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trans_pilgrims2011-12-20 07:49 pm
cityship) wrote in trans_pilgrims2011-12-20 07:49 pm
Entry tags:
Mod Post
Hello meatlings! As the plot continues to advance forward, we have a few modly things we'd like to discuss with you regarding the future of the game as a whole and where we'd like to take it for the next few years.
ACTIVITY CHECKS
As you may have already noticed last month, we've decided to make activity checks every two months instead of three, as well as send out an e-mail notification during the check to make sure players are aware it's going on.
We will still be using the one log for one of your characters system, as we don't this game to become stressful for anyone. We can understand losing a character's voice for a few months while remaining active with others, and we have always enjoyed the semi-relaxing pace when it comes to activity checks in the game. We also trust you, the players, to know when you have to drop a character when a voice becomes either a burden or simply too hard for you to play.
APPLICATIONS
Due to the discussions we have had, both between ourselves and with the players all making excellent points, we have decided that we will be using a slightly different system for apps. Starting next application round (March, with April Poddrop), we will be alternating between open podpops where people can join with an invitation (as before), and closed, player-only podpops where only the game's players can submit new characters.
January/July - open to everyone
April/October - open to old players only
We will also be limiting the number of invitations each player can give out to two.
We think this system will allow us to both allow new players who wish to join the game to continue to do so while better controlling our numbers so we don't have to shut down applications completely.
We are also considering adding one or two new, non-mandatory questions to the app, something along the lines of, "What role do you see your character playing on the ship," and "What are your goals for this character?" Again, players will not be required to answer it, and it won't damage your chances at being accepted in any way, but we feel it may be beneficial for some players for helping them figure out if their character will fit.
[Poll #1804578]
PLOT STUFF
We are aware of some of the complaints about the plot, and we are working to fix them. We will have more plots in the future that tie into the over-arching plot, and please don't forget that if you would like to include the Ohm, Daligig, Rom, etc. into your plots, all you have to do is email us. We will be happy to work with you and give you some tidbits.
During pop month, we won't run big plots to help characters and newbies get better acclimated to the setting. Smaller plots are still fine, for CR and just for fun.
We've also been tossing around the idea of Newbie Runs during pop months, where a newbie/new character and an older player/character get paired up to do simple missions like retrieve something to help Stacy run or pick up supplies of some sort for the crew. If anybody would like to volunteer to be a Big Sibling of a sort, you can do so in the comments here!
We are also considering allowing a few trusty helper mods in on some of the over-arching plot, to help us run things more smoothly when things get busy. If you are interested, send us an email.
SETTING STUFF
We would like to encourage players to explore more of Stacy. She's the size of a small moon, and there's a lot that the characters still don't know about her and what's in parts of her. Just like with adding in over-arching plot to your plots, shoot us an email and we'll work something out with you.
Once System Shock is done, there will be a City Expansion post in which you can come up with places that could be found in the City, either created from scratch, and/or coming from a series. It could be anything from 'Leftovers of Black Hole Headquarters' to theme parks, houses, anything! Start thinking about what you'd like to see, and remember to make up descriptions and the general decay of the building in question. Then we can really start fleshing out the city with this!
Also, we'd like to include a reminder of what the characters can do regarding keeping supplies like food and clothing more steady between shore leaves. All characters are given currency during shore leaves, the exact amount and the economy in that locale is usually given in some detail. If there are animals like cows, chicken or sheep (or alien equivalents), characters can purchase them and raise them for meat, milk, wool, eggs, etc. in either Hydroponics or in the City. Seeds can also be purchased and grown; in the City, it would be best to grow crops near the river as there is no real irrigation system yet. All of this would be great stuff to get some CR going, too, with players both new and old.
Third, the Constitution can be difficult to understand, so we will be writing it in non-legalese. If anyone would like to help OOCly, or has a character that would suggest/work on it ICly, let us know.
You can also use this post to discuss possible changes to the Department system.
Lastly, this is something that we are leaving up to all of you, in the form of a vote. With there being nine Councilors, it can take a while for decisions to be made, and some have suggested lowering the number to seven, or even five, to help with that. Please note that should you vote to reduce the council's size, the decision of who will be removed will be done OOC between the current council, and this is purely offered to make the council run smoother.
[Poll #1804579]
MOVING?
No, don't worry! This isn't an announcement that we're moving somewhere else, but rather how we want to hear your opinions on Livejournal, the site hosting us. Would you be okay with 1) moving or 2) staying here despite the changes? If we did move, what hosting site would you like best?
Please reply below in the section for it. We'd like to hear all your thoughts on the subject! It can give us some things to think about as well, and remember that if we did ever come to a decision, you'd all be involved in it. Thank you!
ACTIVITY CHECKS
As you may have already noticed last month, we've decided to make activity checks every two months instead of three, as well as send out an e-mail notification during the check to make sure players are aware it's going on.
We will still be using the one log for one of your characters system, as we don't this game to become stressful for anyone. We can understand losing a character's voice for a few months while remaining active with others, and we have always enjoyed the semi-relaxing pace when it comes to activity checks in the game. We also trust you, the players, to know when you have to drop a character when a voice becomes either a burden or simply too hard for you to play.
APPLICATIONS
Due to the discussions we have had, both between ourselves and with the players all making excellent points, we have decided that we will be using a slightly different system for apps. Starting next application round (March, with April Poddrop), we will be alternating between open podpops where people can join with an invitation (as before), and closed, player-only podpops where only the game's players can submit new characters.
January/July - open to everyone
April/October - open to old players only
We will also be limiting the number of invitations each player can give out to two.
We think this system will allow us to both allow new players who wish to join the game to continue to do so while better controlling our numbers so we don't have to shut down applications completely.
We are also considering adding one or two new, non-mandatory questions to the app, something along the lines of, "What role do you see your character playing on the ship," and "What are your goals for this character?" Again, players will not be required to answer it, and it won't damage your chances at being accepted in any way, but we feel it may be beneficial for some players for helping them figure out if their character will fit.
[Poll #1804578]
PLOT STUFF
We are aware of some of the complaints about the plot, and we are working to fix them. We will have more plots in the future that tie into the over-arching plot, and please don't forget that if you would like to include the Ohm, Daligig, Rom, etc. into your plots, all you have to do is email us. We will be happy to work with you and give you some tidbits.
During pop month, we won't run big plots to help characters and newbies get better acclimated to the setting. Smaller plots are still fine, for CR and just for fun.
We've also been tossing around the idea of Newbie Runs during pop months, where a newbie/new character and an older player/character get paired up to do simple missions like retrieve something to help Stacy run or pick up supplies of some sort for the crew. If anybody would like to volunteer to be a Big Sibling of a sort, you can do so in the comments here!
We are also considering allowing a few trusty helper mods in on some of the over-arching plot, to help us run things more smoothly when things get busy. If you are interested, send us an email.
SETTING STUFF
We would like to encourage players to explore more of Stacy. She's the size of a small moon, and there's a lot that the characters still don't know about her and what's in parts of her. Just like with adding in over-arching plot to your plots, shoot us an email and we'll work something out with you.
Once System Shock is done, there will be a City Expansion post in which you can come up with places that could be found in the City, either created from scratch, and/or coming from a series. It could be anything from 'Leftovers of Black Hole Headquarters' to theme parks, houses, anything! Start thinking about what you'd like to see, and remember to make up descriptions and the general decay of the building in question. Then we can really start fleshing out the city with this!
Also, we'd like to include a reminder of what the characters can do regarding keeping supplies like food and clothing more steady between shore leaves. All characters are given currency during shore leaves, the exact amount and the economy in that locale is usually given in some detail. If there are animals like cows, chicken or sheep (or alien equivalents), characters can purchase them and raise them for meat, milk, wool, eggs, etc. in either Hydroponics or in the City. Seeds can also be purchased and grown; in the City, it would be best to grow crops near the river as there is no real irrigation system yet. All of this would be great stuff to get some CR going, too, with players both new and old.
Third, the Constitution can be difficult to understand, so we will be writing it in non-legalese. If anyone would like to help OOCly, or has a character that would suggest/work on it ICly, let us know.
You can also use this post to discuss possible changes to the Department system.
Lastly, this is something that we are leaving up to all of you, in the form of a vote. With there being nine Councilors, it can take a while for decisions to be made, and some have suggested lowering the number to seven, or even five, to help with that. Please note that should you vote to reduce the council's size, the decision of who will be removed will be done OOC between the current council, and this is purely offered to make the council run smoother.
[Poll #1804579]
MOVING?
No, don't worry! This isn't an announcement that we're moving somewhere else, but rather how we want to hear your opinions on Livejournal, the site hosting us. Would you be okay with 1) moving or 2) staying here despite the changes? If we did move, what hosting site would you like best?
Please reply below in the section for it. We'd like to hear all your thoughts on the subject! It can give us some things to think about as well, and remember that if we did ever come to a decision, you'd all be involved in it. Thank you!
no subject
I'm also pretty consistently confused by mod answers to questions about the setting or plots. Like the time thing. Now as I understand it, different parts of the ship experience time differently, and there's no way to tell what time it is or what day it is. Therefore, no one knows how long they've been on the ship. At the same time, organizations like Security and Starfighter Command have shifts, wherein characters would be required, presumably, to show up at set times. How do they know when to show up when they can't tell time? Can they estimate time well enough to know when so-and-so o'clock is? If so, why can they estimate time accurately enough to know when their shift is, but not enough to estimate how many days it's been since they got on the ship?
no subject
no subject
While we're all getting this out into the open, though, I'd also like to touch on something Camille mentioned: how hard it is to get information related to The Plot. Back during the Lirath battle, I volunteered to do some NPCing to help move the plot along (in the space battle, since everyone had forgotten to get someone to NPC that log), and was promised that I would be provided details about who I would be RPing, the settings I'd be required to establish, the type of Ohm I'd be NPCing, the size of various Ohm attack waves, and so on. But when plot time rolled around, no one had given me any of the details I needed. I had to actively pester people to get this information. And this was information I needed, for a plot I was NPCing for, not a player plot that had no real impact on The Plot.
I know we've been encouraged to explore the setting as well as get involved in the plot, but I’ve found that in practice, I’ve been discouraged from doing so. The thing is, I hear conflicting answers to the same questions from different mods, and back when I asked far more questions than I do now, I often felt like I was being brushed off or treated as a nuisance. I kept hearing “I don’t know” or "ask [other mod]", which gives me the impression that there are only one or two mods that know the details about any particular aspect of the setting or plot. Why can't more than one mod answer questions about the Daligig? Why can't more than one mod answer questions about the comms? How come when they can answer questions, the answers are all different? Do the mods talk to each other? Do the mods know the setting? Why don’t the mods ask other mods these questions so that all the mods can answer the same questions and players don’t have to hunt for one specific person to be online?
I keep feeling like we’re encouraged to explore the City or The Plot, but not provided the kind of information we need to actually do it. And when there’s something my character would do that might actually affect what’s going on and matter – fighting back against the Daligig on the ship, for instance – I hear "that wouldn’t work" or "it would fail". Or sometimes "that won't work and also we can't tell you why." Are we supposed to engage with the plot, or sit back and let it run along its rail? I mean, if there are some kind of magical words I need to say to get Ye Flask (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouCantGetYeFlask?from=Main.ptitlei9fyz80ocg6y), I don't know what they are. And I can either continue along with my CR and not affect the plot, or sit there trying to figure out why on Earth I can’t get Ye Flask, and out of the two of those, #1 has been more appealing.
no subject
It's normal shoes and normal clothes that are rare and have to be bought from the outside.
All the mods have a group of documents that's essentially a game bible. For anything that isn't in there that they just haven't thought of until someone asked about it, they're supposed to get consensus from the other mods to all be on the same page. The problem is sometimes one mod mis-remembers something or even changes it without telling all the other people that need to know. As plot mod, I'm allowed to answer setting questions, so I do, but sometimes they actually change the details away from what was originally set down and don't tell me. Like initially, translation was supposed to be via little crystal devices in the collars of the plantsuits, hence why the plantsuits had to be reduced to a body-band of some kind if they weren't being used, but then they got changed to translator microbes, only no one told me they'd been changed to translator microbes, so I'd still been going with the translator beads...
The change itself is fine, but not telling everyone who's tasked with answering questions is kind of super bad.
As for engaging with the plot, personally, I'm not a big fan of revealing all of it, but I think the mods really need to set down the limitations of "here's what can and can't be done because of the logistics of actually organizing things oocly" but to do that, they have to agree on what to say, and to agree on what to say, they have to discuss it, and they take forever to discuss things.
Like, it's possible to say "we can't reveal the true nature of the Ohm yet, and you can't mindbork the Daligig to get everything they know because it'd effectively end the game right here and now, due to the actions the crew would likely take in response to the information they get, and oocly, people don't want the game to end yet." This whole "you can't do this but we won't tell you the ooc reasons why" doesn't work. People need to at least know why the boundaries are there.
no subject
I'm not calling for the mods to reveal all the plot, but I really think they need to reveal some information, especially a list of rules about the setting that no, you can't do because it would mess with the plot. Because there are things I vaguely know I'm not supposed to do (like putting my characters in restricted areas), but there are also things I have no idea I'm not supposed to be doing. And I don't know how to avoid something I don't know about until someone yells at me which is why I just don't touch anything.
I don't think anyone wants to know the true nature of the Ohm, either, but I would like some more player agency. Okay, we can't psychically obtain all the information we want from the Daligig. And we can't fight the Daligig because their bodyguards are somehow super uber and they'd crush us by looking at us funny (which sounds a lot like But Thou Must, but that's beside the point). Can we spy on the Daligig, or try and spell them (or even psychically probe them) and get some incomplete info or something so the crew can be doing something to better their situation? And can we do this without a long game of email tag?
no subject
And like I just said, stuff that isn't in the game bible needs to be asked formally and consensus has to be gotten on it. Not all of those details are in there because the mods didn't think of every single thing. I could give you my own headcanon for it, but it'd be useless because I'm not a mod-mod and they'd all want to agree on it first.
Part of the problem is the players naturally poke and prod at stuff and want description, but it hasn't always occurred to the mods that something needed that much detail. This would be no problem at all if we had mods that you could ask a question of and they'd quick wrangle the others to agree on the new detail and put it in the wiki somewhere, but they take waaay too long to discuss stuff.
As for the last bit, yes, we'd love to at least let them get some incomplete stuff that future plot and player actions can be built on, and now that Karl and I are done, we can provide that. I also personally want to provide more info on the boundaries and things the players can legitimately do/prod into that. Since that's major plot stuff, the others know enough to also provide that, but the burden of the work, as other people have pointed out, has been falling on the same few mods. If they're busy, you're screwed, because the others don't step up.
As for the email tag, ask the mod-mods. Even when people email ME stuff to get information and I push for them to agree on what can be released, I can't get them to freakin' comment on stuff to get consensus. I'm stuck in the unfortunate position of knowing the whole plot, being able to come up with any little details if people ask about stuff where the little details haven't been thought about yet, but I have absolutely no say in implementing new things or even establishing details as details and have to push multiple people to weigh in on it when some of them don't seem to be able to actually weigh in on it in a timely fashion, to the point I have to harangue some of them on AIM.
So I can't say a thing about the email tag. I'm stuck in between. I have absolutely no power whatsoever in deciding if it's the "official" info and I have to cat-herd if I'm ever the one suggesting something be added, because I'm not allowed to make any actual decisions on my own. I'm not even allowed to weigh in with a vote on things. I just try to push for it to get processed.
no subject
As for asking the mods, well. Obviously people have been having problems with that, but I think I'll wait till there's a firmer decision what with Karl's post.
no subject
no subject