mod post: mini state of the game poll

[riverviewmod]

mini state of the game: a poll

Hi everyone! This is just a quick poll!

I just wanted to reach out to everyone and ask which aspects of the game players are most interested in. Considering Riverview's playerbase has gotten smaller over the past couple of months, I've been debating on lowering the gamewide cap and shifting the game focus going forward. This would mean more mod-directed plot related to the aspects of the game that players are actually interested in rather than low-maintenance broad sweeps that cover more bases. This would allow me to more directly focus my attention on the things that players would really like to dig into in the setting and allow me to cut down on detail for things that are enjoyable but not high-priority for players.

In the comments, there are a couple of comment threads with major "themes" of the game that I am interested in delving into with more depth. Please respond to the headers with your vote, or hit up the suggestions thread with other ideas or thoughts.

Thank you for any feedback, and I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

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Comments

[jolting]

I'm going to comment here since I like both of the two "themes" you have for your other threads. What I like about this game is that it's both slice-of-life and has down time for character building, as well as exploration and expeditions. Both of them offer a good chance to gain CR and I'd hate to see one of the aspects fade away.

I would agree with the above comment that if the TDM threads are to be considered in-game canon, they need to be implemented in the monthly mingles/exploration logs a bit more. There are so many cool ideas introduced in the TDMs and I barely see them used in the game.

I would also suggest mixing up the monthly events a bit more. I know thinking of something every month can be hard, but it feels like a lot of these festivals have been too similar. When I'm thinking of displays for work I go to calendar events for the month. The Teacher's Corner has events from the moon landing to Grover's birthday listed. Maybe you can build a monthly thing from that.

You're doing great work, mod. Thank you for your dedication :)

[riverviewmod]

Hi Kacey - Thank you for your feedback. As I mentioned to Ashlee above, I like the idea of incorporating some of the TDM prompts into the monthly mingles and am going to be putting some thought into how to do that while keeping the TDM itself interesting.

With regards to the monthly mingles, my concern at the moment is less to do with a lack of ideas and more with regards to the level of modwork required to write multiple involved mingles per month and curate gamewide plot. When I created the game, I did not anticipate writing exploration mingles, as I expected players to engage with exploration via the missions on the exploration page (which are very low-maintenance from a modding perspective), and for the holidays to be setting-cohesive and the same each year to provide a jumping-off point for new players and slice-of-life plots.

At the moment, my focus is finding out which aspects of the game most players are more interested in so I can invest the most effort into those aspects and find a way to make the other themes more low-maintenance.

[jolting]

Believe me, I know how much work goes into these things. I've been a plot-runner and a mod in games before and I know it's hard. I honestly still think having more variety would help, even if it's just making a list of things that would be going on that month.

Maybe you can do a compromise, like having one month more dedicated to exploring and have another more for slice-of-life. Lots of mods make December a more relaxed month because of holidays, for example. Something to think about, anyway.

[riverviewmod]

I do like the idea of going back and forth from month to month. With the exploration mingles being bi-monthly that may be a good idea to take into consideration.