![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
riverviewmod) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
riverviewooc2017-08-08 08:12 pm
mod post: monthly state of the game
Hi everyone! Welcome to August's State of the Game post! There's a few things I'm looking for fedback on a couple of issues, so please check out the rest of the post under the cut.
housekeeping/reminders
Nothing major here, just a couple of quick notes:
● Application Cap/Queue: We have not yet hit cap and after the Activity Check sweeps, we have (as of this post) 13 spaces still available with one app waiting to be processed. Applications are still OPEN, so if you or a friend wants to join the game, there's still space and time to get an application in.
● Cast Caps: We have a couple of casts that are close to cap: Marvel Cinematic Universe is currently at 14/15; Marvel Comics is currently at 11/15. While we have nearly 15 Original Characters currently in the game, there is no cap on Original Characters, since most of them come from different universes rather than having the drawbacks of being a cohesive cast.
● Player Information Changes: Over the past month, I've noticed a couple of players have had name or contact information changes. These are perfectly fine, but if you are planning to change the name that you are using in the game, please update your information on the Taken Characters page. It can be incredibly confusing to see names I don't recognize while processing Activity Check or doing other list updates, and while it doesn't make anything impossible, it does add to my workload.
● Amnesia Plot Reminder: Just a quick reminder that the amnesia/memory loss opt-in event is going to be in effect from August 12th to 19th, with a solution being part of this month's Test Drive Meme on the 20th. More information can be found in last month's State of the Game post. I will post a reminder on the day it begins, and plotting is welcome in this entry's comments for any new players wishing to get involved.
feedback request: bestiary
I have had a couple of questions from players about whether there would be a bestiary for the game. This is not something I had previously considered, as I didn't want to stifle player creativity by implying that there were only a limited number of monsters they could interact with, so I have thus far avoided anything specific so players can run wild and make up the type of monster they need for any scenario. However, it's been brought to my attention that some players would like a bestiary as a jumping-off point, for situations in which they are not feeling creative or don't have a handy reference.
I would like to ask for any feedback on whether the playerbase at large would like to see a bestiary, any thoughts on what effect it might have on your enjoyment of the game, and if one were to be created, what sort of format would be most useful (ie. pictures or no pictures, bestiary entries in comments, player-contributed or mod-posted only, etc.) for you guys.
Additionally, if we do end up compiling a bestiary, I would love to hear from any players who are particularly interested in the concept who might be willing to help with creating entries!
● Leave feedback on the Bestiary.
feedback request: exploration missions
As those of you who follow the mod plurk might have noticed, I've been doing a bit of work off and on at revamping the exploration page and its setup. I've noticed that this particular aspect of the game isn't getting as much traction as I anticipated, and I have been looking into ways to make it easier and more accessible to players who are interested.
Based on the feedback I got on plurk, I have done a revamp of the Exploration page, which you can find here. I've done my best to clarify some of the more confusing aspects, like how many teams can take a mission, whether it is repeatable, what the danger level is, and what kind of rewards both ICly and OOCly can be obtained by completing the missions.
I am still interested in more feedback on Exploration, though, and this revamp is nowhere near complete.
● If you are interested in participating in exploration, but have not done so yet, I'm very interested in your feedback, particularly. I'd like to know the specific things that are holding you back from claiming or following through on missions, whether that concern is addressed thoroughly in the Exploration Page revamp, or if there are other changes that would help you feel more empowered to take on missions and complete them.
● If you have claimed a mission but were not able to follow through, I am also very interested in your feedback. I'd love to hear what held you up, if there is any support I could provide, any guidelines I could clarify, or any other changes I could make to help you feel empowered to complete the missions you are interested in.
● Any other feedback on the original Exploration Page, the revamp, or anything else in the game is also more than welcome!
● Leave feedback on the Exploration Mechanic.
QUESTIONS
no subject
no subject
no subject
MISSION RECRUITMENT
PLAYER MINGLES
Water gun fights
I'd be willing to throw up a mingle if there's any interest. I'm thinking first week of August during the beach parties, but totally flexible.
The Roof is on Fire aka Worst Mingle Ever
It's gonna be mostly opt-in since you make your own destiny, you shiny stars, you- but assume there to be general fire-related trouble going on. Just, no one is forced into getting their rooms burned down (unless you want to of course, in which case, be as awful to your characters as you feel like, I am here to oblige).
As far as the semi-mingle portion goes-- help your fellow residents! Ava's gonna be trying to make sure people are okay while Emergency Services show up, and could definitely use some help with that. I'm thinking there could be a network post for organizing people helping out / anyone in trouble, if anyone would want a sort of IC heads up?
(I've never done something like this before, so hopefully this'll be fun?)
AMNESIA EVENT PLOTTING
BESTIARY FEEDBACK
no subject
ideally i'd love to see it laid out with the name, appearance, temperament, where it can be found, and how common it is. maybe on a page organized by type (something like large/med/small, insectoid/mammalian/reptile, or carnivore/herbivore/plant) or by region. that part would probably only matter if you got a lot of submissions, though. i'm sure it would also be fine if just kept as comments to the entry made by players, so you don't even have a list to maintain at all.
no subject
no subject
Personally I think the best way to do it would be to have a post with a few guidelines (if needed) at the top and maybe a note that creatures listed in the bestiary are not the ONLY things out there, you can still make up your own monsters or bring in canon ones, etc, and then have players add to it in comments. That way you just have to get it started and maybe fill in the first handful of entries (pokemon, chocobos, whatever). But you wouldn't have to be solely responsible for maintaining it going forward, people could add creatures to it as they come up in their threads.
Re: BESTIARY FEEDBACK
no subject
Also, if the bestiary is handled like that, then whichever player posted each creature's data block will be an easily accessible source of information if someone wants to play with that creature but isn't sure if something seems accurate for them behaviorally. At least, that's the thought.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Thank you again.
no subject
Thank you for making and maintaining a boss game.
no subject
The idea sounds good in theory, and it would be awesome for players to be able to submit their own creatures from character canon, their own imaginations or whatever they've already encountered in game. I think it would be a lot for this to be a mod thing on top of everything else and I would rather vote no if it was strictly mod run, rather than player suggested and edited from there.
I like the concept of a list (pics optional, because some might not even exist) with species name/variation, appearance description, temperament, location and how common or rare it might be. Size and possible weaknesses would probably be super important if it's a thing to fight or possibly tame as a mount imo. I like the player submitted comments concept, but in the name of keeping things uniform I'm not sure that should be whole inventory itself.
It would also be cool to have a category or native/character world/unknown.
I think everything else has already been said repeatedly, but if I think of more to elaborate on I may be back.
EXPLORATION MECHANIC FEEDBACK
no subject
While it might not be a popular tactic, I do think it might make for more flexibility if characters get dropped from the mission if they don't post to it in X amount of time (with exceptions made for hiatuses and extenuating circumstances), and replaced with characters that will be a bit more active, and get it done.
no subject
Since generally multiple parties can take on one mission, I don't think this would exclude too many players who want to get in on a specific one and it would give people who need to be slower but will backtag the ability to participate in missions.
no subject
I'm a big advocate of using the ooc comm for actual communication, since it's a location that everyone in the game should have added and has access to. So a 'what missions would people like/what exploration would you like to see/what questions do we need mod answers for before we progress' type of post every once in a while just to plot/plan things before they go up could help in just brainstorming something as well as having it be in an open area for people to add in their two cents or feel welcome to join in the discussion.
no subject
no subject