Mod HMD | Multi-Event

[ironwood]

As before, and for anyone who may have missed it, at the end of every mod-run event in Tu Shanshu, we try to toss up an open dialogue post so that the events can be discussed. This is mostly to see if everybody's as happy as possible with the direction the game is going, whether or not the events could be considered a hit or a miss, that sort of thing.

This particular HMD covers the multiple mod events that occurred between March and now, including: the decay, the rationing, and the Atam landfall events. This is where you all come in!

Did you like them? Did they run too fast? Too many posts? Too few? Was there enough variation for everyone? Did you guys have fun, or did you feel like you were overwhelmed with it all? Was there too much NPC direction or not enough?

OBVIOUSLY if you have more comments, questions or concerns than those listed above you can add those as well! This is pretty much just a general list.

Please remember, ANON IS ON for this and IP LOGGING IS OFF so if you have anything you'd like to say but maybe you're more comfortable putting it forth anon that is a-okay! You can also feel free to PM us at this journal, or to toss a private plurk at either of the mod accounts (those being vonnerdyce or reignsdown) if that suits your fancy. Any and all comments are welcome, and though participation in this meme isn't required it's definitely encouraged if you're up for it.

Thanks again, guys, and happy turtling!

Comments

[bindsthedead]

I'm enjoying the events, but I do have one suggestion- since the decay and rationing are ongoing events, maybe world information should be altered or links provided to new players so that they're informed about them?

[ironwood]

I am, as we speak, compiling an update to the events summary page that discusses these very changes.

That said, we could definitely add a mention on one of the other pages! Do you have a particular page in mind? I'm currently eyeing the premise, which is where we also update the "arrival" changes when that happened.

[bindsthedead]

I think updating the premise might be a good idea- particularly with 'stuff is being rationed and the kedan are hostile', since those in particular are likely to have a big impact.

[ironwood]

Good point! With that in mind, I update the welcome page to include the rationing and state of affairs with the kedan. Thanks for the feedback!

[angermanaging]

Agreed. And I know I personally am going to need a rundown on what characters are allowed to ICly affect, because Bruce is a busybody who won't leave things alone, lol. I should probably just be coordinating with you guys directly on this, especially in regards to Nita's group working on water quality and all that. Any affected changes would have to be brought to the attention of the whole game, anyway.

So I guess what I'm saying is maybe a "currently in Keeliai" type of page, that states what the current ongoing events are? More or less what you'd need to take into consideration for your threads right now, in order to jump in.

Otherwise I've been very happy with everything!

[ironwood]

We currently don't provide a set-in-stone list of what characters can impact at any point in time to avoid constraining characters or players to specific paths (or, more worryingly, ruts). Our goal in Tu Shanshu is to encourage players to come to us with plot ideas and/or questions about what their characters could or could not do. This is also because we might accidentally miss a detail or accidentally exclude certain characters or abilities in compiling such a list.

With Bruce, we definitely encourage you to come to us with what he'd like to get involved in and we'll give you a breakdown of what he could expect to encounter or find. Both Roy and myself have plurk pings turned on and we both have access to the mod email account if you'd prefer to use that method. :3

With regards to the current state of Keeliai, we have been maintaining a player-suggested summary of events (with links to OOC and IC posts) that outlines a both shortterm and longterm impacts of events. I think this is what you were looking for? Or are you looking at more for a weekly summary of what's happening in Keeliai? Unfortunately, we do not (at this time) have plans to start providing a weekly summary, as it would require substantial time resources in order to keep up with everything happening in the game and then putting it into a concise description. We also don't think it's fair to ask players to take up this task for the same reasons.

[angermanaging]

Oh, okay, yeah-- I actually really appreciate that about this game. The willingness to cooperate with players on the meta plot is one of my favorite things about it. I think I'm honestly just not used to it, so I feel strange pinging people about it, but that's my own failing. LOL. Once I get back into the swing of things, I'll be more proactive about it.

He's currently pondering setting up indoor hydroponic gardens somewhere in Metal sector, but he's more of a 'dreamer' than a 'doer' so he'll by necessity start roping other characters into this. He comes up with ideas, but isn't so great at implementing them (lol too much of an introvert). So I know he's going to end up making posts about his plans and asking for others to get involved and take charge, and I wanted to have mod discussion before I went that far. I'll get back to you when I have the time to form a more coherent plan and we can hash it out.

Re: weekly summaries, no no, definitely not. I know how much of a pain those are, believe me. XD I don't think it's necessary! I just didn't realize that the events summary page was up to date (maybe it wasn't before? idk). I would suggest linking to it on the arrival page, or point it out in the app accept HTML, or something like that. Sort of a "make sure you inform yourself about what's going on right now before posting". That would definitely be helpful, at least for me.

[ironwood]

We'd love to hear those plans! Personally I think a garden is a great idea, and is an element of gameplay we'd definitely welcome. Something like that would also do its part to help repair kedan/foreigner relations, as well.

We usually update the event summary post at the end of major events (time allowing) or at the end of each month if we were unable to stay on top of it during the month itself, but it's still a new introduction to the game and we're ironing out the kinks as we go. If you have any suggestions about streamlining the process we'd be happy to hear it!

We took your suggestion and added a spiel in the accept notice, linking to the event summary page. We'll be using that form from here on out, hopefully it suffices!

[angermanaging]

Yeah, he's actually thought of that and specifically wants to make sure he involves the kedan in it. He doesn't want to be seen as hoarding food, and is humanitarian enough that he wouldn't discriminate between distributing the resulting food to either kedan or foreigner. So I will for sure get back to you on this. :3

I think my only other two cents here is that you might want to include 'ongoing' events. Not anything plot revealing, but just a heads up that it's going on right now, with perhaps a link to the OOC plotting post. imo that would take care of any falling through the cracks.

That sounds great to me! :D

[ironwood]

RE: 'ongoing events' - I think that's a matter of simply checking the ooc comm? All of our event posts are tagged #event, and they usually provide all the information as to dates and goings-ons at the time as applicable.

For reference, when I sit down to do an OOC event post (since I (I being Roy)) usually handle those, I can expect an entire day to be dedicated to answering the questions that come up, etc. I usually spend between eight to twelve hours - not including the write-up of the original post - doing all the mod work that shapes a single event - not including IC posts or anything that comes up later. There's a significant investment of time in doing so, and I don't think that it's necessarily feasible to do that and maintain a real-time 'this is what's going on' post on the side, when all the applicable information is readily available in the OOC comm itself, and in the event summary post by the end of each month.

[angermanaging]

Oh no, I definitely don't mean adding all that onto the summary page. I fully understand what an immense and ridiculous amount of work it is to run an event-- there's a very good reason why I don't mod, lol. And I think repeating it would be unnecessary in the first place.

I literally mean just adding a note at the bottom that's, "Ongoing -- Landfall at Atam" with the link to the post itself. That way you don't have to repeat all the information. But you're right that they are tagged on the OOC comm, so perhaps even just a simple note like "remember to check the #event tag for what's going on right now" would suffice.

It's really not a big issue, I'm just throwing my two cents out there.

[ironwood]

Ahh, I see what you're saying. I like the idea about just adding a reminder at the bottom to check the OOC comm, I think that's probably what we'll go with. That way, we can still do our overall event summary update on a monthly basis without having to worry about being 100 percent on the ball at all times.

[angermanaging]

Yeah, I like that idea, too. I'm all for giving you guys some leeway. xD Updating things is a pain and you already have to do a ton of it, so this way you don't have to worry if you don't find the time.

[ironwood]

Consider it done! I am making Alex be my code-monkey today but yeah she added a note to the bottom, and also added at the top a 'this was last updated XXXX' so people have a rough idea of where they are timeline wise.

Excellent suggestions, thank you! If you can think of anything else chuck it our way and we'll be happy to figure things out.

[angermanaging]

Ohhhh that's another good idea, having a last updated time stamp. I WILL CHEER HER ON IN HER CODE MONKEYING.

I'll be sure to, I'm not shy. XD But I've really been very impressed with how smoothly everything has been run so far, so I really have nothing else to say at the moment!

[cowled]

Awh, thanks. We definitely appreciate the feedback, too. Frankly it's one of the components that allows us to keep things clipping along at a pretty even keel.

I think I'm mixing my metaphors there...

[angermanaging]

Yeah, it's very difficult to keep plugging away smoothly in a vacuum. I know that for sure. Don't worry, I'm here for all of your opinionated needs. :|b

I will not judge you for your mixed metaphors.

[cowled]

Excellent, excellent.

Is that because I'm almost into my Reid tags?? And speaking of which he will totally help with that garden.

[angermanaging]

LOL sometimes I do find my characters influencing how I talk, ngl. And Bruce would love help with the garden. What he especially wants is someone to be a front man so he doesn't have to talk to people (Tony? Pepper?) and who is willing to take charge of the project. He just wants to sit in a quiet corner and science, okay.

[candystriped]

What about a monthly forecast? I know I'd be willing to put some time towards maintaining a page or post, as personally I'd find it helpful, even if it was in point form or something simple, just highlighting the current status of city life.

[ironwood]

It might not be a bad idea, but it does seem like it would be sort of a rehash of our event calendar, which might cause it to end up being busywork. If you'd like to maintain something like that independently of the mod-team, you're more than welcome to, but the calendar is updated with a three month 'forecast' of sorts and should be considered the primary source for ongoing or current events.

[candystriped]

I'm kind of high on allergy meds right now, forecast was actually the wrong word, I was looking for "recap".

/crawls back to bed

[insecrets]

Like a State of the Game sort of thing?

[candystriped]

Yeah, that!

[ironwood]

I think our concern with that would be a potential overload of information, for both new and seasoned players. The 'state of the game' can be extrapolated between the event calendar and the event summary page, if we start adding more pages for people to read there's potential confusion and overlap.

That said, Alex and I would be perfectly fine with you guys maintaining such a page, with the caveat that it would not be something we necessary looked over for potential inaccuracies.