state of the game: follow-up

[futurologists]

STATE OF THE GAME  (follow-up) Hello, time travellers! Time for some more game news. Bear with us, and try to read everything, this is going to be long. POLL RESULTS CAST CAP. Moving forward, there will be an individual cast cap of eight. This will apply to multiple series within the same canon, but not alternate universes. For example, characters from the different Dragon Age games would be included in the same canon. Meanwhile, MCU and Marvel-616 would not share a cap, as they are separate universes entirely. GAME SPEED. The game IC to OOC day ratio will remain the same (1:1). However, we may adjust this ratio depending on the intensity of events and missions down the line. AC ADJUSTMENTS The AC period for January onwards will be from the 1st to the end of the month. AC check-in will now be the 1st-5th of the following month instead of starting on the 25th. Threads submitted must have been started and reached AC length within the AC period. This means that threads started during check-in and from months prior will not be accepted. While we do encourage backtagging for bonus rewards, ultimately we feel that characters should try to be somewhat involved in recent events to keep up with AC. We also wanted to clarify that retroactive hiatuses and hiatusing during the check-in period don’t exempt anyone from AC. For example: the March AC period would be from 3/1 to 3/31, and the check-in period would be 4/1 to 4/5. A thread started on 2/15 could not be submitted for AC, though it could still be used for bonus coins. Threads and tags made from 4/1-4/5 would also not count for March AC. These changes will come into effect for January AC. The turn-in period will be February 1st through 5th. AC BANK/REWARD ADJUSTMENTS You are all so much more active than the rewards system was intended for, and that’s wonderful! However, the system was intended to feel more ‘rewarding’ than simply a given--something players should save up for. As a result we’ll be implementing a coin cap of 100 coins per character per month, and dialing back the completion bonus to 5 coins per finished action thread and 3 coins per finished network/inbox threads. A larger/’special’ category will be created to ensure players will continue to have things to spend on. We also ask that players be sure to use the provided form (or similar formatting) to submit their threads. Submissions must include your total amount of coins. The changes to bonus activity will only be implemented in March, leaving you with one last chance to take advantage of current policies. If you have suggestions for future bonus rewards, please leave it in the thread below! NEW APP SYSTEM We’ve received suggestions that traditional app rounds may not be suited for the game structure, and after some discussion we’d like to try something new with rolling apps! Rather than opening apps when there are N number of slots available, we will have an app queue. Players may submit their apps at any time to be added to this queue, and they will be processed in the order that they are received. This means there will no longer be reserves, challenge apps, or major intro logs. Characters will arrive as they’re accepted. We’ll be keeping the applications already received, so if you submitted an app last round but didn’t make the cut, we’ll be contacting you shortly. These changes will be implemented as of January 17th. Other important notes: We have decided to reduce the game cap to 80. After trying 90, we feel like a smaller cap will help us give more individual attention to each character, and more open app rounds should keep fresh blood coming in. Apps will be processed every weekend, though we may put apps on hold during times of high plot traffic to avoid characters arriving in the middle of it. Characters accepted in the last two weeks of a given month will be given a pass on AC. Instead of one app cycle, players who idle will need to wait two months after the date they were swept by AC before apping in again. And a reminder: we’ve changed the soft word cap to a hard one, so no individual section should be more than 1500 words. Please keep in mind that breaking the word cap will be an automatic revision! We understand that this is a fairly major overhaul, so please feel free to ask us any questions below! UNIFORMS A big thanks to everyone who turned in a uniform design--we received a ton of great submissions, so we’re going to hold two rounds of voting! We’ll hold a second poll next week with the 2-3 designs that receive the most votes, so stay tuned. To respect everyone's privacy and to not skew results, we've kept the names of the artists confidential, and hidden the poll results. Please be respectful of the time and effort that went into each design, and consider which outfit you'd most like to see on your character! HERE is the poll! Entries are below--click the thumbnails to go to the full size images. ENTRY #1 ENTRY #2 ENTRY #3 ENTRY #4 ENTRY #5 ENTRY #6 ENTRY #7 MISCELLANEOUS Thanks to everyone who’s submitted feedback and player plots! We appreciate everyone’s input and patience through Futurology’s growth and all the adjustments. We’re working to implement all major changes before the end of Chantes, which should be wrapping up in February. There will be roughly a month in between then and the next mission, and as was voted on, we’ll be aiming to have each mission last 3-4 months each from then on, barring rare exceptions. We also have a mod plurk at futurology, which we suggest following for the most up to date news! However, event and game write-ups will always be available on the OOC comm. For the ease of players' tracking, we will be moving the calendar to the ooc comm (axiology) in the future. Thank you so much everyone for your time and patience! If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please leave them below.

Comments

QUESTIONS/FEEDBACK

[futurologists]

Questions, comments, suggestions, etc are all welcome here!

[promises_to_keep]

re: apps, just a clarification, if someone wants to apply, they should send in their application on the 17th?

[futurologists]

Yes. The app queue will open on January 17th at 12:01 AM GMT, and the applications page has been updated to reflect this.

[promises_to_keep]

excellent, thank you!

Uniforms!

[alphatar]

Is there a chance that there might be two winners for the uniform designs?

ftr I didn't submit an entry. (re: I'm spoiled and want multiple IC options for my character.)

[futurologists]

While all our submissions are wonderful, we'll most likely be sticking with one!

[alphatar]

Thanks for the fast reply and good luck to the hopefuls. They all came out so good!

[jamminshield]

So what's going to happen with test drive memes?

[futurologists]

We may consider having another TDM in the months to come, perhaps between missions, but for now they will cease to be a regular occurrence.

[jamminshield]

I see, that sounds fair. Thanks for the quick response!

[selfimage]

Hey mods! The changes look great, but I have a quick concern with new AC: does this potentially make any logs/threads made toward the end of the month don't count for the next months AC? It seems discouraging to have a post or an event toward the end of the month with the possibility of those particular threads possibly not be able to be used for AC, as they have a high potential to bleed into the new AC period, depending on the schedule of the players involved with those threads.

If I decided to start a player event on 12/30, most of the threads in it could not be used for January AC, even if a bulk of them are done in January? (Or post in general, along with the others who decide to thread within it.)

[futurologists]

Any thread that has reached AC length between the 1st and the 30/31st is eligible for that month's AC. While we understand that making a post on June 29th and not being able to gather a long enough thread by July 1st can be discouraging, we feel players should have plenty of time to make AC in those initial 29 days. Threads made late in the month can still be redeemed for bonus coins at any time, so their value remains unchanged.

If you have further questions, please don't hesitate to let us know.

[selfimage]

Thank you mods!

Re: QUESTIONS/FEEDBACK

[hellshaped]

Love the new rolling app system!

I had a question/suggestion re: the calendar being posted in the OOC comm. I currently find it very useful that it's posted on the mod account, since it doesn't have to contend with other posts and get pushed down. I realize you'll probably be tagging it for ease of locating, but I would also like to suggest making calendar posts "sticky" so they will live at the top of the comm. (If this was already being considered, ignore me)

[futurologists]

That's not something we had considered but we can definitely sticky calendar posts on the OOC comm going forward. Thanks for the suggestion!

[defenceless]

Will apps in the queue be listed, like they were for "applications received" in the last app round?

[futurologists]

Due to the sensitive nature of applications, we have chosen not to divulge the names of our applied characters, to protect the privacy of our applicants while simultaneously letting everyone know approximately how long they may have to wait. We will only be listing the number of applications in the queue from here on!

[defenceless]

Thank you! That's understandable, I think. c: I was just looking around for a list because I assumed one would be put up. can you tell i'm excited for the rolling apps system

Re: QUESTIONS/FEEDBACK

[chaoscontrol]

Hello!! As someone who just got accepted this month (today, actually!) will I be expected to make AC? I'm not entirely sure where we're at with the plot or how to jump in.

[futurologists]

Hello! Any characters accepted during the second half of the month will not be required to make activity but will still need to check in on the activity check post.

There's currently a scavenger hunt ongoing that your character can jump right into, otherwise we suggest taking a look at the calendar to see what's upcoming!

[chaoscontrol]

That's great news, thanks :D

AC BANK IDEAS

[futurologists]

Got an idea for a rewards category? Drop it here!

Re: AC BANK IDEAS

[hellshaped]

A bit late, but I've been mulling this over: some kind of "bag of holding" with increasing levels of size. This would allow characters to bring their larger items around with them, or a greater quantity of items than what they could conceivably carry on their person.

A character would start with a low level bag/satchel/whatever, that would be a regular bag. As levels increase (paid for by coins, naturally), the bag's size would stay the same while its interior "hammerspace" would double with each subsequent level. 100 coins per level, or incrementally larger costs per level (ex. level 2: 100 coins; level 3: 200 coins, etc).

The absolute cap level could possibly be a portal to the character's home in Oska, though there would need to be something to keep them from exiting their home to go to Oska proper, and naturally there would need to be a time limit of sorts so they couldn't just sit at home and avoid missions altogether.

Re: AC BANK IDEAS

[futurologists]

Hey there! While we're fine with limited and upgradeable hammerspace, due to possible complications from allowing passage back home such as differing canonpoints between castmates, general meta mechanics, etc, at this time we won't be able to implement the last portion of your idea. We'll look into pricing this -- thanks for the suggestion!

Re: AC BANK IDEAS

[hellshaped]

Awesome! Just to clarify, though, I didn't mean "home" as in "home to canon world" -- I meant as in their Oska housing, where they'd theoretically have even more storage space. Sort of a mini-portal to their closets and such ;)