Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Hilda 9 WIP

I'm only just seeing this and probably way too late to have input into this, but I'll give my two cents: I think the problem is being misdiagnosed. It isn't the nomination buffer, or lack of variety, or that Lysithea (true to game) is an instawin, or even that people like FE characters, it's that people will vote for characters they immediately recognize, and people are less likely to vote for a character if they think they have no chance of winning. To give an example for the former, even if there wasn't a single FE character on the poll, and short of a remake/sequel being announced, I'm 100% certain that you would have never drawn any of the Pokemon Conquest girls if you hadn't been commissioned to. It's such an old game that, while a few people might vote for it, most people wouldn't immediately recognize any of the characters and just vote for whatever fotw gacha/anime waifu is leading in the polls then. You can see this even among FE characters: Tikichads excepted, if a FE character isn't (a popular character) from 3H or hasn't just gotten a Hero's alt, they don't have a chance of winning. Do 3H characters sometimes crowd the poll? Absolutely. Would further restricting them give DDLC's Monica a better chance of winning? Probably not, people would likely just end up latching onto other immediately popular characters, and it typically takes someone commissioning an old character for gacha coomers to consider voting for something else. There's a lot of good ideas about how to help less popular characters get a chance, but before I give mine I'll say that I think Deilan12 does something in his polls that really should be standard: he makes a little image markup showing what all the characters in a given poll look like, so even if there's a poll where someone knows none of the options, they'll at least know what they look like (and it might give less popular characters a better chance if people a reminded of their design). That'll probably be a bit difficult given how big your polls are, but I think the polls need to be worked back into one post anyways. Speaking of, I think the polls should be split up into different types of polls. Despite how much it is brought up as a complaint, many people are here *specifically* because they know you consistently draw FE girls (heck I found your art from the old Awakening stuff). A general poll, with all non FE-characters, and a FE-poll, where all FE characters are put, would be a good start, but it still won't help old/unpopular characters that much. Since you have an incredible work ethic/pace and can consistently keep four polls a month: play to that and have two general and two FE polls per month. First poll of each type is normal, the second poll of both types would be a "Loser's Poll", that has only the ten or so least voted characters from the first poll of its type to choose from. I'd also say try to keep the polls to one page only: I notice that characters tend to do better on the second page of a poll, probably just because there's less names to scroll through.

anon

Btw, i will revise the rules this month and make it happen this january :) So guys, Let's see how it will go. New year, New rules.

Dannex009

Thanks for the suggestions guys, It really means a lot for me to get some good answers. I'm currently considering all your suggestions regarding on changing the rules. It's just i need to come up with the right formula. Some might feel it's unfair to see their characters/series get a complain or being attacked because of the change of rules. But in reality, please consider that I have a family to take care of and also to give their needs. So I will do anything for the sake of it. I want us to grow together everyone and not to offend anyone because of the changes that I want to do.

Dannex009

This is my opinion; but maybe you could scale down the ammount of characters in per franchise. For example: 3 FE characters and no more, but keep the 4 month rotation per character... 6 months is too much.

NavyZerimar

I'm glad you like it. Honestly, the though of having a poll that's not spit between two posts and with none of the go-to-picks sounds refreshing, but it will need to be tried out to see if it works and if people like the result. Seeing how the commissions are usually received very positivity and sometimes affecting the poll result while not being go-to-picks, I think this should be a positive change. I was going to suggest something you said a while back about adding the pose/scenario for the characters, but we may lead into a pose winning all the time and then we get no variety in the pose drawn, so I ended up scrapping that idea.

Nobody

This is a good suggestion and I feel like it would achieve a good variety of girls being drawn. I'm worried that it might be too confusing as Dannex might need to show total votes and the week votes so people would have to add them together to try to figure out who has a good chance of winning each week. It might even cause some human errors depending on how Dannex retains the total votes. Also, combined with the current other rules of eliminating the lowest votes, I could imagine people getting confused when a character who has a lot of total votes gets removed for not having enough votes that week. I think I still prefer my suggestion as both achieve the same result, but mine keeps the current win condition for girls rather than changing it, and adjusting the poll to hold fewer girls for some weeks is much easier than keeping track on the total votes for all girls in the poll.

Nobody

I don't like the idea of characters being banded together by franchise/series. I would say that its actually just characters like Hilda and Lysithea just dominate as per my suggestion comment. The pokemon girls in the poll: Bianca, Sabrina, Lillie, Jessie and Iono should not be removed because Hilda, Cynthia, etc all won one after the other. These characters struggle to get voted just like most of the others girls and shouldn't be treated differently because other girls that share a series won.

Nobody

But is that true? If people are not getting tired, then the Patreon should continue to grow as Dannex gets new patrons, but I don't think that is happening. I think it's more that ppl are voting for the same girl because they know it works and are not willing to give up the weeks drawing for another girl they don't know. This is how I feel about it, as the last Hilda drawing was great so I voted her, while Iono from Pokemon SV could be good, but it would be safer to vote for girls like Leonie and Makoto over her as they were good previously so I want them more. I think it was Cinnammoner that said a while back that the commissions can give a voting push for that character or same series. That was the case for DDLC Monica with the DDLC Natsuki commission being incredibly good and Monica also turned out great who I wouldn't of voted for previously. Now look at Lucy Heartfilia from Fairy Tail. She will get eliminated this week, so it would be natural to assume that people don't want her drawn, but if you go back to 2022 May 1st Week when she added, she almost won immediately because the Juvia commission was incredible. Basically, I think there's more to it than "people are voting the same girl so they are not tired of her" and we can only really find out that answer by changing the formula to be more in favour for new girls that have not had a chance yet.

Nobody

I don´t know how the voting works on patreon so if it is to much just ignore but maybe make the votes add up und when a character gets drawn reset them. with this system small niche characters get drawn someday and the popular ones who win month after month have to compete with an increasing wall of votes (which will be reached much faster by the popular ones but makes it harder from them). add the 4 months cooldown before the character re-enters the pool and the other option should be able to at least create a small buffer.

I like the top 10 and top 5 idea a lot. Many suggestions just can't compete with the go-to picks around here. So having another way of winning would be nice.

Cinnammoner

If ppl were getting tired of the same content, they wouldn’t be voting for the same girls.

Goober

I think 4 months is ok, I actually agree with kenji1104 comment that it is too long as it is an artificial solution that only slightly increases the set of characters that win. I think Mack Harris's idea of limit character wins could work in the long run but the series cooldown suggestion is a bad idea. FE3H do get a lot of wins and get banded together under being too popular when in reality, characters like Hilda and Lysithea just dominate with 9+ wins, but other FE3H characters like Catharine and Manuela have never won. Even characters like Petra and Dorothea have 3 wins which is a good amount, but adding a restriction on game series will just mean they never get drawn as they not as popular as Hilda and Lysithea. Of course this would depend on the limit you set, but it's just another artificial solution as the same X girls from FE3H would win. I do agree with Cinnammoner that I want variety, but the idea still leans into what I have said before about being an artificial solution and it will stop less popular fe3h girls from having a chance due to characters like Hilda and Lysithea being very popular. So, completely different approach: I would like to reward the girls who survived on the poll for a long period of time. They clearly have fans who want them drawn, but can't compete with the newly added characters + fan favourites. Using Cinnanmmoner's idea of roughly 4 pieces per month, I think you should have 1 week where only the top 10 girls in the poll list are voted on and 1 week where the top 5 in the poll list are voted on. This should allow new girls to win that couldn't before, while not punishing a series of characters. You also don't have to worry about the same characters winning since most girls can easily get to top spot as they never get removed, while it takes a long time to get to the top which will stop the popular characters being added and then winning immediately. Combine the above with Mack Harris's idea of limit character to 2 drawings per year, plus the rules we have already and maybe one rule to stop girls being stuck in top 5 (get rid of the one with the lowest votes); then this would be my suggestion. Personally, I think this would also make the polls more fun as there is an alternative win condition for people's favourite by having your character survive and should give patrons more confidence in their picks that will be added to the poll, creating more variety.

Nobody

Honestly, I think if a series wins for a full month or 4 times in general, they are all banned for at least six months. Pokémon was the only franchise to be able to win a whole month. And once that four characters are reached, they all get removed. So all the 3 Houses gets removed (but not the other Fe games).

RagueltheUFO

I think 4 months is a well-balanced timeframe. That allows a singular character to win 3 times a year at most. However, I do feel like there is still too much of the same winning, namely FE. I love the girls, sure, but I also want some variety. I'd suggest a monthly limit on how often any one series can win. Let's say the limit is 2. Since there are roughly 4 pieces per month, the popular vote would still get half the pieces. The other 2 pieces would be of other series, then. I think this is a good way to cater to everyone while still keeping things fair. With any one character only being able to appear every 4 months, having no more than 5 suggestions per series in the poll and not allowing any one series to win more than twice a month, things should work out nicely. What do you think?

Cinnammoner

I know but increasing the duration seems more like an artificial solution than anything else. We went from 1 month to 4 months over the years and it didn't really do much. More important, the extension of the duration will not only hurt FE but other characters from other series (like Zelda, other anime/game characters and etc.)

kenji1104

Thanks for the input matt, i'll consider this :)

Dannex009

That's true bro, but i'm worried about people getting tired of the same content.

Dannex009

Thanks for the input mack. This is exactly what i'm feeling. I feel people might get tired of the content. I'm trying to find a way to make an impact or a change of plans in a good way since we all want this account to grow and flourish.

Dannex009

I think either change the buffer time, limit characters to 2 drawings per year OR have a series cooldown where if a series wins 3 in a row has a cooldown. Your FE girls are how I found you and you’re the master but I think others may get fatigue soon even if not same girls

Mack Harris

4 months is already too much imo, feels like we’re gonna go for a total year in a year or two

kenji1104

I think 6 months would be better. Give other series a chance because as much as I love the FE girls getting lewded, they dominate the polls.

Mattpwnsall