APPLICATIONS: I'm so glad the amount of player slots necessary to open applications is being lowered!! I definitely felt like 10 was too large a number and would potentially be unwelcoming to new players, so thank you guys for having your fingers on the pulse of that!
If I can make one comment, however--I feel like simply opening applications at a certain time would cause a massive frenzy for a very limited amount of slots. I don't expect applications to remain open for more than a couple minutes at best, under those conditions, and since they'll only be open between missions, I imagine it would be very frustrating to miss getting a slot by a couple seconds, should someone experience a DW error or somesuch. Instead, I think it might be better to go back to the queue system, except with the understanding that new/returning player apps will only be processed when 6 slots are available? It'd be functionally equivalent to the current system, but with less pressure for new or returning players? If that makes sense.
BOUNTIES/ARGUMENTS:
I was also one of the people who felt a bit overwhelmed by the 10-comment count on the bounties, and think you guys are right on track with taking it down to 5. With the specialization bounties, I totally understand making players work harder to get rewards for them, but for the white and green bounties, it felt like a lot of effort for not a lot of of apparent reward, and I gave up on submitting any of them relatively early on so that I didn't get left behind on ic movement toward the primary objectives of the mission (e.g. plotting explorations/the various discussions on the network).
I wanted to feel like I was contributing to the mission, rather than simply racking up comment counts on slice-of-life threads, which was why I felt really disappointed when arguments came around and Ginko wasn't referenced at all in the Empresses' response to the argument he signed onto; I'd participated in both explorations as well as the player plot to meet with Nama in the first place, but I didn't have any bounty threads that were long enough, so finding out that bounties were part of the "secret" criteria for mission success was a big bummer for me.
While a poll with guaranteed success would've been kind of boring, I do agree with Jay's comment that the formal arguments felt a bit like a rehash of what was said in the IC Discussion thread on the penultimate log, so I'm not entirely sure what a good way to handle that would be. :|a i think the solution proposals post was more or less sufficient tbh! When it was initially proposed, people already mentioned their characters' arguments for why they thought the marriage was a good idea, so just having a couple Main Ideas and people icly +1ing them seems like a happy medium there, and the mods can decide mission success/failure based on who votes for what, maybe?
SOLUTIONS:
I also agree that the marriage solution felt a bit railroaded, mostly because all the narrative clues led to it, so the characters who weren't interested in the idea basically had no basis on which to argue for any other solution. I think part of what happened was that the marriage started to look like a foregone conclusion fairly early, so the more it was discussed and defended icly, the less appealing it became to look into alternative solutions that were unlikely to ultimately be chosen, especially when there was no evidence toward looking elsewhere.
I really like Chris' idea of trying to work specializations into solution possibilities! I definitely felt a little left out this mission, because it was Negotiator-centric with some options for Bruisers (the ronin and rebels) and Sentinels (first aid + defense with said ronin/rebels), with the only aspect of the mission playing to the Inventors was the bounty with the imps, which seemed otherwise irrelevant to either of the mission objectives. I totally understand that not every mission is going to be aimed at every specialization, but I think it could definitely help with having legitimate alternate angles by which players can approach solutions. We could even have some kind of multi-faceted or multi-stage solutions, where solving an initial hurdle "unlocks" access to the final solution.
For example in this mission, the imps bounty could potentially have been reworked to fit into the central conflict instead of serving as a side-story--if one of the two countries was having a water shortage problem due to the territory dispute, for instance, and the Inventors could rig up something mutually beneficial for both countries, thus paving the way to the Negotiators to discuss the marriage as a permanent solution to future such disputes.
DOSSIERS: The new dossiers were really cute!! I love the format of them. I really enjoyed the neat little details about the planet, in particular, as well as the information about the society and culture of Hanabira. I do agree that I would've liked more information on the particular locations the characters could go to, though, like we had previously with Leramzen and Woodhurst (though if I remember correctly, there was a separate locations post?? That would work just fine, too!)
OOC NOTES: KEEP THESE i love them, they make my life 5000% easier
EXPLORATIONS: I'm a little torn on this, because I really like the CYA system, especially as it was implemented in S1 in Perdition's Rest and Woodhurst, but the limited number of slots made it a massive rush for people to buddy up and post something under one of the exploration subthreads before they ran out of slots (in the first Hanabira log, for example, there were a LARGE number of people interested in the huntress, but not enough slots to go around without having something like a 6-7 person thread)
I also agree with Jay and Chris that after we got the information, there was little point in threading out finding that information. :|a Chris' idea of having an NPC for each character to ask a question to might be a workable solution? Alternatively, if we combined the search and exploration approaches to have characters get something out of participating in the CYA, even if it's not a plot detail? Like maybe some kind of trinket that seems useless but will later turn out to help get access to some plot-important location or something?
FUTURE MISSIONS: I always wanted to see another mission like Zeta-12. I just barely missed getting to be part of it when I first apped in, and it looked really cute and fun. I especially liked the aspect of it where their individual success or failure in getting their squidge ready for Squidge Society was based on their individual choices and actions throughout the mission.
Also +1ing the stepford dystopia idea
As for other ideas, I would love to see something set in an urban fantasy type setting (with or without a masquerade for supernatural creatures), as well as something more high fantasy a la elves and dragons and bards and whatnot. I think something where they had to pose as part of the local populace like in Woodhurst would be really fun! I'd love something like infiltrating a boarding school where the characters have to pretend to be students or teachers, for ex, or playing with a mechanic like in The Quiet Place, where characters can't speak out loud or make noise. The big appeal of futuro to me is the variable genres and settings, so I definitely want to utilize that as much as possible.
no subject
If I can make one comment, however--I feel like simply opening applications at a certain time would cause a massive frenzy for a very limited amount of slots. I don't expect applications to remain open for more than a couple minutes at best, under those conditions, and since they'll only be open between missions, I imagine it would be very frustrating to miss getting a slot by a couple seconds, should someone experience a DW error or somesuch. Instead, I think it might be better to go back to the queue system, except with the understanding that new/returning player apps will only be processed when 6 slots are available? It'd be functionally equivalent to the current system, but with less pressure for new or returning players? If that makes sense.
BOUNTIES/ARGUMENTS:
I was also one of the people who felt a bit overwhelmed by the 10-comment count on the bounties, and think you guys are right on track with taking it down to 5. With the specialization bounties, I totally understand making players work harder to get rewards for them, but for the white and green bounties, it felt like a lot of effort for not a lot of of apparent reward, and I gave up on submitting any of them relatively early on so that I didn't get left behind on ic movement toward the primary objectives of the mission (e.g. plotting explorations/the various discussions on the network).
I wanted to feel like I was contributing to the mission, rather than simply racking up comment counts on slice-of-life threads, which was why I felt really disappointed when arguments came around and Ginko wasn't referenced at all in the Empresses' response to the argument he signed onto; I'd participated in both explorations as well as the player plot to meet with Nama in the first place, but I didn't have any bounty threads that were long enough, so finding out that bounties were part of the "secret" criteria for mission success was a big bummer for me.
While a poll with guaranteed success would've been kind of boring, I do agree with Jay's comment that the formal arguments felt a bit like a rehash of what was said in the IC Discussion thread on the penultimate log, so I'm not entirely sure what a good way to handle that would be. :|a i think the solution proposals post was more or less sufficient tbh! When it was initially proposed, people already mentioned their characters' arguments for why they thought the marriage was a good idea, so just having a couple Main Ideas and people icly +1ing them seems like a happy medium there, and the mods can decide mission success/failure based on who votes for what, maybe?
SOLUTIONS:
I also agree that the marriage solution felt a bit railroaded, mostly because all the narrative clues led to it, so the characters who weren't interested in the idea basically had no basis on which to argue for any other solution. I think part of what happened was that the marriage started to look like a foregone conclusion fairly early, so the more it was discussed and defended icly, the less appealing it became to look into alternative solutions that were unlikely to ultimately be chosen, especially when there was no evidence toward looking elsewhere.
I really like Chris' idea of trying to work specializations into solution possibilities! I definitely felt a little left out this mission, because it was Negotiator-centric with some options for Bruisers (the ronin and rebels) and Sentinels (first aid + defense with said ronin/rebels), with the only aspect of the mission playing to the Inventors was the bounty with the imps, which seemed otherwise irrelevant to either of the mission objectives. I totally understand that not every mission is going to be aimed at every specialization, but I think it could definitely help with having legitimate alternate angles by which players can approach solutions. We could even have some kind of multi-faceted or multi-stage solutions, where solving an initial hurdle "unlocks" access to the final solution.
For example in this mission, the imps bounty could potentially have been reworked to fit into the central conflict instead of serving as a side-story--if one of the two countries was having a water shortage problem due to the territory dispute, for instance, and the Inventors could rig up something mutually beneficial for both countries, thus paving the way to the Negotiators to discuss the marriage as a permanent solution to future such disputes.
DOSSIERS: The new dossiers were really cute!! I love the format of them. I really enjoyed the neat little details about the planet, in particular, as well as the information about the society and culture of Hanabira. I do agree that I would've liked more information on the particular locations the characters could go to, though, like we had previously with Leramzen and Woodhurst (though if I remember correctly, there was a separate locations post?? That would work just fine, too!)
OOC NOTES: KEEP THESE i love them, they make my life 5000% easier
EXPLORATIONS: I'm a little torn on this, because I really like the CYA system, especially as it was implemented in S1 in Perdition's Rest and Woodhurst, but the limited number of slots made it a massive rush for people to buddy up and post something under one of the exploration subthreads before they ran out of slots (in the first Hanabira log, for example, there were a LARGE number of people interested in the huntress, but not enough slots to go around without having something like a 6-7 person thread)
I also agree with Jay and Chris that after we got the information, there was little point in threading out finding that information. :|a Chris' idea of having an NPC for each character to ask a question to might be a workable solution? Alternatively, if we combined the search and exploration approaches to have characters get something out of participating in the CYA, even if it's not a plot detail? Like maybe some kind of trinket that seems useless but will later turn out to help get access to some plot-important location or something?
FUTURE MISSIONS: I always wanted to see another mission like Zeta-12. I just barely missed getting to be part of it when I first apped in, and it looked really cute and fun. I especially liked the aspect of it where their individual success or failure in getting their squidge ready for Squidge Society was based on their individual choices and actions throughout the mission.
Also +1ing the stepford dystopia idea
As for other ideas, I would love to see something set in an urban fantasy type setting (with or without a masquerade for supernatural creatures), as well as something more high fantasy a la elves and dragons and bards and whatnot. I think something where they had to pose as part of the local populace like in Woodhurst would be really fun! I'd love something like infiltrating a boarding school where the characters have to pretend to be students or teachers, for ex, or playing with a mechanic like in The Quiet Place, where characters can't speak out loud or make noise. The big appeal of futuro to me is the variable genres and settings, so I definitely want to utilize that as much as possible.