pleased with the outcome of what I do see. I received a fair amount of participants who have handed me enough characters to entertain myself and (hopefully) everyone else with, and though it wasn't always easy to come up with creative ways of killing them all off, I think the loose "story" flowed well enough, all things considered.

Before I start on what I've got planned for season 5 (and yes, I have begun planning it), I must take a quick minute to thank the guest writers for their efforts in helping me. Though some of them were too busy to write anything, I do appreciate the thought, and for a while, it did make the process of writing out the season more reassuring in knowing that you wanted to help. LOMI, I know you had some trouble finding motivation to write your posts, especially later on, but you did a good job nonetheless. And Actene, thanks so much for sticking by me till the end, I'm really glad you can find ways to put out these new posts when I'm already sick of this season. :P

Now, as much confidence as I have that it will be completed (even if it kills me), I still think there needs to be more to the Survival of the Fittest project than what we demonstrated with season 4. And to reach the goal of making the next season outstanding instead of just "good enough", I've had to look through the flaws of past seasons and figure out how to change them.


 * 1) Reduce the length of the season. The first season, directed by Justanothergrunt, was completed with only 7 episodes, which I suppose is satisfactory for a pilot season. Since seasons 2 and 3 were never completed, there was no telling what was a good length for season 4. But now it's become fairly obvious that 20 episodes is far too long. So, season 5 will likely have somewhere between 12 and 15 episodes, simple as that.
 * 2) Reduce the number of submissions per user. Pretty self-explanatory, less characters per user will allow for more variety among all the contestants, though this is really a very minor change. Season 4 allowed a maximum of 6 characters per user, so season 5 will probably have it cut down to 4 or 5 per user.
 * 3) Restrict character submissions to canon species only. Not going to name any names, but it hasn't escaped my notice that in season 4, a certain fanon species of organic/machine characters went around massacring the others, who are extremely hard-pressed to try and kill them. To level out the playing field a bit, season 5 will contain only characters belonging to species belonging to Bungie.
 * 4) The fourth change is to be the most complicated and also the most noticeable: the supply drop system that seasons 3 and 4 had will be replaced by a user-run supply pool. Actene originally conceived the supply drops as a way to allow users to have more interaction in the season. It was a good idea, and one that really gave me the inspiration for this one. The supply drops haven't really influenced the episodes as much as I'd have liked, and I think participants in Survival of the Fittest would prefer that the project be more interactive as opposed to watching a Hunger Games movie. So here's my idea for season 5's supply system...
 * 5) Each user will start with a set number of currency points (I'll most likely end up using cR, but I'll just call them points for now). Let's just say a user gets 200 points for each character they submit.
 * 6) There will be a resource pool containing various weapons, equipment, and other supplies the characters will need to increase their chances of survival. The least valuable resources will be the most abundant, but there is a limit to almost everything in the pool.
 * 7) Characters will now have an ammunition limit, and the amount of ammo each of them has will be calculated at the beginning and end of each post. Ammunition is the only unlimited resource and can be purchased from the pool.
 * 8) Submitted characters will be assigned attribute points by me (see RP:Hammer Fall if you don't know what attribute points are), and some resources will be unavailable to certain characters if they don't have enough of the required attribute points.
 * 9) Some of the more expensive resources will require the user to have a minimum number of points in order to purchase it, even though the cost of the resource itself will be far below that. This will give users incentive to save up their points rather than squander them.

I haven't yet figured out how to allow users to earn additional points, so if you have any ideas, I'll be glad to hear them. I hope that with these changes, season 5 will be the most enjoyable yet, and a big part of that is user involvement. I'm sure it'll keep us all more interested if everyone is participating rather than just watching, because it is a really long period of time to have to watch. Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Please leave them below.