CALENDAR ANNOUNCEMENT
Hi, guys! We've received some concerns about waning momentum in the months before Season 2, so we decided to make this post to address them. As a side note, we encourage all players to come to us with any concerns they might have! We always appreciate getting feedback from a direct source.
One of the suggestions was to reach the S1 conclusion sooner and open S2 earlier than originally planned. The completion of the current arc is necessary to bring us into Season 2 (it's all connected!) so we can't skip it, but we can attempt to speed it up a little. However, there's also the problem of December -- the holidays are difficult, and we can't re-open the game during them. We've tried to come up with a schedule that will work for everyone, though, which we've detailed below:
| OCTOBER 12: | Return to Oska log. |
| OCTOBER 19: | Mission dossier drops. |
| OCTOBER 21: | A season finale plotting meme is posted. |
| LATE OCTOBER: | Endgame part I log. |
| EARLY / MID NOVEMBER: | Endgame part II log. |
| NOVEMBER 18: | The last HMD of Season 1 is posted. |
| LATE NOVEMBER: | A more concrete timeline from then until the opening of Season 2 will be posted. |
| EARLY DECEMBER: | Season 2 info pages go live. |
| MID DECEMBER: | Season 2 Test Drive Meme goes up. It will be game canon, but will not be required. This will allow for players who will be around to be able to start playing without a long wait, without making it required for players who might not be around. We understand this is not ideal for all players, but given the difficulties of the holiday season, it seemed the best compromise we could come up with without having to open S2 in February. |
| EARLY JANUARY: | Reserves for returning characters will be open for 72 hours, allowing all current players to ensure that no one else apps their character. Afterwards, applications will be open to returning players only for approx. 48 hours before opening to the general public. This is subject to change, but is the current guesstimate. |
| EARLY / MID JANUARY: | Apps will close and a CR meme will go up. A few days later, we will put up our first log of Season 2. |
If this schedule looks acceptable to you, the players, it's what we'll be going with. Don't hesitate to let us know your thoughts! We're posting this because we want to hear them. |
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futurologists) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
axiology2017-10-06 07:02 pm
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First of all, the season 1 finale was never actually going to be in the end of November or December; actually, the date for the final endgame log has not been changed at all! The original proposed schedule was to have the final log on November 11th, then to open the game again in February. Given the holidays and that we will be having to massively overhaul our information pages, this seemed realistic to us, but we have decided to attempt it in a smaller timespan in order to keep you guys waiting less!
Long story short, this is the shortest wait possible. The wait between the final log and the TDM is approximately one month, and given that the TDM is game canon, we feel that is the closest we can possibly get to including an actual log without upsetting others who might not be around for the holidays. We do understand your concerns and we hear you! However, we'd like to clarify, not just for you but for everyone, that there will have to be a wait between the Season 1 finale and the re-opening. Given the amount of work it takes to keep Futurology running and the amount of overhaul and, essentially, extra work that will be required to move us into Season 2, it is simply impossible for us to move into Season 2 while still running the game.
We're sorry if this was confusing or we were unclear about our previous schedule. Hopefully, this clarifies things a little bit, but please let us know if anything remains unclear.
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On a related note, and I understand if you guys don't have the answer just yet since you're spinning a lot of plates but I thought I'd ask: where in this timeline will more information be released regarding the specifics of season 2 reapps? It looks like late November/early December? Again, it's fine if that doesn't have a deadline yet. The reason I ask is because I've seen a few concerns regarding how extensive the changes will need to be from the first version of the application to the season 2 version, which may also be having an effect on motivation/momentum.
Thank you as always for your flexibility and open communication!
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i was actually initially worried about the long wait between the end of season 1 in nov and then s2 launching in feb; this seems like it'll be sped along much more easily
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Foremost, I want to say that I appreciate all the hard work you put into the game, and that you recognize the game has veered off from what you envisioned, so you want to get it back on track, so to speak! The schedule also looks good to me, I appreciate the shorter timeframe.
However, I am concerned that many of the recent mod decisions are making the game seem unwelcoming and discouraging to newbies and to some players still in game, and is contributing to the waning momentum the game currently has. From closing apps for nearly two months when the queue was long and people had already been waiting for months, to mandating a reapp for the whole game (the mod responses that characters who apped in Futuro's infancy may not be suitable for the game also made me a little nervous), to now not allowing doubles (assuming it's another canon version of the character and not the same character played by another person - I am not sure if the rule encompasses both cases or not) and characters who went home to participate in the finale. If characters who were in the game for a very short period of time are allowed to return for the finale, why not doubles? After all, they were apped before the rule was put into place. Also, while I understand that the AC system is maintained to be fair to mods and players alike, September was a very difficult month for a lot of people, some were without internet due to hurricanes, (and considering the amount of people we've already lost, there are plenty of spots left) so I feel in this case it would be fair to at least let the newbies who idled out reapp or participate in the finale.
Furthermore, while I understand the game mechanic of going home means that they've earned their rest, so to speak, if it was a volunteer process (IE: Zymandis is a huge and powerful organization, so ALASTAIR could put out a call for help for "one last mission" and characters who would ICly respond to the call could be reapped, similar to what you have planned for Season 2). The players who had their characters choose this unique mechanic had no idea a finale was upcoming, so it's possible they could have chosen the regular drop mechanic if they had known. Therefore, I believe it would be fair and healthy for the game to allow these characters to participate in the finale, and I hope you will reconsider your stance. I was also wondering when more information on the IC incentives for Season 2 would be disclosed, as there are many players who are uncertain of whether they can maintain their characters or not.
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First off, we'd like to thank you for coming to us with your concerns; they're all very reasonable and we completely understand where you're coming from. We're going to elaborate on our perspective a bit, but please don't think that by explaining where we're coming from we mean to dismiss your concerns in any way. Instead, we hope this will help clarify why we've done the things we've done, and create a dialogue wherein all the parties have all the information.
Anonymity can create a bit of a wall between players and mods, but we are only human. We spend our free time doing the best we can to make the game both fun for our players and true to our vision, but we aren't perfect. Any decisions made that make the game seem unwelcoming were not made with the intent to make anyone feel like they don't belong; we debate all decisions as a mod team before enacting anything, so we assure you there is thought put into all of them, but sometimes we make mistakes or make decisions that will displease some players. Human error isn't something we can ever truly fix, but we promise no decisions are ever made out of impulsivity or malice.
Getting into the specifics: the two-month queue lock was plot-related, as we had thought it would be fun for characters in a game that are constantly moving to be "trapped", so to speak, and the plot required that characters be unable to be rifted in or out. If we were to do a plot like that again, it's likely we wouldn't carry it out in exactly the same way knowing what we know now, but back then we had no idea how the plot would turn out! It was never meant to be unwelcoming; it was meant to be a fun experience for our current players, and if we fell short on delivering that to some players, that is a mistake we'll have to move forward from.
As for the re-applications, this is not meant to be any sort of gatekeeping or way to filter anyone out! The application will be different, as many of the mechanics of the game will be updated in the jump from S1 to S2, and it will be important for characters to have the new applications filled out in order to play in the game. We realize this sounds a little vague at the moment, but we promise it will make more sense once all of the information is out, which will hopefully be as soon as possible! Tying this back to your question about incentives, like we told Anne above, all the information is expected to be out at the beginning of December, but we are aiming for as early as possible, so keep an ear the ground! Our telling someone that there are no guarantees of acceptance was never meant to make the players as nervous as it seems to have; we can't guarantee acceptance to anyone, ever, because there is no telling what kind of application someone will submit. If someone doesn't fill out all the sections, submits an empty application, submits an application far below our quality standards, etc. then we will not be able to accept them, regardless of if their original application was award-worthy. We don't mean to threaten anyone or make them anxious. Our quality standards have not changed since very long ago when we instituted a word cap (which is also when we instated a new app team) and we don't plan on suddenly changing them to be wildly different than they are right at this moment.
As for doubles, this is something we held a player poll on in April after having player concerns brought to us, so we simply feel it isn't fair to the majority of players who voted against having doubles to allow them, even if it's only as a guest star. We aim to please our current players most of all, and as they are the ones who don't want doubles in the game, that's why we chose not to allow them as returning guest characters.
With regards to AC, we do our best to be fair when it comes to strikes. Although we won't go into detail due to respect for player privacy, several players have been granted strikes due to the hurricanes and various other unforeseen circumstances this month. We often grant at least one per month, if not more. We are always more willing to work with players when they come to us asking for strikes before the AC period is up, but on occasion we are willing to work with players on the idle list as well, depending on the circumstances. Any player on the list is welcome to PM us to discuss it with us.
Finally, special dropped characters! The meta reason for characters being brought back to participate in this final mission is that all of ALASTAIR's teams will be working on it; the guest characters will not be returning to Audentes, necessarily, but will be working alongside them. As special dropped characters are not part of ALASTAIR at all, having returned home due to player request, they wouldn't fall under this category. We understand this might be disappointing! However, we have always been very clear that special drops are permanent, and that any player who utilized it would never be able to bring their character back, because retaining their game memories upon returning to their canon world would create an AU, which we do not allow in-game. Every player who has taken advantage of the special drop feature has been aware of this and specifically sought out the option. We truly understand that some players might regret their special drops and wish to bring them back, and have debated at length possible options for accomplishing this in the finale, but the mod team could not reach a consensus on an acceptable way of carrying this out. This is not out of a desire to diminish anyone's fun or punish anyone, but to abide by the laws of the universe we have created.
We hope this has shed some light on why we made the decisions we did. We understand it's likely you will want to discuss this with us further, but as this post is meant for discussion of the proposed schedule, we would like to ask that you take further discussion to the Mod Contact post, where we will be happy to continue.
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I saw that the reserve/application timeframe was subject to change, but 2-3 days seems like a very short window, especially around holiday time where people may be unavailable. Is there any chance these windows could be extended, (maybe a week for each, respectively?) and/or put to a playerbase vote?
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As for January, we will most likely be requiring a truncated version of AC, though we don't know the particulars at this moment. We will announce it as soon as we know! Thanks for the question.
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I will mention a concern I have, though. I think we've all noticed players leaving and having issues with motivation in the game right now. While there could be a dozen reasons for that, I think it's important to consider what we can do to alleviate those problems.
My personal suggestion is that we make these last few months as easy and fun for everyone as possible. To be honest, mention of HMD seems really unnecessary when we are supposed to reapp in Jan anyway. I feel like requiring proofs is kind of a hard act to police, too. Players want to interact with returning characters but then have to juggle ac at the same time? That could deviate from the desire to interact with as many of our old cr as possible. On top of that, when we are going to have to ultimately reapp, then I think that the motivation to hit ac is sort of deflated. It seems as if many people are dropping because of an inability to get into current metaplot, which feels a little geared toward a select few, only to sign on as a guest where they won't have to be involved with the metaplot to begin with. If there was no required ac they could just focus on what is fun for them while the game continues on the path you have devised for endgame.
Personally I think letting go of stringency on ac and procedurals (HMD) would make this easier on a lot of your players. We are already out of a game for a month, promised no guarantees in getting back into a game we devoted time and investment in, and required to reapply to a game that already accepted us. I hope that you will think about maybe making this period of transition less stressful and more approachable for your players, because I think right now a lot of us could benefit from that approach.
Thanks!
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Thank you to coming to us with your concerns. While we understand that players dropping may be alarming, we certainly do not wish for anyone to stay in the game who doesn’t want to; if a player finds they no longer have interest in the game, they are welcome to drop. In this vein, if players cannot make AC due to disinterest, we don't feel as though removing AC will do anything to motivate these players to tag. For this reason, we will be maintaining our current AC schedule. However, our final AC will be a half AC, requiring only one proof instead of two.
Regarding guest characters, we're sorry if this was unclear, but you may make AC by tagging a guest character! It's only guest characters themselves that do not have to make AC.
Regarding HMD, the mod team had previously discussed whether we should keep it on schedule for the reasons you mentioned. Ultimately, we decided to keep it because of the players here who plan on returning for Season 2, and because communication is something we like to stress here at Futurology. HMD is not intended to be a punishment; it's meant as a way for players to communicate with each other in a scheduled, expected format, as well as a way for players to communicate with the mod team. Often, players feel more comfortable bringing their concerns to others during the HMD than at other times, and we don’t want to take that away from anyone who has been waiting for the opportunity.
Finally, we'd like to address your concerns about the current plot only being geared toward a handful of people. We certainly did not gear the season finale plot towards anyone in particular; it was created with the hopes of being fun for the entire game. Several opportunities have been given for all characters to participate in the plot, and we always try to make sure there are things for everyone to do in every log and event, regardless of their personal interest in the metaplot. If we have failed in piquing anyone’s interest, there is nothing we can do about that, but we always attempt to find ways to involve characters of all skillsets, backgrounds, and personality types. However, we have learned in our time modding that unfortunately, you can’t please everyone.
We genuinely do appreciate your suggestions! When we make decisions (such as whether or not to have AC or HMD, etc.) we discuss all the options, and these were certainly considered. Ultimately, we felt it was best to keep it this way; we understand this may displease you, and that is reasonable. We hope that you can take us at our word when we say we absolutely did not make this decision with the intent to increase stress on our players in any way, though, and that if it does, it is an unwanted, unintended side effect.
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right now, in order to have a second character, you need to make double ac for 2 months. however, ac in november and january as far as i understand is going to be halved due to only having one log each. so what i'm wondering is, if you're planning to drop one of your two s1 characters at the end of the season and pick up a new one for s2, will you still need to scrounge up 8 proofs by january to make that happen? or since the game is shutting down for about a month will we have to essentially wait until march, or is there going to be some other kind of allowance for that :|a for example maybe players could have to make double ac for the new character for two months instead?
also as a secondary question -- the faq currently says that if you drop and then later reapp a character, you lose all of their ac rewards after you reapp them. given that the bonus ac coins system is going away by the end of november, i'm wondering if characters that get dropped right now and reapped later will also lose what they currently have, given that they wouldn't be able to regain those things via activity again?
thanks!
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In order to make sure everyone settles into Season 2, we are going to put second character apps on hold until March. This means that you will not be able to app a new second character until March -- we will be allowing players who currently have two characters to app both in during January, of course. An explanation of how our new app system works will be released with the rest of the game information in early December.
Regarding losing character inventories after a drop, this will continue as it has been. If a character drops at any point, they will lose their inventory and skills and will only be able to app in with what they have on them in canon. This may change once we're in Season 2 as we overhaul our rules, but in order to keep things fair, we're maintaining it for now.