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

[adlantisag]

★ How often would you like app cycles?
Bi-monthly would be best, if only for the first round, to give everyone a chance to settle in.

★ How long would you like missions to last?
However long they organically last, though I think six months is a bit long, unless characters are given lots of direction, which in turn would mean lots of involvement for you guys. I think ideally there'd be a mix--longer missions, followed by shorter missions, maybe some could be aborted earlier than 'intended' because of IC consequences, that sort of thing.

In general, I think 3-6 months is a good average.

★ How much downtime would you like between missions?
A month, tops.

★ Would you like a character cap?
The game cap should be whatever you, the mods, can adequately handle, whether that's 50 or 250. Personally, I like a strict cap since it keeps the mod-to-player ratio manageable and allows for more flexibility. As the game progresses, if you guys feel confident you can handle more, I don't see why you couldn't raise it, but don't feel you have to just to please us; it's no use getting 150 characters if you guys burn out early. I think 70 is a good number.

★ How much ALASTAIR NPC involvement would you like?
Well, I'm a sucker for worldbuilding so I'd love to meet more ALASTAIR npcs, but I'd be glad to have that woven into Oska visits as the game goes on. My answer is the same as above: whatever keeps you guys happy and stress-free!

+1

[tachiboner]

I like all these answers. I'm especially in agreement re: character cap; I immensely prefer when a game's mods decide what they're ready to handle and cap things there rather than scramble to try and make things work on a completely different scale than planned and can't quite get things to work out right.

The one place my thoughts diverge is that I could see a longer period of downtime on occasion working, if there's some kind of big metaplot thing in place happening around Oska - but for the average situation of just "waiting for the next mission and getting some time to breathe," a month seems plenty.