Using my 2.002 K to declare this officially over... yeah.
I'll be opening and linking to the various groups soon, bar the secondary project. That will remain closed, as I think the idea still has the potential to work, even if it is remote.
So, I want to start with the setup.
The idea of G0 was to be quick (lol). I wanted to incorporate some Smogon mafia concepts into an open world, and try to make things work. The initial setup was 8-2. The village were all technically neutral, beyond two players. They were allowed to pick a side to win with, but it was assumed that they would go village as doing otherwise would involve contacting the mafia, which would be difficult.
The game's initial setting was aboard the ill-fated SS Libra traveling on the ocean. The ship's captain had been contacted by the Global Police with the information that there was a police investigator aboad, and at least one individual trying to discover their identity and kill them. In the game's setup, there were two assassins, each acting independently of the other. The idea was that one attempt would signal the other of the assassin's identity, and create a public-secret alliance similar to that held by the police. While the village had the advantage in numbers, the assassins would have the advantage of secrecy and the ability to wait until the opportune moment to make their kill. Then it might be too late for the village to block it.
I put Athenodoros as the village head (security chief), because his team matched up fairly well to the role and I knew he was experienced in both ASB and mafia to an extent. MK Ultra was put as the police agent due to his relatively powerful team and mafia experience. danmantincan was selected as an assassin as I suspected he would quickly start to work with MK. dogfish44 was selected to finish the core as a more unique choice- his team implied that he would be focusing on clever play rather than power, which would make him an interesting assassin.
Six other players- Temperantia, Terrador, Engineer Pikachu, Flamestrike, LightWolf, and Objection- were selected as neutral. Temperantia had an interesting character given the role of the twins, and was in the game to test how creative play would work with a weaker team. Terrador was powerful and had an OP character to balance out his neutrality. Engineer had an interesting team at his disposal, and was experienced in dealing with raid bosses so I thought he could handle the powerful final bosses well lenough. Flamestrike is much the same as Engineer, and I knew him from Nuzlockes. LightWolf had experience in a similar game but a weaker team, and Objection was one of the most intelligent ASB players willing to play.
So with the game's start, things immediately get interesting. Athenodoros calls for MK Ultra to meet up with him in the back passage of the ship in a rather inconvienently worded statement that ended in him getting kidnapped from the most crowded place in the game by a Dragonite. Ouch.
In the meantime, LightWolf had gotten sucked into an odd string of events trying to build up crazy awesome/minorly OP machinery that ended in him getting into the back rooms of the ship... right where MK was heading. Upon being notified of the chaos, Temperantia, Engineer Pikachu, and Flamestrike formed a team to investigate. danmantincan sent a Pokemon along to look, which ended up ending badly later on.
In the machinery room, LightWolf and Athenodoros fought briefly before getting the situation resolved, and LightWolf gave MK and Athenodoros some of his machinery in exchange for his life and the ability to keep building. The most critical event of this is that Athenodoros got a device that let him track everyone else's location... which he used to his advantage later in the game.
Outside, Temperantia 'noticed' dan's Pokemon, and chose to provoke it. This conflict was resolved by danmantincan himself appearing, and the security detail telling them that this event had been closed.
Objection and Terrador explored the ship. Objection battled, Terrador used OP Psychic to check things out. dogfish44 didn't do particuarly much that day, but did manage to get a few tapes using a special character trait.
Late on the night of Day One, Flamestrike battled the ship's captain, who told him some of the events unfolding. This later proved helpful in leading to his decisive shift towards the village, and leading towards the assassins coming to the conclusion that he was the police agent.
Day Two involved LightWolf inventing, Athenodoros trying to do too many things at once and ending with none working solidly, and most other players exploring the newly opened waters around the ship. Of the highest significance, Engineer, Flamestrike, and Terrador spoke. Terrador would later go rogue, but Engineer and Flamestrike formed an awesome partnership that almost won the game for the village.
Objection went on a Pokemon catching/discovery run. Yay.
MK Ultra activated a trap, and almost lost his Infernape in the process, but he discovered some more about the role of the final villain. Terrador had a similar set of visions, and probably became the most informed character on the primary NPC villain.
Of course, dan became inactive and temperantia got incredibly unlucky. This led to an encounter of fate, where I formally took command of dan's character and had him do a villain reveal. Luck and smart thinking were on Temp's side, and he was arrested. Until dogfish44 decided to bail him out. Unfortuantely, almost as soon as dan became free, Athenodoros, Temperantia, and Flamestrike walked in the door and a battle began. It ended with Dan escaping, injuring Athenodoros in the process. Remarkably, Athenodoros bought dogfish's excuse, and most suspicion ended until very late in the game.
And that was how the first phase ended.
The second phase was meant to test route and dungeon mechanics, and was almost a larger failure. Darkrai 'blew up' the ship, and forced the players into three camps. Dan's sub, Kaxtar, began near a city on the north of the island. Temperantia began on the center of the stage near Darkrai's dungeon, and the rest began on the south, near the shipwreck.
This phase was designed to be a war of careful resource management and exploration. The village had a limited number of supplies. They could get more food by clearing a Forest to the West, and more water from a swamp in the east. To challenge Darkrai and win the game, they had to collect an icon as well. One was in the city in the north, one in the ship to the south.
Athenodoros' injury prevented him from going mobile, so he sent out his Pokemon to explore. dogfish44 went to explore on his Rapidash, while most other players played moderately defensively and explored by air. Wait, not most. LightWolf, Terrador, Engineer Pikachu, and Flamestrike went south to explore the ship. They soon divided into two factions- Terrador and LightWolf explored in one direction, Engineer and Flamestrike in another.
Inactivity was the real death of both of them, as it made their battles take absurdly long and the exploration was badly stalled. I won't talk about Engineer and Flamestrike until much later, because they barely made progress during this period.
Before his substitution, both LightWolf and Terrador were deathly afraid of the other and were waiting for an escape or kill, respectively. Terrador was actually contemplating burning down the entire village the next night and teaming up with the mafia to win in a three-way alliance. LightWolf was right to be afraid.
Terrador's inactivity prevented either from making any progress at all that day, though.
On the island itself, Temperantia explored the center of the map and discovered that wild encounters can be fatal and the door to Darkrai's dungeon. Nothing of note happened. Kaxtar began to explore the city, and discovered a house that he made his base of operations in for almost the remainder of the game. I don't think he realized that the city had no inherent order- the map constantly regenerated and shifted. As such, he suffered a few errors and actually failed to take an opportunity that would have allowed him to almost win the game by skipping straight to the final boss of the city. However, he did scout out a book that allowed him to find out more and more about the nature of the island and how to win.
dogfish44 killed Athenodoros' Cyclohm that he had foolishly let explore the island. Athenodoros continued to be ignorant, even as more and more hints began to pile up about just who the killer was. But what can I say, Electric hits Water for super effective damage.
And then that day ended.
The next day, MK Ultra and Objection began to head out to the north, towards the city at the edge of the map. dogfish44 also began to head out by his own way, and stole most of the village supplies in the process. He got to the city, and actually got through an encounter or two on that day. MK and Objection didn't quite reach it.
Terrador's sub also appeared on the SS Libra. SoS did absolutely nothing at all, and will not be discussed any further.
Oh, Temp went into the city. He was completely trusting of dan's sub... funny how that works out. A player tries to kill you, but the sub must be good. Anyways, he died quickly and painlessly.
LightWolf did not want to function alone, and headed back to base to do some research on a number of clue's Athenodoros had collected. If pressed, I might explain some more about that but it ultimately had no effect.
Engineer Pikachu and Flamestrike treated it like it was a raid, and got all the way to the final boss sequence on the Libra when the game ended. This left there with two possibilites, which are equally likely:
1) Engineer and Flamestrike cleared the Libra and got the supplies and token at the end. Athenodoros was reckless, and they would've challenged the final dungeon and defeated Darkrai to win.
2) Kaxtar and dogfish44 would've teamed up to kill MK Ultra and Objection in the city. This would've prevented a village win, and charging Darkrai would've actually allowed dogfish44 and Kaxtar to win on their own. If not, they were close enough to beating the city that they could've blitzed the mountain and won on their own accord.
I don't know which was more likely. In effect, it all would've come down to if MK and Objection could've overpowered Kaxtar and dogfish44. Personally, my money's on the assassins.
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM ASM?
This is the big question. I think we can learn that an RP needs...
1) More than one ref. The game died when I was busy and mildly insane when all of the other refs quit.
2) Distinct, hard rules and progression. Organized chaos is fun, but impractical.
3) A clear path and structure that lets anyone ref it with just a little experience and battling skill.
4) P vs P RP's will likely not work. They die if one player goes inactive, and they become way too inactive. See Labyrinth, Inquisition, and ASM for examples of these rules leading to an RP's failure.
I have designed an alternative proposal for ASM that follows these guidelines. It is currently in the RP Approval Tower, where it will likely set forever.
And with that, my work on ASM as we know it is done. It was great while it lasted, and I am honestly glad that it went as far as it did.
Now for 1 K buisiness:
Mildly Sarcastic Shoutouts, in the order that I thought of them:
Kaxtar: 2 2K's on the same day? Inconcievable. Seriously, great guy and one of my first friends in ASB. We really need to battle for real someday. Gym battle didn't count due to the nature of it.
jas61292's Delibird: FEAR IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
jas61292: Use the fucking Delibird. Maybe you won't get your ass kicked as often. In all seroiusness, we haven't actually talked much. I just ref your gym battles for some odd reason. You seem like a great guy from what I have seen.
smashlloyd20: I guess he's my rival. We really need to battle again, though. It's been great seeing you around ASB for so long, and I suspect that we'll both be around for a while longer.
Deck Knight: CAP ASB is your creation. Without you, I would not have the means to waste countless hours of my life every weak and still justify it. I might be reading books or something.
Alchemator: I was really dissapointed that you didn't want to do ASM. Great, intelligent guy who needs to get his kick rate back up above Gligar's.
Maxim: Sorry I let ASM die on you... Like, really really sorry...
LightWolf: I kind of wanted to keep ASM going just to see what you'd do next. You were by far my favorite player to ref, and I'm depressed that you didn't get the bloody conclusion that you deserved to it.
The rest of ASM: Thanks for playing! All of you deserve your own shoutout, but I have homework today!
#capasb: Greatest. Waste. Of. Time. Ever.
