mod update 12.5

[hownkai]

M O D U P D A T E

Hello Savrites! We would like to thank everyone who sent thoughtful suggestions to us when we made Thisavrous's State of The Game post. We are going to address some of the concerns previously made, so please read everything thoroughly and consider them before coming to us with questions you might have. Also, much thanks and appreciation to those who remained respectful towards us - whether publicly or privately - with these decisions. This game has grown considerably since it has opened, evolving in ways that we, the Mod Team, could never have suspected, and we are going to do our best to keep things running as smoothly and fairly as possible. Things To Note: • Apps will be open next month and then they are going to be temporarily closed until further notice. For this upcoming app round: we are going to be taking a total of 60 apps. It will be strictly on a First Come, First Serve basis. As per our the application page, there will be no app challenges. (This is to help encourage players who really want to be in the game and keep the game cast a manageable size.) • As per player suggestion, there is now a section on the application devoted to the contracts that must be filled out. Veteran players may take a look and add this to their application if they choose, but it is not necessary. This is just a step we are taking from this point forward. Now, for the nitty gritty of this post: the death rule and lack of punishment system within the game. We decided to put this into place as a way to give players an IC reason for an OOC rule. On our previous post, we tried to keep it simple so that players would still be able to plot, but when asked for more clarification, everything got more and more muddled. We apologize for everything getting confusing, and we took a step back for a few days so that we could look at all the suggestions we had received in order to try to come up with a better solution. This Rule Consists of Two Parts: • ONE: If your character has decided to kill another crew member, and they are successful, then they will be given the choice between hold time and being dropped off on a neighboring planet. • TWO: If your character has decided to kill another crew member and are not successful due to miraculous medical procedures or other means, they are still given the choice between hold time and being dropped off on another planet. These are the only two specific scenarios that we are giving. Players can still plot out situations where they are talked down from killing someone else, can still accidentally kill someone through numerous means, and NPC deaths on planets are still possible. We think that the captains notifying crew of this new two-part rule will sway quite a few of the characters in game to not murder one another carelessly or needlessly. We also think it will curb some of the violence that has created a rather intense atmosphere for characters and players in the game. However, this isn’t being put into place to stop all plot-related deaths and murders; just to curb those between crew members. As for punishments, the captains are not going to make any kind of punishment system. The last one didn’t work and seemed to only make things worse. If characters ICly come to the captains because another character is doing something untoward (torture, abuse, etc.) then the players involved and mods will all come up with what plot should happen. Everything is open for discussion. There will be gray areas and scenarios that come up in game that won’t fit this rule, as many of you have come to us asking about, and we understand that. If it comes up in the future, and you aren’t sure, please ask. We would appreciate if players took the time to read this through carefully and think about how it would affect your character, if it would at all, before responding to this post. We have done our best to be as accommodating to players in the past ten months as we possibly can, and this is the first time that we’ve made such a big change. The game has to grow and evolve since it’s become so large, and in order to do so, sometimes, we have to bring in new systems. That doesn’t mean anything is set in stone or that we won’t listen to players' concerns and suggestions. We only ask that everyone be respectful in the future and to try and think things out before coming to us. Wrapping this up, we want to thank all our players that came forward and offered well-thought out insight into what we can do to make this better for as many people as possible. It was really nice to get that awesome feedback and to have support in trying to make the changes we feel are necessary! Below are a couple comments for things that were suggested that we want your vote on. Please check them out and respond. Thanks, everyone!

Comments

Questions/Comments

[hohnkai]

[diamondslap]

I JUST THOUGHT OF THIS but what happens to get out of jail free cards that characters got from the ac rewards? are they still relevant or anything bc when the punishment for murder is so severe........

App Vote

[hohnkai]

We received the following suggestion: during the closed app period, if a player had to drop for some reason (rl, time, etc), they should be allowed to reapp in. This of course is still an option. Any dropped character can always be reapped, even during the closed period.

Please Vote:
If a player officially drops and posts to the drop page, should they be allowed to app back in during the closed period with someone new?

[hellsbel]

Clarification: the vote is about whether a player who was in the game and had to drop can app back in with a completely new character, not about whether the dropped character can be reapped?

[peridork]

I'm thinking yes, they should... I feel like, how manageable a game's size is or isn't has less to do with the number of characters and a lot more to do with the number of players, so if a player isn't feeling a character and wants to drop, but doesn't necessarily want to leave the game, I think it's fair to give them the chance to app someone else in.

I think it could also have some interesting IC implications if the Ingress started spitting people out at more random intervals like that, lol

[a_shadow]

I would say this should be possible, but only once between app periods, to discourage people trying out new characters repeatedly and rapidly during the closed period.

[arcreact]

I'm in favor of allowing it, personally!

Having played in games with hard character caps before, it can be a huge bummer to find yourself locked out of a game, as a player, because a character wasn't jiving or you hit character burnout or something similar. (And let's face it, that's very normal and inevitable) So I think character swaps are a fair compromise!

[notglitching]

I'd second Marti on allowing it, but with only one character swap per person. It'd give players a second chance if they decide a character's not working for them, but still provide incentive for them to find someone they can make work in the long run rather than apping/dropping casually.

Fun Ingress implications either way, though!

[goodluckkobra]

I would say yes. One time for each current player as of apps closing.

[imahologram]

Yes, and I don't care about restrictions for it.

[bosswald]

Yes, and agreeing with the cap of how many times this can happen that others have suggested.

[harderfasterwrecker]

Yes, and I don't care about a cap because sometimes things just don't work and it's nice to keep players.

Re: App Vote

[vengeance_driven]

I would allow them back in, personally.

[heart_breaking]

I'm in favor!

[ryuuzaki]

I think they should be allowed to try to bring in the new character, but only once during the closed period. This should not be a factor when apps are open on a regular basis, only when they're closed indefinitely.

Event Discussion

[hohnkai]

What is your favorite type of event? Be as detailed or not as you like.

[a_shadow]

Obviously my recent post to the mods gave quite a selection, but I'd say plots with elements of psychological horror and thought or dream sharing are at the top for me. I also enjoy organic revealing of plot elements via NPCs, plots that encourage players to rely on one another to respond to those plots, and location-based mysteries.

Re: Event Discussion

[that_cost]

Memory events wherein the characters lives either are on display for all to see or get shunted into people's heads in high detail (emotion, sensations, smells) that kkind of thing.

There was one event I had somewhere wherein a form of biological warfare reopened old injuries and brought back old diseases and it was incurable (for about a week) and kept getting worse until a cure was found.

Invasions of other peoples lives in one big cluster fuck: let's say the delightful animatronics from Five Nights at Freddy's show up along with the people that are hunting down Charlie along with anyone else from people's pasts.

Or something they find on some planet causes power swaps and people have to learn how to control what they have now otherwise they risk destroying the ship or hurting people.

[armsmode]

Dramatic events that require serious teamwork. Events with real dangers and stakes.

Also celebrations with the crew, small things like "hey we picked up a bunch of good food have some cake" or stuff like that.

Exploring fantastic strange worlds.

Re: Event Discussion

[notglitching]

Headfuck and memory share things for sure. Forced truth-telling also (bonus points if it makes you answer, not just stops a lie). Some of the more meme-ish things can be fun, and lean towards crack or horror at player option-- species-swap, de-aging, and body swap are all good. Monsterfights and invasion things are also cool, though the current event definitely has the latter covered.

I also love forced cooperation events-- especially ones where characters are isolated into groups or pairs and have to work past antagonism to get free of the situation? It might be best if the captains not be the ones causing the division (the crew's annoyed enough at the teamwork exercise as is :P), but maybe the ship crashes or gets captured at some point and people wind up stranded or locked up together? Jaibreak shenanigans! We've got enough criminals on this ship to warrant arrest anywhere.

[hellsbel]

I'd love more plots about WEIRD CRAZY THINGS IN SPACE. Especially ones with galactic-paranormal elements -- Ploiatos, the C Primary memory-glass, etc -- but also just space weirdness; wild planets, pocket universes, communication echoes, drifting ghost ships, scavenger hunts in endless asteroid fields, sentient gravity waves, ion storms, mysterious artifacts, dangerous areas where scouts have to check ahead (and possibly then need rescuing), nonhumanoid spacefarers.

Also plots that grow organically from the journey and add new elements to what we already know about the Moira's universe. (Are those mercenaries still in place around Ceta? Is anyone looking for the woman from Amisses-Re? The current C-Primary plot is great. Have rumors about the Moira traveled ahead of them to attract welcome or unwelcome attention? What else is going on intergalactically -- wars, trades, escapes, pageants, secessions, bluffs, maydays? Are there so many animals and different kinds of beings on the ship now that some jurisdictions might classify it as a traveling ecosystem and levy ridiculous environmental protection requirements?)

Cultural participation things like the lantern-lighting are also great, especially involving something about the ship, like learning to spacewalk. Is the Moira due for a new paint job? XD

Re: Event Discussion

[imahologram]

◦ Long-term repercussions to past plots are really neat! I am enjoying the way Caducus Primary isn't "over," so to speak, so continuing to hold onto longer threads like that is absolutely welcome.

◦ I found a lot to do with the Del Pascia month, because the creepiness of the setting made CR easy to build. Seeing blood on other people and hearing voices are really quick ways to start up a conversation, lol. I thought that event was a really good balance of setting and task--you had things to react to in the scrap-hunting, the weirdness of the setting, the mutants, the disinfecting process. A lot of different places players could set their starters, a lot of different things going on. It was really helpful.

◦ I think that having a lighter event every few months is a nice idea. I appreciated the stop at the Collective, because it not only gave my character time to recharge, it allowed for a different kind of CR than you get in tense situations.

◦ That said, as much as I enjoyed the Collective, I know it might have felt like more setting than task for some people, so if there's a way to put extremely minor conflict in the background for people who need it, that might be something to look into. I'm trying to think of Collective-y examples, and I'm coming up short at the moment, but I'll edit this if I get an idea.

◦ I guess my thought is "setting + task = a good number of options." When there's an environment to interact with and also something the captains / someone on the crew / someone else needs the characters to do, that seems to provide a lot of potential starters for threads. I feel like Amissis-Re had a good balance of this, too, since there was diving into the Ingress (Egress, I guess? :D) as a setting thing and then rescuing crew members as a task.

◦ Putting the crew in danger, in general, is something I am A+ in favour of.

◦ Personally, I really love creepy, weird tales-y settings and horror that has more of an emphasis on unsettling the shit out of characters than gore or fighting. Things like "what if they go to this planet and start disappearing at their fingertips on upwards" or "then that contaminant comes back and people can no longer recognize faces or voices" or something, idk.

Tropier things I enjoy include:
◦ De-aging
◦ Loss of control over the enviornment - what happens when the Moira's gravity control malfunctions?
◦ Memories / dreams made public
◦ Mysterious illnesses
◦ Sensory loss
◦ Thoughts made readable / audible
◦ Truth-telling

Benjamin Link

[hohnkai]

The fate of Benjamin Link.

He's a Thisavrou NPC that was part of the events on Emiri who had no choice but to join the Moira and make the trip with the rest of the crew. He’s been getting to know the crew and wants to help in any way that he can. Where you guys come into play is helping to decide what he should do.

Let us know here if you want Ben to make a more active role or if he should continue to hang back.

[hellsbel]

Ben is described as an outgoing personality; giving him a more active role on the ship would be great, particularly a job where he would have plenty of day-to-day contact with the rest of the crew.

Update to Medbay Page

[hownkai]

For those who have a part in the Medbay (or even those who do not), I am going to be taking the time to update the page and add things that aren't there currently. So, if there are new procedures or other various things that have been put into place, please list them here. Or if there are suggestions on what to add to the page, please list them as well!

[imaginary_wife]

Replacement Prosthetics: If someone breaks theirs, they can go in and get a new one.

Doc Yewll started keeping spares a little while ago since people are really accident prone.

[imahologram]

Thank you for the clarification. To ensure I understand clearly, this means that if someone goes into a fight apathetic about their opponent's chances of dying, that's not going to be a problem. Correct?

[hownkai]

It's not going to be a problem. However, someone can still report it to the Captains, and consequences will be given according to what has occurred regardless of feelings per player and mod discussion. This is to encourage plot! We don't want to take that from anyone.