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thisavrou_ooc2016-06-24 12:39 pm
hownkai) wrote in thisavrou_ooc2016-06-24 12:39 pm
Entry tags:
mod update 12.5
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.) 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. 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! |
Event Discussion
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Re: Event Discussion
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.
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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
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.
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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
it's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere
Re: Event Discussion
◦ 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
no subject
As for planetstops.. I'm also echoing more mysterious space exploration! Forced cooperation between the crewmembers! New species and cultural confusions! Also, I'd really like to hear more from our previous planet stops (Mercenaries, the woman from Amisses-Re??).
Re: Event Discussion
i really liked the del pascia event and stuff like that's pretty cool! i definitely like horror stuff, especially the psychological kind, or body horror, or just weird sci-fi horror things in general. stuff with consequences further down the line like this current event is pretty cool too, i like the concept of it. or even if it's more in the way of "personal" consequences for your character, physical or mental or whatever else.
i also really liked the vacation episode thing because it gave the characters a nice break (
and a shopping spree) and it made for a good breather.so yeah sorry if this is a little rambly! i really like this whole 'having events' thing to begin with! it's fun!
no subject
- I like short-term Space Cootie events. (You know, the seemingly serious weird illness that gets cured, but you have to find a cure.) It's always good when there's an option for any incapacitation to proceed slowly, so people don't feel sidelined unless they want to be.
- I like things that involve puzzles. Sometimes it can be hard to incorporate them, because 1. they have to be driven by the kind of character who would create puzzles for whatever reason, and 2. a lot of common puzzle types don't play well with automatic translators, because they're based in wordplay or specific to one language.
- I like events without a lot of special plot roles. So far, I think those roles have been incorporated well here: the team leaders in the current event could be seen as special plot roles, but they don't keep anyone else from playing to their strengths. They're mostly just players who were willing to put in some extra work and have characters who are a good match for the spot. RNG plot roles are only a problem when an event is much less interesting for anyone who didn't get them, or when they keep characters from playing to their strengths.
- A lot of people have mentioned memory and dream share. The one thing I think is worth keeping in mind is that the setup on the player end in events like those (or Silent Hill things) can be demanding and time-consuming, so we'd probably need extra lead time. I like it when thought goes into the effort that would be involved in executing a specific event concept.
- I don't hate events that are usually seen as cracky (de-age, bodyswap, forced honesty, audible narrator, etc), but a little goes a long way.
- On the other hand, most of what happens on Star Trek: TNG seems like it would be fair game for inspiration for at least a short event. I'm not saying "go to TNG and reproduce episodes as events," but more "if it happens there it could probably happen here," because there were definitely episodes with de-aging, certain personality traits being emphasized, dreamscapes, and so on, and they all had causes that made sense in the context of the show.
- I like consequences of past events turning up later, although not all consequences have to be negative.
- If there's no thematic reason why it couldn't happen, it might be interesting to see another ship come to the Moira's aid at some point, with no bad intentions on their part at the time. Then there are possibilities with that ship: something happens to them and we have to help them? An event comes up in the future where they're the opposition?
Thing I dislike:
- Long-term serious food shortages. Short-term stuff that goes on just long enough to involve a week or two of rationing, temporary loss of luxuries, and people getting petty and hoarding or making deals is fine and can be fun to play out. Actually trying to survive for six months on two weeks of food is not, if it's played out realistically. Find food at the end of the two weeks.
- Events where characters are subject to one of a variety of sets of effects and players don't get to choose which category of effects they're going to be subject to -- it's chosen for them as a surprise. Since this is hard to explain, the easy shorthand is the way Ryslig has a lot of monsters, but you don't get to choose which monster your character turns into. (Opt outs and opt ins help, but ideally we'd just get to choose what sounds like fun and maybe get RNG'd to first and second choices if one category has really filled up.)
- Events that drag on too long.
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in general i like events with missions or goals to be accomplished creatively at our own pace. it was part of what i really liked about amissis-re, you entered the alt-ingress, and various things could happen so you could get really creative with it, but the basic parameters (you go with two people, you leave eventually, you can get stuck if you go too much, etc) stay the same. so events with a lot of potential for creativity are always welcome. i think overly-structured events tend to fall apart
i liked the recent event on the beach planet, but i think it would be neat in the future to have an angle to plumb if you're not looking to just do sol beach adventures. i'm not saying there's anything wrong with those, but maybe an alternate plotline, like 'if you go explore x area of the planet, weird shit happens' would be a good angle to shake things up. in general, this game is very good for giving everyone options about how much action versus more laid back adventures they want to play, and i really appreciate that.
other events ideas:
-weird alien pets you have to take care of / raise, they can be sweet or dangerous, maybe an empathic connection or w/e
-going to an alien planet and having to help the natives with some local trouble. it'd be nice to run into a friendly planet, but still have some conflict going on for characters to interact with
-characters get stranded on a scavenger world and have to survive until the moira gets back. lots of team building to survive, etc
-characters get lost in a virtual reality grid (or alternate dimension, whatever you like) that combines their worst fears / memories, have to die (or band together?) to get out.
-go to a planet ruled over by a tyrant, crew has to decide if they team up with tyrant to get assistance or if they'd rather take a risk and overthrow him
-something where a alien virus or whatever takes over people's minds, other characters have to figure out who it is. extra points if it's kept a secret oocly as well.
-some characters are kidnapped by other aliens, the crew works to free them. crew votes between negotiating, stealth, hostile takeover, etc
-also, shippy events, because im trash. i really liked what i heard of planet emiri.
-people being forced to confess their secrets / tell the truth
+1
"This character needs a break" is a good motivation for them to be sitting around (or taking pleasure cruises or playing boardwalk games), but it's less likely to generate IC activity than something like "This character is on break, but while they're relaxing, they see this weird thing that they need to look into...." Characters usually have to want something (even if that something is abstract or conceptual, like justice or revenge or peace between warring factions) for a successful scene to happen -- they just have to have an angle. Some characters absolutely will be motivated by fun or relaxation! But for the ones who aren't, that kind of "little weird thing to look into" can help the players figure out what to do with them.