As per the discussion and the fact that so many want the game to continue, the mods have decided to shake things in the game up a bit.

These are the steps in the proposed plan. If you have any issues with the plan, it is still open for discussion (other than step one) so discuss it in the comments.

( Stuff )

Hey peeps, Saphie here, just tossing up a post for the planning of Evil Deeds plot, the introduction of the villainship. It's likely going to start around June 20th or so.

What we've decided to do for this plot is have the mods do the set up with a distress call from the GIA and the Tapestry supposedly kicking out who's supposed to go on the missions, and the rest is up to you guys. The villainship will be attacking some GIA member worlds, moons, and colonies in the same star system and the GIA will send out distress calls because of the nefarious nature of these particular villains and the fact they're getting slammed in a lot of places at once. Each villain player or npcer will come up with their own evil plot, since they're the ones that know their respective villains best, and so there will be several miniplots running concurrently. How many characters can participate in each miniplot is up to villain player--they can have as many characters in the plot as they think they can handle, be it three characters, or thirty.

This is a great plot to structure things so they suit your character well. For instance, if you have someone who isn't a fighter but is more the type to solve mysteries, you can grab a few people and temp the kind of villain that would leave puzzles for the crew members that they can solve to stop the crime (like the Riddler, for instance). If you want combat, you can temp a fighty villain. Heck, you can even have Godzilla stomping around a city, or have your characters head to a campground to fight Jason Voorhees. Any villain can be temped or played here by anyone.

If there isn't a canon villain that you know how to play well that suits your needs, you can make up an OC one as well.

So this post is a plotting post for folks that have a villain they want to do a mini-plot with or have ideas for a mini-plot and want to gauge interest (like if you want to have characters fight the gremlins from gremlins and want to see if others would be willing to join in and help npc them). You're allowed to go really big with this and have the villains be very destructive as this is their grand entrance and they'd want to put on a show.

Here's the background page on the villainship and a list of the claimed villains so far.

IC Meet N' Greet is up. If anyone has any questions, you can ask them here.

Hi, everyone - Chi here. It's time to wrap up the Rebellionplot - backtagging is encouraged, but by now characters should know how that went down so that people can start doing things that take place after it's over. :D

So, here's the basic gist:

- The Daligig are gone! Yavek died, and the others escaped via shuttle, taking his body with them.

- Stacy is mentally free of Daligig programming, and also has a lot more of her psychic powers at her disposal thanks to both the control codes and the characters involved in the Puzzle Box plot.

- This means that there are no more Violations and no more Big Sister watching the crew's every move. The ship will now be policed entirely by the crew, which probably means Security.

That should be it! Saphie should be putting up an IC epilogue post soon, so everyone will know all these things ICly as well.

This is a post where players can discuss OOC issues and propose ideas about the game in general (OOCly, since the Plot discussion posts are for IC things). Players can come together and discuss solutions to problems, or propose ideas to help the game run more smoothly. Not every problem can be solved by the mod team, and sometimes other players might have ideas the mods might have missed, so we'd like to give the players the opportunity to speak up with their suggestions and thoughts. In addition, it can also act as a sounding board for the mods to get player opinions on ideas the mods might have for possible changes.

GROUND RULES
• Focus on providing constructive criticism in regard to problems. While getting to the source of a problem can be useful in figuring out how to fix it sometimes, the purpose of these posts is solving problems, not assigning blame. If you have a specific complaint against someone, please use the Mod Suggestion/Crit post.

• These posts are primarily focused on solving larger scale problems in the game. However, you can start discussions on problems that only affect a single player or a smaller group of players to get suggestions. However, if these smaller scale problems can be sorted out by the mods, we suggest going to the Mod Suggestion/Crit post first.

• Due to the nature of these posts, we cannot really include anon-tagging for these discussions. If there is an issue you would like to have discussed but wish to do so anonymously, or if you have a private problem that you would like to report anonymously, once again, please use the Mod Suggestion/Crit post.

• You are also welcome to suggest changes that will make the game more enjoyable! As always, we want the game to be fun for you. Let us know what can be done to help.

Shae here!

In an effort to keep the rebellion, and parts of it, moving, the ending of Natural Born Ghyyler is being handwaved. Those involved in the plot are still encouraged to backtag!

The results of Natural Born Ghyyler:

- The Ghyyl are slaves to the Daligig, and allies to the crew. They have secretly been helping to repair Stacy's true personality.

- They have also provided Stacy with coordinates to people around the multiverse that have more information on the Daligig, the Ohm, and the Rom. These coordinates will be spit out at random, as missions.

What this means:

Anyone can create a plot based on making contact with an informant! All the other details are yours to do with what you want, but unlike Milk Runs, these missions need to be approved by the mods since NPCing of the informants will be necessary.

Hello, everyone! This is Mala here. Voting is done over at the most recent poll on AC changes, and the results are in! The latest proposed changes have been passed.

To refresh your memory, here are the changes that will be coming into effect:

AC would be bimonthly as it is now and follow the same schedule. Players wouldn't have to make AC with every character but would have an increased number they had to make it with if they played more characters. Someone with 1-2 characters has to make AC with only 1 of them. Someone with 3-4 characters has to make AC with 2. Someone with 5-6 characters has to make AC with 3 of them. Someone with 7-8 has to make it with four of them. (We've opted to keep the character breakdown the same in light of having the AC itself have less comments necessary).

Open Department Head or IC government posts can be used to make AC without the player having to do an extra post with that character. Channel Posts can be used to make AC.

Keep in mind, as well, that we're human, rather than AC-deciding robots so we can judge things with a little leniency when it's appropriate. Special circumstances, slow stretches in the game or stretches where there's a lot of plot and group threads, hiatuses from major RL events, things like that will be taken into regard with AC. If you had an awful two months IRL, managed two threads with five comments and were short one comment in your third thread or something, we'll take the whole picture into account.

Posting one open post

OR

Two threads with at least 8 comments made by your character each thread (16 in all)

OR

Three threads with at least 5 comments made by your character each thread (15 comments in all)

OR

Putting up one open event/meeting that lets others mingle, such as a movie night or training session

OR

Running one plot posted with open signups.

This will apply starting the next AC. At that time, you can use anything from June 1st until the third week of July to pass.

There is a CR Meme/Watercooler up HERE so folks can start planning CR for after rebellion. It's locked so that contact info can be exchanged but kept private to anyone outside the game.

The IC Meet N' Greet and Thread Lottery will happen after rebellion is over.

Saphie here. This is just an update on Natural Born Ghyyler plot. If there aren't responses on the plot by Sunday night, the mods will have to work with you to handwave the ending. While backtagging is fine, if any parts of the overall rebellion aren't moving, we'll have to eventually handwave endings to them so the game can move on. There is no posting order so anyone can comment! Please try to comment so the mini-plot can continue.

As a general note to the game on rebellion, the mods plan to start posting plot ending posts for it around June 7 to cap it off, because of new apps we're receiving and because of the upcoming ATP. We'd like to make it as easy as possible for new players to intro in. That said, backthreads can continue in perpetuity if you need them to.

Saphie here, with a few announcements.

Activity Check

As you can see, the AC has been revised, and new AC poll has been posted.

Apps

We'd also like to announce:

APPS ARE NOW OPEN!

No invites necessary and they are rolling. Enable away.

Mod schedule

The mod schedule will be slightly wonky these next two weeks, due to rebellion plot, so the CR meme and IC Meet and related ooc posts will be delayed. This is not us forgetting, this is on purpose to give rebellion plot some time to progress. We'll pop stuff up either next week or the end of this week based on when it seems like folks are ready to plan their post-plot CR and also to give a little bit of time for new apps.

Modplot

Villainship info will soon be added to the wiki. After the Evil Deeds plot starts in mid-June, the villainship will be an available resource for regular plotting.


As usual, questions comments, crit, etc., can go here or the Critpost or email.

Based on the comments in the last AC poll, we have revised the proposed AC and are putting it up for a new vote.

AC would be bimonthly as it is now and follow the same schedule. Players wouldn't have to make AC with every character but would have an increased number they had to make it with if they played more characters. Someone with 1-2 characters has to make AC with only 1 of them. Someone with 3-4 characters has to make AC with 2. Someone with 5-6 characters has to make AC with 3 of them. Someone with 7-8 has to make it with four of them. (We've opted to keep the character breakdown the same in light of having the AC itself have less comments necessary).

Open Department Head or IC government posts can be used to make AC without the player having to do an extra post with that character. Channel Posts can be used to make AC.

Keep in mind, as well, that we're human, rather than AC-deciding robots so we can judge things with a little leniency when it's appropriate. Special circumstances, slow stretches in the game or stretches where there's a lot of plot and group threads, hiatuses from major RL events, things like that will be taken into regard with AC. If you had an awful two months IRL, managed two threads with five comments and were short one comment in your third thread or something, we'll take the whole picture into account.

AC can be met by:


Posting one open post

OR

Two threads with at least 8 comments made by your character each thread (16 in all)

OR

Three threads with at least 5 comments made by your character each thread (15 comments in all)

OR

Putting up one open event/meeting that lets others mingle, such as a movie night or training session

OR

Running one plot posted with open signups.




The poll will be open for five days, until June 5th. Please vote based on what you want to see. Do not vote yes unless the AC is something you can live with. We'll keep revising until we have one that passes muster.

After working out some stuff, the rebellion plot is going to be run roundabouts Wednesday, May 30th. Apps will still open June 1st, just so people can start enabling.

We're having trouble wrangling people that have time to help npc due to bad RL schedules, though. The mods can handle the Daligig, but are there any players that could help npc Kessek? The more hands on deck we have as backup, the better. If you can, please comment here, so we can list you in the ooc post accompanying the plot when it goes up.

You may also use this post for plotting or asking questions, though there will be a plotting subthread on the ooc post as it goes up.

Hi, everyone! Chi here with a mod announcement. We've made a bunch of changes recently, per the recent discussion post, so this is just a heads-up.

First off, OOC watercooler memes and IC Meet & Greets will be monthly as of June 1st. So, we'll have one around that time, and then the first week of every month after that. We've also added a CR planning tag in lieu of a separate plotting comm, so that the memes as well as any posts about log/post ideas can use that and be easily found.

Secondly, we have now have a mod plurk at Trans9! Please see Shae's post for details on that.

We have another new addition to our mod team, Mala. Anna has also joined the ranks of the plot mods.

With a fifth mod, we also have a fifth mod role: Housekeeping Mod. This person will pick up odds and ends like updating lists - such as the big brosis list - as well as being in charge of manning the mod plurk. That person will be Saphie for the next month.

The other mod hats have also changed heads as follows:
Anders is now Over-Arching Plot Mod,
Mala is now Discussion Mod,
Shae is still List Mod,
... and I am now Delegation Mod.

Lastly, the Plot In A Can post has been updated to be more general, with Milk Run and general CR ideas in addition to regular plot ideas. It has been linked on the sidebar and will be updated as people comment to it.

EDIT: Also, we'll be doing a monthly thread lottery as a subthread of the watercooler post. That'll be where people sign their characters up and get randomly paired up with some other character.

Group therapy will also be a thing - as stated in the Plot In A Can post, the therapist AI can start going overboard and rounding characters up for that. However, the mods do not have time to run that, so players can use the meat_mooks account to run that themselves.

Also, when apps open we will begin doing a general open post roundup in addition to the intro roundups to encourage people to tag those.

Shae here, with three things!

1. We have created a mod plurk! It is Trans9, and we'll be using it to help keep you updated on things happening in the OOC. We still encourage that players check the OOC regularly without relying on plurk to keep up with game happenings, though.

Please don't friend it if you have plurk. Instead, follow it as a fan; it'll solely be for game-related news.

2. We have added a plurk option on the contact list. It is purely optional, so if you'd like to add your plurk to it, please comment to this post. All comments are screened for privacy.

3. We would also like to know what each player's preferred method of contact is, so it can be indicated on the contact list. Post here to this post for that.

There are many, many variations possible with the Activity Check, and the mods have decided that we are definitely revising it.

Given the myriad of options, we tried to put together a good proposal AC to put by the playerbase, one based around the comments we got as well as what we'd be capable of keeping up with given all the other things we have to keep up with. Since a monthly AC would involve a mod being occupied with AC two weeks of every month, we decided to see if you guys would be okay with a bimonthly one.

This is the proposal AC we came up with:

---

AC would be bimonthly as it is now and follow the same schedule. Players wouldn't have to make AC with every character but would have an increased number they had to make it with if they played more characters. Someone with 1-2 characters has to make AC with only 1 of them. Someone with 3-4 characters has to make AC with 2. Someone with 5-6 characters has to make AC with 3 of them, and the rare few with 7-8 would have to make AC with 4 characters.

Players could make AC with the following options:

One open post

OR

Two threads of at least ten comments made by your character

OR

One open event/meeting that lets others mingle, such as a movie night or training session.

OR

One plot posted with open signups.

---

Now, this AC is only going to be put into place if it passes with a majority vote. If it doesn't, please offer up suggestions/comments/criticisms in the comments. We'll keep tweaking it based on player comments until it reaches a happy medium and gets a passing vote by the playerbase. The poll will be open until May 31st at midnight EST.

Chi here. Since we had some issues getting Fauxbellion off the ground and none of the interstitial plots have gotten very far yet, we wanted to ask the players - how shall we handle Realbellion? Shall we play things out and just take longer; or handwave/give the endings away, just play out the essentials, and move on? If we end up handwaving, backtagging can still happen, of course.

Saphie here. The end of Resistance Plot was supposed to go up tonight but with the recent mod changes and the special discussion, the mods need to get some solutions to problems out of the way before tossing up more plot.

We'll be having a modchat tomorrow the 25th to resolve everything, discuss making changes to things like AC so we can put up a vote, work out how to set up the rebellion plot for wrap-up and get the plot posts up that need to go up. We just need an extra day or so because of the mod team changes, because we have to respond to the discussions first, and because it turned out to not the best day RL-wise for the mods.

It has come to the mods' attention that there is a signficant chunk of players that have concerns about the health of the game and think it's dying. Unfortunately, this means that everyone's in a holding pattern waiting to see what happens and the problem with this is if we collectively do this as a game, we might not make it past rebellion.

So the mods have decided to address the issue head on to discuss it.

For our part, the mods want to encourage people to send in plots, tag around, invite people for June, and put up posts. We'd also like to take suggestions and answer questions and want to try to reassure you that we will do whatever we can on our end to make things fun. Our response times for plots and answering questions about things people can do in the game are down to only a few days (usually 3-5 for complicated issues/questions). Sometimes we can even get a response back the same day or just 1-2 for simple issues. If players want to run plots, we can definitely get an answer back to you very quickly, and in the case of milk runs, you pretty much have free reign to do those whenever or however you want. So now's the time for us to ask the question: what do you need from the mod team to have fun? What things do you want? What things might you want to see?

What things would players like to see from other players? This is also a good place to discuss that. As of right now, close to thirty people have posted for and made AC, which means that there are a good chunk of players that have have at least some interest in continuing to play. (Hopefully that will be reassuring to those of you worried about mass drops.)

At this point, the game is really only what we make it, and while there were a lot of problems over the last year, we are very dedicated to working on the ones that were on the mod end. The game can be made fun again, but now that the backlog of work and mod duties have been caught up, it is definitely something we need to discuss and cooperatively work on and confront head on as a group.

So discuss away, and please plurk and replurk this to your heart's content, point other players you know to it via AIM, etc. It really is something we need as many eyes seeing as possible.

EDIT: Please keep commenting, even if the mods don't respond to each of your individual comments. We're incorporating all the player feedback into our discussions about this in modchat.

EDIT 2, EDITINING: The mods are going to have a big modchat on Friday the 25th to iron everything out and probably have communication go up then or over the weekend.

A few mod announcements!

( Big Bro/Sis, New Podpop Process, New Mod/Mod Signups, Mod Posting Schedule, Wiki edits/Mod Crit )


As usual, if you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, or complaints, you can contact us here, by email, by AIM, or on the critpost.

Saphie here. There are a few more orders of business the mods have to take care of in before our next mod update, so keep an eye out for that over the next few days. We'll be announcing how the new podpop system and big sister/big brother system will work, and address the last game discussion.

We wanted to let you guys know what's coming up after rebellion since it's halfway through May and you might want to mull over the possibilities as we get closer to June. These plots will likely run over June-July. We'll do another update later with the plots running July-August. During the time these are going on, player plots can go on as usual. Since the game is going to endgame in the fall/winter, we suggest you try to get in any needs-to-happen-before-the-war-ends playerplots over the summer and early fall.

( Modplot )

( Villainship Info )

Questions, comments, and discussion can go in the comments!