Expiation Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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expiationooc2023-07-09 06:43 am
expiationmods) wrote in expiationooc2023-07-09 06:43 am
Entry tags:
mod update / info / questions / feedback
MOD UPDATE
Hello! After some consideration and a lot of conversing over the past week, a new mod team has been selected to transition from London's leadership to the new leadership.
The new mods are as follows:
Jenni- player of Akechi and Juri Kri- player of Noel |
These are going to be the main mods of the game, with Elise as the head mod. However, that is mostly in title only -- the duties of the game will be split three ways in this respect. Elise is a head mod in the case of tie-breakers amongst the mod team and organizing the scattered thoughts of our new team.
We also have helper mods!
Amm- player of Mizuki |
Jade will be assisting in planning ideas for the plot, as well as events and event organization. Amm will be assisting in updating info and pages on beastiary and the like for player reference. Do not come to our helper mods for modly questions. While they are privy to the workings of the game, they don't wish to have full on modly responsibilities, so please keep consider them as
UPCOMING INFO
SCHEDULING / POTENTIAL CHANGES
The new mod team has played around with the scheduling a little bit. To support players' ability to get AC in an easier time and keep the game moving, we are changing the event to the second week of the month. That way players have ample time to react, plan, and coordinate their characters for the month. The date for this month is going to look a little different, because of the change in moderators, but we plan for the event to go up no later than July 14th, with the end results of the event being posted a week later. The TDM will go up in the second week of August, and so on and so forth.
For reference, this is a draft of the calendar, so everyone can see our proposed schedule on paper:
code by efrynidel
This gives a view of the next three months, and will be updated accordingly to player plots/changes and the like. We will create a calendar page that is public so that players have access to this info on a normal basis. However, as this is just a draft / test the days / time we post them are changeable. We'd like to hear from you on what time of the day or what day of the week would be best for mod updates / event posts for the playerbase. While obviously we can't accommodate everyone, we'd still like to hear your preferences!
THIS MONTH'S AC
While we understand that there is a lot of changes happening to the game this month, people are a little concerned/anxious about them. We completely understand this feeling, especially as new players. We don't know the entire playerbase after all, so there may be some who are like "who the hell are these people? are they going to keep the game running? will it be worth my time to stay?" Transitions in rp are super difficult! So because of this, we are giving players the option to merely check in for AC this month. Players who are able to complete AC and pass will be rewarded with either a private lore / worldbuilding hint or a free regain of their choosing. Note that anything super extravagant will be nerfed or diminished in size. If you're unsure of whether your regain falls under that umbrella, just check in with the mods, and we will work it out for you. The worst we can do is say no!
INFO PAGES
As we mentioned in the beginning of the post, we Ammare going to slowly and surely going to be making a post with various flora / fauna from character's worlds. These will be up to the players to submit -- and we will start building a database of creatures both good and bad from their worlds. Even if you've mentioned before an animal or plant from a character's home world before, please put it here so that we have it all in one place. Once we have a page for it, we will make sure to show everyone.
Form for flora / fauna here:
We will have a comment for you to put this under below, so please put it there!One of our other orders of business is going to be expanding and putting more info into the city of Aldrip. This will also go into a post that we'll link when it's live. This will include what's in the city, a potential city map, and what the npcs do on a day-by-day basis. If there's anything that's been established by your character via regains or anything else, please put your establishment with a small blurb about under the comment marked for it. In the coming months, we will be revamping and tweaking our faqs slightly. As we're opening the comments to questions at the end, you can either submit it on this post, or go to the post here.
FEEDBACK
Lastly, we want to hear from you!! It doesn't matter if you're new to the game or not, we want to hear from our players on what they'd like to see in the game. If you have any questions / concerns / comments please feel free to comment here. While we are transitioning to new mods and have gotten the overall plot of the game, we're still malleable and will listen. We can't promise that every idea will be used, given what we've already established, but it's possible that some ideas can be adapted or changed if we decide to go with it. Again, the worst we can say is say no!
London put a lot of hard work into this game, so this isn't to say we're going to erase everything they've done. But we know that this playerbase is full of great ideas and are willing to see this game succeed. There have been ideas that have been talked to potential mods already, and even if you've said them before, please put them here, so we have all of them in one place. If there is any crit for this game, please put it here too. We won't be able to fix what we don't know is wrong, and while we have already outlined some things the new team would like to fix, we may have overlooked something. We stepped up because we love our players and didn't want to see London's hard work go to waste -- so please tell us what would make the game better for you.
We can't wait to hear from you and get this ball rolling!
FLORA / FAUNA SUBMISSIONS
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Otherwise, would definitely like to suggest, if not already intended to be part of the game: herbs, spices, and other edible plants! Things like onions, garlic, basil, mint... Even things like cucumbers and tomatoes that are relatively easy to grow could be fun. It could also provide a sense of community for the characters and/or NPCs to promote interaction, to have gardens for harvest.
Something else that might be fun to consider but might also be overwhelming to undertake is having plants that have specific properties like potions. Things as simple/silly as something that makes a character talk like they've swallowed helium, or something that can swap bodies, turn someone orange like an Oompa Loompa, go wild... Or things based off the Seven Deadly Sins/Heavenly Virtues, to play off the crime angle of the game, even!
...please forgive how unorganized this reply is and how it's less specific submissions and more throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing if anybody wants some LOL, I would be happy to come up with more specific suggestions/submissions if anything suits the moderation's fancy! :>
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But anyway, there is flora that's reminiscent of Earth-style plants and trees, but on the FAQ page it also states that there's flora / fauna that also comes from people's worlds after they appear there (even though there are no characters from Genshin here doesn't mean they can't appear, but they'll be more rare. So enable people to app Genshin characters.) We would like to expand more and emphasize this fact by building a database of sorts -- so people who aren't canon familiar will know have a more accessible way to figure out what's hanging around Aldrip.
Seeds will be made more attainable for vegetables, herbs and fruits and things soon. Characters will end up being encouraged to plant their own gardens or create a community one... for reasons that will come up in August.
The plant page will be an ongoing work in progress, so after we get down our basic flora then we might be able to do things like that! Or at least, have events where they're temporarily available.
These were all great ideas! Go wild with anything else you can think of, because we'll probably be doing the same soon enough.
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- Morbols
- Cactaurs
- The Mandragora court (Onion Prince, Garlic Jester, Tomato King, Mandragora Queen, Eggplant Knight)
A lot of the 'normal' plants are already variations of Earth plants just different names and maybe slightly different effects when used in medicine/concoctions. I'm not sure whether you're just after iconic flora/fauna or not though so I'm happy to expand further if need be.
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Other submissions can come later or whenever is most convenient to you!
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That said, there's a couple other creatures I just thought of:
- Chocobos (I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT ABOUT THEM...)
- Goobues: these creatures have an interesting relationship with the environment in that when they migrate they bring flora with them on their backs, but they also look terrifying
- Elemental sprites (although these may be rare since Expiation has its own magic system)
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canon: World of Warcraft
flora / fauna: Spore walker
habitat: forests and marshes
behavior: aggressive, though they are actually herbivorous. can "skate" over water like water striders can (though not over long distances like the sea). probably would not recommend eating them.
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Re: FLORA / FAUNA SUBMISSIONS
That said, I think it'd be cute to have normal-sized versions of the axolotls (known as ambystomas in-universe) running around too. They're about the size of a plush doll, nothing big or menacing. But they're as iconic to XIV fans specifically as cactuars or chocobos are, so I have to suggest it. xD
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Noted, though!
Here to add to your plant compendium
Pyrepods
Turnkey's Cups
Ghostmaws
High-altitude specimens:
Dravanian Down Tree
So light, if you sever the stem you can sail on the wind with them!
Tropical/Subtropical:
Wild Banana Tree
Looks like a cross between a banana tree and a palm tree.
Temperate climes:
Moongrass
Sweet fragrance. Only blooms in moonlight.
Arid climes:
Firebloom
Special/rare:
The Elpis flower, aka "Heartblooms" (Below links show cutscenes with the flower in different colors, but contain spoilers!! The first link above is a wiki, but is written completely in Japanese and has a couple of good still images.)
Long-lived, but slow to reproduce and difficult to cultivate as one would a typical blossom, this flower mysteriously pops up in places with strong ambient emotion. Luminescent, it changes color in response to emotions, brighter and more vibrant with positive feelings, and subdued and darker for negative feelings. Despair will cause it to turn black briefly before the bloom disintegrates. For those who want to avoid spoilers entirely, it looks reminiscent of a Japanese anemone.
(white
(grey: anxiety)
(yellow: joy)
(purple: sadness)
(red)
(iridescent white)
ALDRIP ESTABLISHMENTS
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-Getting the most baseline mechanic-type thing out of the way especially because I don't know how much anyone will agree or disagree with this one: I think the AC is too high for a game of this size and speed. The pace here is incredibly relaxed, which is great, but I don't think the pace and the AC match. Maybe as little as a squish down to 10 instead of 15? idk maybe I'm the only one.
-AC rewards... are kind of unmotivating to save for, when your character doesn't have that many significant items from home to spend threads on and you aren't looking for a business or an OOC boon like the extra character slot. Perhaps an additional, game-based reward, like a lore drop (within reason ofc) or an item from the setting that's otherwise too much to be handwaved as obtained in the background?
-Do love the polls for event participation and would like them to continue; not sure how the new team intends to pace them wrt event logs going up? I remember in my first event back in March or whenever that it was very widely spaced and May less so, but I was on hiatus then so I can only speak to how I like the polls as a concept. (Also, related to events, is there/what is the plan for OOC plotting posts before events? Are we doing those outside regular CR memes?)
-Plotwise I think more detail about daily life in the city is fantastic, LOVE a city map, the crunchy details are always a delight -- but I think additionally what might bolster engagement from month to month is a steadier lore drip. Not like main game plot endgame-level lore, but the kind of lore that makes the setting distinct and unique. Something as simple as an Aldrip holiday with a tradition the PCs can learn about/participate in that has Overarching Lore Ties (I mean instead of just like, in autumn they do a harvest festival, as a made up example) -- something that adds to the intrigue of the setting's mysteries for both PCs and players, if that makes sense. Like, the whole Those Who Were There Thing screams "yet another cult" and I personally would love to have things for my characters to be Unsettled about and/or try to integrate with instead of just waiting around for sentencing. other ppl pls give thoughts on this one
-Similar to the above, I do enjoy the IC bits of the state of the game posts that mention how the locals are responding to the Chosen, love to see it, those are great. I think pushing in on this one & the previous could also help foster player plots...?? Maybe???
-I'm always a sucker for things that pair characters off and make them do a Task, not even like sentencing or a mod-RNG'd event level thing, even as low maintenance as a
sidequest boardodd jobs board in the inn or something. Smaller, undemanding-on-the-plot-and-mods setting-flavor experiences... this is just a raw suggestion.THAT'S ALL... THANKS @ MODS OLD AND NEW FOR THE HARD WORK!!!
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Thank you very much for your feedback!! We love to hear it, and we hope we’re able to make the game an enjoyable one while you’re here!
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The rest I don't have anything more to contribute other than I agree with all of it! I think that the new stuff to come is going to do a lot to make this game really fun to play in, and I look forward to it. Thanks, mods!
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why did I not get a notification for this--That is a good point about log tags. As we said, we will revisit in about a month or so, as we're moving the scheduling around in an effort to encourage more player interaction. However, with every mod post we will encourage feedback so if it doesn't work out please let us know! We are not saying no, in any case.
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i also didn't get a notification for this-Your feedback is noted. While we're not saying no, we would like to wait and see for another month or so. As we said above, there could be a compromise we can come to!
Thank you to all three of you for putting this issue on our radar, however. Please feel free to tell us in further state of the game posts whether it works out or not, as we will always have a section for feedback and concerns.
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thank you for the update and for sharing the action plan for the coming months.
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Weighing in: Super excited for a calendar! A lot of my delay in making logs or network posts in may/june was due to worry that an event could be dropped TODAY or TOMORROW and not wanting to overwhelm myself with individual plots on top of game plots, so it'll be nice to have dates and a set schedule eventually.
Related to that: Thank you for making July check-in because it's been hard to wrangle motivation for the game this month with the mod changeover, no event in june, no word on what july's event will be (that I think you said would be posted... tomorrow? maybe?) outside of the sentencing that only concerns 3 people. Considering the last TDM was 5/29 and it was an optional thing for in-game players, it feels like it's been a long time since we had some mod/npc happenings in the world, from a player's perspective. (Wow, it's been six weeks since that TDM, so I guess it HAS been a long time!!)
Request: When the end of the month comes, instead of just posting a list of characters who failed AC, can you post a list of characters who dropped also? That way players don't have to track the drop page or constantly check the taken page if they're not in the cr's plurk/discord.
About AC: I've always ended up with more than 15 comments a month across all my threads (I counted about 20 comments in may and 50 in june, not including stede's who I try not to use for AC), but I've still just BARELY made AC here because it requires a min 2/max 3 threads, which means it doesn't just rely on my tagging, but on the people I tag. It's been surprisingly tough to get 5+ comments from both sides of a thread over the course of the month across 3 threads (I usually end up with like 4/4/8 or 4/6/8 by the 25th-ish when I'm submitting AC), I think due to different tagging styles / available days / timezones, etc. All this to say I think 15 comments is a fine AC if you lift the restriction of using a max of 3 threads. Otherwise, like others have said, I would lower it to 10 or 12 (4+ consecutive comments across 2-3 threads instead of the 5+ it is right now).
Thanks again!!
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We can do that! We can add it as soon as this AC post
if i can find those emails again. Going forward, we will keep a better record for the month.Thank you for the input on AC! We are keeping tabs on everything that everyone's saying, so if we do try to tweak the AC, it'll be a little bit easier for everyone.
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Some games I've been in have had a separate post for submitting player plots, and I think that may be helpful here. I like the bimonthly structure of Big Event, More Chill Month (and I think your plans for the map & daily life will help people come up with ideas for what their characters might be doing when there isn't a Big Thing happening) but I feel it would be livelier with more little, player-run events. Not that it was ever forbidden, but sometimes just having a thing like that can flip on a switch in people's heads that says "yes, I can do this" when they might have been shy to otherwise.
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We love player-plots! It's in our plan to create separate and more clearer page for player-run plots. We'll be going thoroughly through all the info pages and update them accordingly during the rest of the month!
Thank you for this message, though! It shows that we're on the same track as the playerbase.
- jenni