post-mission assessment
Hello, everyone! Now that we’re finished with the Nalawi mission, we’re going to take a moment to open a discussion on game observations. We received some great feedback on the HMD, so please take a moment to review that thread here if you haven't already. CONTENTS:
Game updates:- MEMES: Several months ago, we polled the playerbase about how often we would like to see CR and Test Drive Memes. Here are the results!
We will be posting a new, updated TDM after each mission and CR Memes every two months. In addition, we will be holding HMDs every third month. Participation in HMDs will continue to be mandatory and part of that month's AC.
- ACTIVITY CHECK: As noted on the May Activity Check, network/inbox proofs have been lowered from 10 comments to seven. This also affects the AC Bonus Bank, though if you're cashing in network/inbox threads made before May, those must abide by the old 10-comment minimum.
- HIATUS MISSIONS: The hot topic of the day is hiatus missions! When characters go on hiatus, they are typically either set to autopilot or sent to a different (handwaved) mission, depending on player choice. If you would like to have a mod-created hiatus mission, this is also an option! Just let us know when you fill out the hiatus form that you'd like a side-mission, and we'll PM you with a brief summary as to what mission your character will be sent while you're on hiatus.
We'll request a brief description of what your character did (no longer than a paragraph or so) within three days of your return from hiatus so we can give you the results of the mission. To avoid CR from developing outside the game communities, characters may not take hiatus missions together. Hiatus missions may not be used in case of a strike. Hiatus missions may only be taken every other hiatus, and the mods reserve the right to deny a hiatus request at any time if we are overloaded.
- ANONYMOUS COMMUNITY POLICY: The mods do not view anonymous communities (RPAnons, Wankgate, etc.) in any official capacity. If you have suggestions about how to improve the game, please direct them to the proper page. If you see someone acting inappropriately on an anon comm, please bring it directly to the mods and we will take the appropriate action. We take our players' comfort seriously, and bullying or inappropriate behavior is not tolerated, even outside our game communities. We will be adding this policy to the rules page.
- NEW! THIRD CHARACTER SLOTS: The mods have been discussing an adjustment of the character cap to allow for a greater amount of new characters in the game. At this time, we have decided to keep the game at an 80-character cap with two characters per player -- but with a new addition! If a player would like to app a third character, they may do so; third characters will not count toward the 80-character cap, even if we have below 80 characters in the game.
In order to apply for a third character, a player must submit 1.5 AC (three proofs) for both characters for three months. (In other words, the amount of AC you would be submitting if you had three characters.) This can be done retroactively; however, all proofs submitted must abide by regular AC standards. If a player with three characters drops one (or both) of their "capped" characters, the third character will take their place in the 80 cap list.
- COMING SOON! BOUNTY BOARD: We will soon be introducing a list of side-quests for characters to occupy their time outside main plot quests. The Bounty Board will have side-quests from ALASTAIR, world natives, or even player characters (pending mod approval). The Bounty Board will be updated on a regularly scheduled basis (to be determined), with varying levels of difficulty and exclusivity. The parameters of fulfilling a bounty will vary from task to task, and rewards will be IC in nature.
Mission pacing:We are still attempting to adjust our pacing to allow players with varying tag speeds and plot involvement to get the most out of missions. During the Nalawi mission, we tested various ways to present events: - SCHEDULED BIWEEKLY EVENTS: Events held every two weeks, with "plot events" and "slice-of-life events" alternating. This will give us two plot events and one slice-of-life event per month.
Pros: An easy schedule for both mods and players.
Cons: Predictability can become unexciting and "samey." - OOC WRITE-UP EVENTS: Instead of mod-created mass logs, there will be an OOC write-up of current events, encouraging players to post their own open logs and posts.
Pros: More freeform and less restrictive.
Cons: Not enough direction. - STAGGERED PLAYER EVENTS: Smaller plot events held on a devil-may-care schedule, not posted on the calendar. These posts are character-driven; during Nalawi, they were directed by mods, but do not have to be in the future.
Pros: Encourages more interaction outside of mass event logs.
Cons: Without a set schedule, it can be difficult to allocate time evenly to each event.
In addition to these, there are also other options yet to be explored:- SCHEDULED STAGGERED EVENTS: Mod-run events held on a scheduled, staggered basis.
Pros: Convenience of easily scheduling time allocation; no risk of a predictable schedule.
Cons: It's difficult to predict what events will require more or less time. - TIMELY OOC WRITE-UPS: A write-up for what to expect over a course of time (biweekly, monthly, etc). In other words, a more detailed calendar.
Pros: Allows for better time allocation and easier for players to make on-the-fly plots.
Cons: More work for mods; will limit last-minute, player-driven plot adjustments. - OTHERS?: If you have any suggestions as to how to schedule events, we'd love to hear it! Please let us know your ideas in the comments below.
Future missions:What sort of settings and events would you like to see in future missions? If you have a more fleshed out idea, you may always post to the Suggestions Post, but if you have any vague ideas or concepts you'd like to see, we would love to hear them! Feel free to also tell us what you would not like to see. Post your ideas under this comment.EXAMPLE SUGGESTIONS:Genre (science fiction, westerns, high fantasy)
Plot (political intrigue, action, mystery, rescue)
Themes (environmentalism, dinosaurs, morality, colonialism)
Settings (post-apocalyptic, forest, space, suburban)
Events (memory loss, power swap, network failure)
Nalawi review:- PACING: Nalawi was an admittedly very ambitious mission in terms of storytelling and pacing. We wanted to reveal the Timeline.exe metaplot in such a way that it was impactful, but as a result, we may have let characters flounder without direction for a bit too long! Going forward, all missions will have a directive given at the start.
Event timing is still something we will continue to be working on. Chantes suffered from having a slow start and a break-neck ending, and Nalawi had similar problems with too much information being disseminated during the climax; we attempted to stagger the information to avoid overload at the start of the mission, but miscalculated how much information we had to distribute. We will be striving to spread information out more in future missions.
- PLOT SECRETS: At the end of Chantes, we stated that we would be more straightforward with the plot and rely less on uncovering mysteries. We are still trying to find a way to allow characters to have important roles in the plot while keeping our plot hands above the table; we will be making sure we are more clear in future missions, particularly in regards to what plot lines are important and what are just for flavor and atmosphere.
- PLOT SLOTS: In addition to our event style tests (outlined above), we also tested the way to use AC Bonus Plot Slots. Tess (Undyne's player) gave us some very helpful feedback as to how to disseminate plot slot information in the future: instead of having NPCs tell characters what to do, in the future we will be telling them what must be done. This will allow characters more freedom to find their own solutions instead of just having it handed to them. There have also been concerns that our first come, first served method of distributing Plot Slots are unfair; going forward, we will be testing out a lottery assignment instead.
- RESPONSIVENESS: Our NPCing was more timely when compared to Chantes NPCs, due to our expansion of the mod team. We have also become quicker at responding to player questions and concerns.
- POWER LOSS: As mentioned on the HMD, we will not be revisiting power loss/nerfing as severely as it was during Nalawi. It may come up in future missions as a plot mechanic, but for only brief periods of time. Players have raised suggestions to provide alternate means of leveling the playing field, should that be necessary, which we have and will continue to strive to do. However, due to the considerable workload, we cannot write different scenarios for every power bracket on every event.
- THEMES: Both Chantes and Nalawi dealt with some darker themes such as murder, sacrifice, and morality. While we will visit these themes in the future, we realize it's getting a little gloomy around here! The next few missions will be lighter hearted.
- YOUR THOUGHTS?: Please let us know what you thought about the mission! What worked for you? What didn't work? What would you like to see again and what could we have done differently?
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axiology2016-06-07 07:17 pm
QUESTIONS
MISSION SUGGESTIONS
forgive the TL;DR
Mission suggestions (again, taken with a grain of salt!)
Genre
Oglaf ridiculous settings(that's more for the thirst community let's be real)...It honestly feels a little too complicated for a big mission. But maybe using something similar as a background for one person's hiatus mission might be funny.
Plot
Themes
Settings
Events
no subject
Since ALASTAIR is so concerned with time... How about a world in which time is behaving irregularly already?
Scenario: Hollow World
Genre Science Fiction
Plot
Recruits are sent to a world which was once rich in a valued mineral and has been mined to the point of resembling a hollow shell (see: Cocoon, FFXIII for visual approximation). This world is in a late state of its repeated cycle of destruction, the end of which always triggers a time loop that resets its conditions. This world and its denizens have gone through a cycle of death and rebirth countless times, unaware of this reality.
But now a scientist has begun to remember this cycle of the world's death and rebirth, remembers experiencing it. Believing that he's close to determining the triggering factor in his world's repeated downfall, he's invented a machine that staves off this end by repeating the same week over and over. He's convinced that some event during this time sets off his world's destruction.
It would be up to ALASTAIR's recruits to determine which of the possible triggers are causing this world's repeated cycle of destruction. Should they fail, the week will once again repeat itself, allowing the possibility of acquiring more information and learning from the past failure.
Potential causes for this world's time-loop I'd love to open the floor to suggestions on. Ideally I'd like to come up with things that don't necessitate so much death to key figures to ensure resolution, and allow players with varied skills to make use of them. But some prospective ideas...
→ Conflict between branches of the military as the health of the world's ruler wanes. Both faction leaders show interest in assuming his position when he passes.
→ The issue of mining their own world dry. The crystals/ore they mine are used in...virtually everything, but they're turning their world into a husk.
→ The crystal/ore itself, or the manner in which it's being processed, is causing the time anomaly.
To introduce some doubt, recruits could find out...
→ Heavy exposure to the crystals/ore can cause hallucinations or personality degradation. The scientist has, in fact, used these materials heavily in his research and in such as way as to have extreme exposure. This could also foreshadow what will happen to the populace if they continue on as they have.
Notably, no one but the scientist has any recollection of the time-loop and none of the others are liable to believe it. Working against that doubt would present a challenge.
Themes Mystery, Action, Political Intrigue
Settings Futuristic Urban, very little nature
Events These could vary depending on what recruits consider the crux of the problem. I would however really like to see a convincing backstab from an NPC character who seems to be on their side but is really out for their own interests. Likewise gives characters several things to evaluate, like how to place this world in a stable and less destructive state, so I think events rely heavily on how player characters respond.
Just some ideas I had, to try and contrast the pattern of events I've seen in the summaries in some manner. By all means please consider it a draft and I'd love for folks to weigh in on what they like/dislike/would add or remove.
Re: MISSION SUGGESTIONS
But more seriously I'd like to see some scifi! Not necessarily straight up space opera, but worlds with cybernetics, flying cars... the Internet... etc. Though space operas are also fine.
Re: MISSION SUGGESTIONS
Re: MISSION SUGGESTIONS
Re: MISSION SUGGESTIONS
wow this is huge, i'm sorry
I did have some suggestions to put forth following this mission:
- the power loss/power nerfing: What you mentioned up above sounds really good! Not much else to say here, but I wanted to bring up a possible suggestion of making power loss/nerfing opt-in when it happens. I think opt-in power loss/nerfing would still have a significant enough amount of players opting their characters in to sufficiently have it serve as a plot mechanic, and give players the added bonus of more flexibility to choose what fits best with their characters/goals at a particular time. There's not necessarily any more work for the mods involved in that, either; you'd still be announcing a nerf like usual, perhaps giving us a few parameters, but everything else is flexible for players.
Although I don't play a character like this myself, I've also seen the concern raised that power nerfing/magic draining can potentially make some characters unplayable. (As just one example, a particular Servant in Fate/ reverts to a rock upon losing enough energy.) I realize the heavy nerfs won't be such a thing anymore, but I think opt-in involvement could also potentially help out players who have apped or plan to app characters like these.
- repetition: I actually didn't mind the doom & gloom in Chantes and Nalawi, however, I would say the two missions were similar! Both missions had evil cults, both had a solution of killing the final threat (which I know you're changing!), and both worlds were very tied to magic. The mission structure was also very similar—there were scavenger hunts that were virtually the same in both missions, in terms of characters having to go out and find specific items with all the items already laid out and described for them, and for little impact on the plot or mission itself.
It's difficult to design parts of a mission that allow all characters to get involved, so this is more a suggestion of something to possibly keep in mind for the future! More of my suggestions for how to change things up are below.
- pacing: I believe the game has definitely had an issue with its pacing for a long time, and this was one of the big hiccups I had during this mission. Spreading logs apart is still a good idea, I feel, and it does not work so well for players when plot-important information is coming out in posts very close to one another, after weeks of relative quiet. During the Nalawi mission, around the time that the plot slots started going out, I feel like we were bombarded with network and log posts one after the other.
In the future, I think a staggered posting pattern should be worked towards as much as possible, where every plot-important post has between a few days and a week to be processed by players before new ones are introduced. I realize there's only so much you can do as mods! But structuring the calendar and delivering plot points differently can possibly help out with this.
While things rushed ahead in Nalawi, I also feel like we've been left with these long stretches of time (for example, the two weeks following the goddess murders, here) where comparatively little is happening. It can get boring as a player, during these periods of time, to decide what to do or to work up the motivation to interact with the game—as essentially whatever we had/have available for us to thread out were/are things like survival, bonding with and teaching the natives, etc. That very open sort of direction works for some players, but not all! I think it's best to include it, but tailor it to the game. For example, with one of the previous missions we wanted more time to finish up threads. In Nalawi, it appears many of us are struggling with the mission, so not extending the mission any longer than it needs to be might work better.
Re: what you've written above about potential methods of structuring the pacing, what I'm saying is that I really think a combination of (mod-run) scheduled staggered events and staggered player events would work best, with an occasional timely ooc write-up as needed. I don't think everything needs to be listed on the calendar; with player-led events, I tend to think we would post things so that they don't interfere with each other. Also, if you design the schedule for your own events and stagger it, you can easily prevent boredom or too much happening at once. (There's the potential to move events forward and backward in your schedule, too, as you go in response to the game!) OOC write-ups can still be useful depending on the situation, and potentially less work for you if you give us a little direction and player plots spring up.
- plot involvement: I think the delivery/management of the plot is another concern that popped up for me during this mission. What I've noticed (referring to mechanics only, not actual content)...
This also relates to exploration sign-ups, in threads such as this! Perhaps characters could happen upon more plot important information by surprise just depending on where they chose to look, or it could just come more naturally from threads and exploration.
I'll bring up the early part of the mission as an example! Lots of players came to you with suggestions like trying to track the energy loss, diving deep into the ocean, etc. and you allowed and denied suggestions depending on what was possible with the world and what was happening with the plot. Still, I think a little direction would be helpful, as a jumping off point for more player plots!
Admittedly, it's hard for me to think of a convenient way to address how you would provide that direction, but giving us more details in the mission info and making it more obvious what plot lines to follow, like you state up above, is probably a great start. For example, a lot of us didn't know what to do in terms of thinking up different player plots because we were left in the dark re: Pomarr and Nalanni for so long; we didn't know what was actually happening until close to the end, so thinking up ideas was a bit hit and miss. I guess I'm just asking for more information to be given upfront. You definitely should not have to give us everything, but a few key leads here and there can prompt some plots. (You also strike me as a modteam that would be amazing at giving hints, too, haha!)
As one more suggestion tacked on here, I think the NPCs bring a lot of life and interest into the game. It can definitely be hard to keep up with multiple threads as a mod playing an NPC, but opportunities for characters to interact with mod-developed characters from time to time can add a sense of really "doing something". I loved what happened with the Pomarr logs and the characters speaking with Nalanni during this mission, so I would only encourage further chances like those!
I want to close this by thanking you, again, for everything you put into the game! Futurology has always felt like a game where any player can bring up suggestions and ideas. Even when problems are noticed, it's practically a given that you'll listen to our feedback. This write-up covers everything I would have hoped, and I really think the new suggestions that will be incorporated (like with the plot slots) are definitely a good thing!