Hey everyone, it's your favorite ex-writer speaking. Haha. Well, after disappearing for so long, I guess calling myself "favorite" is pretty debatable now.
But I bring good news. I've finally finished the heaviest semester of my degree and I'm on vacation at last. That means I have time to write again.
And yes, I'm planning to pick up Esencia Gacha again, though with some major changes.
The main idea is to rewrite the story from scratch. Instead of creating my own original world like last time, this new version will be set in the DC Universe. There's already a very well-established Esencia Gacha story in Marvel, and honestly, I'm not interested in trying to compete with a work that's been built over years and has such a solid reader base.
Now, here's the problem.
This time I want the gacha to be truly random. I don't want to choose rewards based on what suits the plot, nor fall into unconscious favoritism. I want that when a pull happens, even I have no idea what's going to come out.
To achieve that, I built a simple website where I can load information and the system randomly gives me ten cards from everything I've registered.
It sounds good in theory.
The issue is that I need an absurd amount of content to feed the system.
I need characters from anime, series, movies, video games, comics, novels, and any other franchises you can think of. And that's where I hit the first obstacle: AIs usually give very generic lists. They always end up recommending the same popular characters, and when you ask for powers or items, they respond with things that are either too technical or too abstract.
And that's not what I want.
I want that when a card comes out, the reader thinks: "Oh, I know that" or "That has potential," not something like "Advanced Energy Manipulation Type 4" or super weird names that no one understands.
I'm also planning to include traits in the system. For that part I'll probably draw heavily from Gacha Chaos, so that section is relatively solved.
However, there are still other problems.
Besides characters, I need to compile:
- Abilities
- Superpowers
- Objects
- Weapons
- Consumables
- Traits
- Possibly pets, summons, and titles.
And I run into the same issue: AIs generate things that are either too generic or written in very artificial language that doesn't quite convince me.
That's why I wanted to ask if you know any websites, wikis, or sources where I can pull this kind of content from — not just characters, but also interesting powers, abilities, objects, and consumables.
And then there's the biggest problem of all: categorization.
Because this isn't just a traits gacha.
It's a gacha of practically everything.
If I put street-level characters and planet-destroying characters in the same pool, there's a chance the protagonist gets something ridiculously overpowered right from the start and the story goes to hell before it even begins.
My first idea was to use a system similar to Gacha Chaos: Bronze, Silver, Gold, etc., up to Divine.
But then another dilemma appears.
How do I classify things?
What character would be Bronze and which would be Silver?
Where would someone like Batman fit?
What about a Jedi?
A demon hunter?
And what about objects?
Because a legendary sword can be far more useful than certain characters.
What about consumables?
What about powers?
The more I think about it, the more problems I find.
Though, to be honest, I'm probably overthinking it.
So I wanted to hear your opinions.
If you have ideas on how to categorize the rewards, what pages to use as reference, which franchises I should include, or any suggestions related to the story, I'll be reading them.
After all, if this story comes back, I want the gacha to be as unpredictable for me as it is for you.
And who knows, maybe together we can find a solution before I end up creating a database with thousands of entries and lose my sanity in the process. Haha.