POLL.

[futurologists]

Hello, worldhoppers! Now that you're more settled in, it's time for some polls! The questions are as follows:

★ How often would you like app cycles?
If apps are monthly, the app cap will most likely be lower. Bi-monthly, there'll be a higher app cap. It could be less often as well. There could even be only one app round per mission, depending on your answers to the next question.

★ How long would you like missions to last?
The current Chantes mission is slated to take closer to six months. Shorter missions will mean they're a bit more fast-paced and action-packed, since there won't be much time to hang around. Longer missions will be bigger and more complex, likely with several different stages.

★ How much downtime would you like between missions?
'Downtime' means time back at Oska. If it affects your answers, know that Oska will become more important as the plot moves on. If you'd like a few months, there will still be things to do; however, they'll be less pressing, and a little more sandboxy.

★ Would you like a character cap?
The game is geared towards a smaller amount of characters, ideally. However, it's important to hear your thoughts, too! If your answer is more than 70 characters, give a ballpark number of what you'd like in the comments. Currently, the game isn't particularly suited towards more than 100 characters, but adjustments could possibly be made.

★ How much ALASTAIR NPC involvement would you like?
Currently, the focus is on world NPCs, not on ALASTAIR. Although there are plans to involve them more when Oska becomes more important, currently they're not as important. Would you like a lot of interaction with NPCs, a medium amount, or have the focus be entirely on NPCs in the current world?

The poll can be taken here. Please feel free to discuss in this entry! Any other suggestions are welcome as well; the goal here is to make the best experience for the most amount of people possible.

Comments

[griped]

app cycles/character cap
I voted for a cap over 70, but I think keeping it to 100 or below would be nice! I've noticed in games before that after 100, it feels less tight-knit overall and it makes modwork pretty intense. It's also probably easier to implement a lower cap and then gradually increase it as time goes on if the mod legwork proves to be more manageable than expected. Opening it up to say, 120-150 and then realizing it's too much might be tougher to recover from.

I totally get that it sucks when a bunch of people are interested and can't app because there's a huge wait, though. So monthly might be friendlier in general? Because ultimately, a bimonthly schedule will probably make life a whole lot easier for event scheduling, but if it's not massive app rounds each time I don't think it'd make as big an impact either. There's definite merits to both.

mission length
Agreeing with some people above that having every mission be 6 months might be draining, though I'm sure it'll depend on the importance/point of each mission! Maybe 3-5 would be a good settling point unless it's really vital/plot relevant.

downtime
I think downtime is super great for recharging and having time to backtag, though a month of nothing can get really killer for game motivation from what I've seen. If it's used for info gathering, easier events, etc, as opposed to strictly nothing, I think that's cool. But given that December is upon us so there'll almost certainly be a dip of activity then, plus the fact that missions will have their own downtime within them (or so I'm guessing!!), I think any more than a month would be maybe too much. For me 3ish weeks seems like a good amount of time to chill out and do optional sidestuff, but that's just a personal gauge.

npc involvement
NPC involvement is hella cool, and I'd love to see some during downtime! But overall I think this is where mods can get overwhelmed the most, and between missions I'm sure there'll be a lot of planning for... the next mission, so whatever you guys think is feasible. It'd also be awesome to be able to participate in world politicking and ALASTAIR mysteries without having to thread extensively with NPCs imo, since that's not everyones cup of tea.

However it all goes, thank you guys for all the updates and work so far!