Approved by Doug
While there's never really been an established threshold for exactly how complicated a modded server needs to be for it to start scaring away newcomers, CAP will, at some point, have to meet the issue of how complicated its metagame might become as the list of CAPs continue to grow.
There are already a few difficulties with some people new on the server and learning their way around the CAP Pokemon when they first click on the server, though the situation is relatively minor right now, imagine what might happen if the number of CAPs we have right now were to double, or even triple (which it very well could) as we move forward.
Though attempts such as a metagame-introduction guide are being undertaken to make CAP more newbie-friendly, there's the traditional issue of a user who a) first comes on the server without knowledge of such a guide, and, realistically, a lot of people don't read the welcome text, and b) one who finds the guide, but tl;dr's it when they see a long list of high-tiered (most CAPs are traditionally a large threats that should be taken into consideration when building a team) Pokemon they have to learn to deal with.
But what's wrong here? Without newcomers, the userbase - and the metagame itself, begin to stagnate. Before Stratagem was introduced, and the server-hype that came with it, the CAP server did not look very much like a serious competitive environment. We saw things like Absol being used enough for OU, and people laddering with theme teams.
This userbase of only regulars is assumed to have popped up when SmogonU came up and people started going there for their alternative for Official and not CAP. But the very same situation could repeat itself if the metagame becomes complicated enough to the point that a possibly interested person could think it may not be worth the effort to understand such a large list of CAPs.
But how can we avoid dumping our hard work on CAPs without creating so many that people start avoiding the server? One proposed idea is that an altogether seperate ladder is created to get newcomers interested in CAP, and from that point, more willing to learn the rest of the game.
The idea behind this "Hook Ladder" is that the number of CAPs is capped at X amount, and as newer CAPs are made, an older one is replaced by the newer. This has the advantage of creating a CAP environment, without a steadily-lengthening learning curve. The other ladder (essentially the one the server employs now), contains all of the CAPs, so that nothing is really lost. In this way, CAP can maintain accessibility.
While I realize that this situation won't be an issue until quite a far ways down the line, that doesn't mean we shouldn't take steps now to minimize it when it does pop up.
As tighter CAP projects for churning out new Pokemon are planned, and a potential EVO project that could bring in new Pokemon at an even faster rate appears on the horizon, some people might want to ask themselves, "How many is too many?"
While there's never really been an established threshold for exactly how complicated a modded server needs to be for it to start scaring away newcomers, CAP will, at some point, have to meet the issue of how complicated its metagame might become as the list of CAPs continue to grow.
There are already a few difficulties with some people new on the server and learning their way around the CAP Pokemon when they first click on the server, though the situation is relatively minor right now, imagine what might happen if the number of CAPs we have right now were to double, or even triple (which it very well could) as we move forward.
Though attempts such as a metagame-introduction guide are being undertaken to make CAP more newbie-friendly, there's the traditional issue of a user who a) first comes on the server without knowledge of such a guide, and, realistically, a lot of people don't read the welcome text, and b) one who finds the guide, but tl;dr's it when they see a long list of high-tiered (most CAPs are traditionally a large threats that should be taken into consideration when building a team) Pokemon they have to learn to deal with.
But what's wrong here? Without newcomers, the userbase - and the metagame itself, begin to stagnate. Before Stratagem was introduced, and the server-hype that came with it, the CAP server did not look very much like a serious competitive environment. We saw things like Absol being used enough for OU, and people laddering with theme teams.
This userbase of only regulars is assumed to have popped up when SmogonU came up and people started going there for their alternative for Official and not CAP. But the very same situation could repeat itself if the metagame becomes complicated enough to the point that a possibly interested person could think it may not be worth the effort to understand such a large list of CAPs.
But how can we avoid dumping our hard work on CAPs without creating so many that people start avoiding the server? One proposed idea is that an altogether seperate ladder is created to get newcomers interested in CAP, and from that point, more willing to learn the rest of the game.
The idea behind this "Hook Ladder" is that the number of CAPs is capped at X amount, and as newer CAPs are made, an older one is replaced by the newer. This has the advantage of creating a CAP environment, without a steadily-lengthening learning curve. The other ladder (essentially the one the server employs now), contains all of the CAPs, so that nothing is really lost. In this way, CAP can maintain accessibility.
While I realize that this situation won't be an issue until quite a far ways down the line, that doesn't mean we shouldn't take steps now to minimize it when it does pop up.
