If I may also throw my hat into the ring, although trophies aren’t as important to me, a sense of community is as well as the need for consistency.
TL;DR split Plaza and Game Worlds calendars to work on same days independent of each other, flesh it out more so both more and less popular games benefit. Flip weekends so if players can’t make it one month, they might be able to the next.
For reference, I built my own off of the recently released September Calendar, but in no way does that represent how each month should go, I just needed a base and as you can see my graphic designs are already perfect enough and couldn’t be improved (sarcasm). I’m including both August AND September here, as along with Outsmoke’s own suggestion, I used these as reference for my own.
August and September Calendars
I also agree with your points 1 and 2, 3 I did not want to axe them as people (including myself) do play more on that day, such as the Double Tickets from Arcade. Casino is another topic, but I don’t specifically participate in the boost day and any discussion regarding removing/changing it I’ll leave to elsewhere. I’ll elaborate more below.
Point 5 I think is also important, x1.5 feels arbitrary and doesn’t feel as smooth as x2, especially since some get x1.5 while others get double?. From now on I’ll be referring to the current x1.5 as “Double” for lack of wanting to type out x1.5 every time. It should just be x2 anyway.
My philosophy was giving the lesser played activities more love (you’ll see this in particular with Game Worlds) while not shafting the higher activity ones, I think this is important to maintain balance. As for my explanations, they are anecdotal and not backed by graphs, player counts, games launched, etc.
Calendar Splitting
Calendar Splitting explanation
This was going off the conversation from this morning as of writing in Discord, and I think it’s smart. Considering that Tower Unite isn’t GMT, Game Worlds/Ports is its own hub and behind menus, I think splitting the calendar is the smart way to go. I can’t think of a reason that it would be more negative (not really negative depending on who you talk to) than what we already have, which is that players play what they want, no matter the days, and outside of the now re-released Global Chat, unless you’re specifically looking for people, it’s not like you’re gonna split them anymore than is happening already. In fact, I’m actually trying to fix that with this suggestion. Give them more of a reason to group up, and not be tied down to the already cramped main calendar.
Please note: I didn’t really think about the placements outside of days and weekends, these aren’t meant to be strict days and is more of just a concept of what something like this might look like.
Plaza
Plaza explanation
Car Co-Op (better name pending)
For the Plaza, I know we don’t have Double XP/Units, and I’m not necessarily suggesting as such, although I wouldn’t be opposed- the point of bringing Bumper Cars and Theatre here are for community gathering. I’m not saying we need to also include Poseidon, or the lazy river, it just feels like a, “hey, you can do that!” sort of activity to fill the calendar with. I’m also not saying that Dark Voyage needs it’s own set of Milestones, but it does benefit from the already existing Dark Co-Op, so instead of Dark Co-Op we can have Car Co-Op (better name pending). That’ll also tie it outside of just October and get people in there while benefitting from the double units.
Volt Nightclub I know has WIP Milestones, and I would like to think it would benefit from Double XP/Units (Billiards) as well.
As for the weekdays Mon-Thurs, I wanted to respect their activities already existing consistent schedule, and they’re popular. I think they bring together people, let’s not change that.
Typing Derby, I included it because Outsmoke included it and while it doesn’t have Milestones, it does have achievements. I’m also not sure what else to could fit there, you could think of it as a blank slot for whatever your heart desires, or it could also be seen as a way to get people to learn to type better. Myself included.
Laser Tag is very, very dead. I don’t like using the term “dead” when talking about a game, as long as it has an active playerbase, it is not dead. Laser Tag? Dead. Give it a permanent weekend, it needs it. It’s actually really fun, but I know there’s not a lot of common threads between FPS players and Tower Unite, hi, I am one of them. More on this in Game Worlds.
As for Arcade and Casino, I explained already a bit above. I don’t think they should be taken away, they can have their weekend and I think they’re similar enough you can combine them. I feel like this might be more agreeable with people who feel like Outsmoke and think they don’t need them, but it also gives players who enjoy those activies days to enjoy them, and that is what’s most important. I still don’t have wowuzuela either but I intentionally ignored that.
Game Worlds
Game Worlds explanation
I wrote a lot about how I feel already, and this is no different. What I would add here is that my intention was to “give people a break” between the action packed and laid back in a theming sense. Again, maintaining balance.
Mon-Thurs
Sticking with the points I made about the Plaza Mon-Thurs, consistency for already popular activities. I don’t think they should be shafted, and I don’t want theme days for specific maps, apply it to the game itself.
Virus and SDNL
I wouldn’t call these dead like Laser Tag, but they’re certainly less popular. Outside pf them being peer to peer which is felt more here than with the other games (see Mon-Thurs games), what feels like a lack of love from devs to the gamemodes (going off of others), they do benefit from showing up in Global chat but they aren’t as active and it’s hard to get a good game going, especially because of above. I think there could be some improvements to these gamemodes which would also help the popularity, but that’s another topic. A lot of players that play Tower Unite also don’t play FPS games, so while it can be fun, you have and do run into that casual vs grinder mindset that Outsmoke briefly mentioned. There’s a reason farm maps exist.
Little Crusaders
Is it fair to call this one dead? Certainly not Laser Tag dead, but I don’t think it gets as many games as Virus and SDNL, and I know Outsmoke isn’t alone in wanting LC to get more love. Give people a reason to play it, for a good while without having to worry so much about it only being a day long, or their friends wanting to do something else on that day. While I didn’t think about the weekends they were placed, them not being shared with Arcade/Casino and Laser Tag is something I would factor in here.
Planet Panic and Horror Hill
I know these aren’t released, one is on hiatus/canceled(?) and the other is WIP. You can think of these like placeholders or something for the future. It wouldn’t have looked as good if they were just blank. For now, maybe we get a Ball Co-op (Minigolf and Ball Race) and Fast Paced Co-op (ZM and Accelerate)?
P.S. Cooking Update Ideas
TL;DR Cooking can give individual on use buffs that work the same as the calendar day buffs but last an hour. Buffs can be split between either having only x2 exp or units, not both. Activities can reward AOE packs of boosters that give out these buffs, similar to how holiday characters give out condo items and other treats.
I mentioned this in Discord but thought I’d add it here too, considering I think they go hand in hand with this suggestion. I’m not making a separate suggestion thread as the update is not out yet.
Brew/Cook/Bake/Mix your own Boosts:
With the cooking update, what we receive is up in the air (for us players) and I think this is an idea that would work well for it and for the community at large. Let us make our own Boosts. These would only apply to ourselves, and depending on the ingredients used (set recipes of course, Fish for Fishing as an example) it would give say, an 1 Hour Boost to that activity. I would want the timer to stack, so say if you’re at 27 minutes and you expect to be playing another hour or 2, you can eat/drink another and get another hour added for a total of 1 hour 27 minutes. What’s the upper limit on the timer? I’m not sure, and I don’t think I should suggest something.
What I would suggest as I feel it’s obvious is that it wouldn’t stack with the boost days. If you ate some sushi that gives you x2 Fishing XP and Rare Fish (just like the calendar day), that doesn’t turn into x4, you still just get x2. This keeps the longevity of the game intact while still promoting the idea of gathering with others. Imagine it being a Minigolf day but your friends want to go to Ball Race, because they won’t be available on Thursday for Ball Race day. Everybody drinks a Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ Special (name pending) and get the x2 XP and Units for an hour so they can have fun and not feel like it was wasted. Casuals and grinders benefit from this.
You can go even further balancing wise and make it so one food/drink only provides x2 Exp, but another gives x2 Units. You can’t have both at the same time, so whatever you ate/drank first is the boost you get. Have a Neutral Milk (name pending) to get rid of the boost so you can eat/drink another instead.
Take those EVEN FURTHER and have different meals give different times. Only could make (or wanted to make) 1 sushi? 15 minutes of Fishing Boost. Making a plate of 4 (seperate item) will give the hour as previously described. But I’d still keep it to x2 Exp/Units for ease.
This one is a little more reaching, but hear me out.
AOE Boosters:
Toontown has these power ups called “Unites” that will either throw out Jellybeans (their currency, equivalent to Units) and one that gives out Gags (their weapons against the enemies, Cogs). See Youtube video here.
What I am not suggesting is to give out Units this way (or maybe, idk, think of the pile of units), but the idea like Gags intrigues me. Randomly from any activity, doesn’t matter if it’s the Plaza or Game Worlds, or anything specific like Fishing or Accelerate, you have a chance at getting a Booster Pack (name pending) which when used in a group or crowd of players will give out a random amount (lower end, 1-3) of Booster Food (see above, can be from a snack (1 sushi) to a meal (4 sushi)) that they can use whenever they want. What it will not do is provide the buffs themselves, this would lead to griefing. An example of how I see this working is similar to the holiday characters, they appear, you walk up to them, you interact and you get a gift. Only with this, the player who earned the Booster Pack uses it at will to gift to others.
As for how they’d drop, I imagine the drops would come as others do. In the Plaza, Theatre or Night Club? When you get an XP drop, you have a small chance at getting a Booster Pack. Fishing? Rare item fish. Game worlds? Possible extra reward upon completion, example: Finishing 5 days + Boss in Zombie Massacre, or finishing a whole race (all 3 laps) in Accelerate.
That being said, it could be opt-out (default opt-in) for players who do not want to be gifted as such.
