Hello mod! First off, thank you for all the hard work! I would definitely suggest not adding a cap to the game; if anything, I'd suggest lifting the cap until you feel the game is back to a certain amount you're comfortable with, and then implementing it again if it feels the game is getting too big for you again. It leaves a better sense of having open doors for fresh faces, so to speak, and it's important to keep the game friendly and open when you need that revolving door aspect for leaving and joining players, especially in a game that is very relaxed and is at a choose-your-pace fashion.
I'm not gonna act like I have an insane amount of experience as a mod — I only modded for less than a year at one point, toward the endgame of a very old/long game — but I will say I think it's important to keep most of the core elements of your game when doing big changes to change things up. Two of the games I've been in (one modded for a short time) changed up the setting/plot/etc drastically, which is not such a bad thing when you're feeling the playerbase is stagnating! But also, it may turn off current players who enjoyed the setting and core concepts, and that could lead to a bigger dip in players/characters. You wanna reinvigorate your current roster of folks before waving that new activity around for people seeking new games.
(Not to say drastic change is what you're planning, I just figure I'd throw that out there while you're sorting through your plans for the game, since I've seen two games fail to thrive from dramatic shifts like that.)
I recommend definitely keeping what you've got going here because it's worked for over a year fairly well, but altering it more frequently to include different scenarios. I enjoy that there are monthly festivals a lot because it leaves revenues for activity from players, but I think a big reason for the drops lately is because people have been in the game long enough that they stagnate on the festivals and feel they've ran out of ideas to put into them.
I would suggest somehow implementing those test drive scenarios into the festival bulk if possible, maybe leaving enough room between the SoL festival stuff to have more issues and things to take on. I feel a lot of the really juicy bits of plot get lost in the quaranmeme posts because they get forgotten, as none of them are on the main comms. I think there's a feeling that TDMs feel detached from the main game, and people feel weird using them; I know for me, I actually got confused at one point when I saw [x] thing happened in a player's open log, but didn't see it in any of the main comms, only to learn later it was a TDM option. I try to keep up with the TDMs but between quaranmeme, riverviewlogs, and riverview networks, sometimes things slip through.
I wouldn't know exactly how to combat this, and I know it's in place to generate more TDM taggers and new blood, but it's something I wanted to bring up! I'd love to see more expansion or in-city conflict. The kidnapping plot was absolutely a blast. I know you cut down exploration logs to once every two months, iirc, but those are actually more engaging for me than a lot of the festival stuff (as they're presented now anyway).
This is so all over the place and maybe not even useful recs, and I've got myself a headcold so I don't know how logical I sound and I know I'm rambling at this point, but I mainly just wanted to throw some food for thought out there. Sorry for blabbering!
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I'm not gonna act like I have an insane amount of experience as a mod — I only modded for less than a year at one point, toward the endgame of a very old/long game — but I will say I think it's important to keep most of the core elements of your game when doing big changes to change things up. Two of the games I've been in (one modded for a short time) changed up the setting/plot/etc drastically, which is not such a bad thing when you're feeling the playerbase is stagnating! But also, it may turn off current players who enjoyed the setting and core concepts, and that could lead to a bigger dip in players/characters. You wanna reinvigorate your current roster of folks before waving that new activity around for people seeking new games.
(Not to say drastic change is what you're planning, I just figure I'd throw that out there while you're sorting through your plans for the game, since I've seen two games fail to thrive from dramatic shifts like that.)
I recommend definitely keeping what you've got going here because it's worked for over a year fairly well, but altering it more frequently to include different scenarios. I enjoy that there are monthly festivals a lot because it leaves revenues for activity from players, but I think a big reason for the drops lately is because people have been in the game long enough that they stagnate on the festivals and feel they've ran out of ideas to put into them.
I would suggest somehow implementing those test drive scenarios into the festival bulk if possible, maybe leaving enough room between the SoL festival stuff to have more issues and things to take on. I feel a lot of the really juicy bits of plot get lost in the quaranmeme posts because they get forgotten, as none of them are on the main comms. I think there's a feeling that TDMs feel detached from the main game, and people feel weird using them; I know for me, I actually got confused at one point when I saw [x] thing happened in a player's open log, but didn't see it in any of the main comms, only to learn later it was a TDM option. I try to keep up with the TDMs but between quaranmeme, riverviewlogs, and riverview networks, sometimes things slip through.
I wouldn't know exactly how to combat this, and I know it's in place to generate more TDM taggers and new blood, but it's something I wanted to bring up! I'd love to see more expansion or in-city conflict. The kidnapping plot was absolutely a blast. I know you cut down exploration logs to once every two months, iirc, but those are actually more engaging for me than a lot of the festival stuff (as they're presented now anyway).
This is so all over the place and maybe not even useful recs, and I've got myself a headcold so I don't know how logical I sound and I know I'm rambling at this point, but I mainly just wanted to throw some food for thought out there. Sorry for blabbering!