event hmd!

[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 Satellite Crash event (OOC planning post) and Tu Vishan's Dreaming, (IC post)

Did you like what happened? Did the event run too fast, or too slow? Were you able to feel like your character contributed or made a impact on the event? Would you like to make more of a difference? Has there been too much 'downtime' for the characters, do you have any suggestions to make about future events, etc etc? Did the Satellite event run long enough for you? Would you like to see more NPC-driven events, or less? Did you feel that there was enough for combatants and non-combatants alike to participate in?

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

random modly thoughts with roy

[ironwood]

RANDOM MODLY THOUGHTS:

One of the big concerns that I've identified is that the Turtle Log was a bit overwhelming to handle for just one person, but I'm not sure having both mods tagging as one character is a good solution to that (Alex and I have fairly different styles and approach the same characters with notable differences, which is why we pick single NPCs and do all the tagging for them individually. Also there's a lot less coordination needed that way, and less confusion accrued by maybe accidentally contradicting one another if one person is doing a thread and another continues it) so I'm open to other suggestions in that regard? Should I maybe put a cap on the player participation next time, draw proverbial names out of hats, or maybe advise people of what information can be gleaned from potential conversations and leave participation up to them individually? My biggest concern is that there's been a bit of a wait for some threads, so I'm not sure if this is more or less of an issue to the general game populace as it is to me.

Re: random modly thoughts with roy

[cantbewalled]

To be honest I think that in this kind of situation it's better to cap the number of participants for one part while leaving the rest of it open. I chose not to participate in the Tu Vishan dreaming log because by the time I had free time to tag into it, it was already pretty massive.

My suggestion should you ever do another dreaming log or anything similar involving Tu Vishan would be to select a set number of volunteers out of a hat (whatever number you would feel most comfortable and think you can keep up with) and then let the everyone else tag each other. Which may have been impossible for this event, so I totally understand if it was the case. But it could have been a very interesting night if people were wandering into each other's dreams and then some of them just so happened to have Tu Vishan wander into theirs, too. And you could have left clues perhaps to things that everyone could have noticed/found out just from being in a dream (like maybe a turtle figure wandering off in the distance that they didn't get a chance to speak to).

I know you really wanted to make sure everyone could be involved, but sometimes cutting down to a set number is just the practical route to make sure you don't overextend yourself. I love that our mods are so willing to go to such lengths for us to try and involve everyone they could, but I would hate for you to burn out from another event like this.

[aloadeddie]

Totally understand where you're coming from re: being overwhelmed with tags. Clearly, a lot of people wanted to get involved with the dream log!

Personally, I would be fine with having some kind of "drawing names out of a hat" thing the way you do with other metaplot event/participation things. Seems like a good way to keep it under control, allow as many people to participate as possible while still making sure the NPC player can handle it, and that way you can also plan/control perhaps a bit more exactly how much (and what kind of) info gets passed out and to whom.

And then yeah, maybe have a mechanic to allow for everyone else to just have "peaceful dreams" and/or possibly allow people to wander in and out of each other's dreams, etc.

[alphatar]

I LOVED the Dreaming event and totally got carried away, but I'm all for a select number of participants and then select randomly if there's too many. I can't even imagine what Roy felt when taking a peek at the email inbox.

Re: random modly thoughts with roy

[faceofthe4]

Maybe both. Tell people what can be gleaned in a general sense if they choose to have their characters participate, but "pull from a hat" or whatever the amount that get detailed threads?

I, myself, am often happy to take general info and assume from there, but I'd be a bit disappointed being excluded from that portion of the event entirely.

That said, it depends on the event. I honestly don't know how character-specific the turtledreaming was since I wasn't around for it; things very catered to each character will obviously be extremely difficult to generalize, at which point the best option, in my opinion, is definitely to limit participation.

[bindsthedead]

I also agree with the idea of a player cap, possibly combined with the second option if the number of people tossing their names into the proverbial hat is way more than you're comfortable with threading, so their characters can still get information plotwise even if they weren't selected to thread things out?

Re: random modly thoughts with roy

[dustonmyfeet]

I absolutely loved the dreaming thread, and was enormously thankful that I got the opportunity to join it with Amelia. Obviously quite a few others felt the same way.

I wish I had more concrete suggestions to offer, other than the above sentiments and the observation that it did cross my mind how overwhelmed you must be getting with so much to tackle. If a cap and/or selecting from a hat is necessary to keep sanity, then so be it, though I hope it can be done in a way that players who really want the chance to join such a thing can have the chance.

I would probably have to echo what someone said above with employing the cap *and* selecting from a hat, because we seem to have players from all over the world, and just making a post and asking for volunteers tends to limit the slots to whomever can be online at the time.

[(Anonymous)]

I felt the event was a kind of non sequitur as far as the setting of Tu Shanshu goes. It was fun to play out the aftermath, but the event itself was like going to a Medieval Restaurant, and then having cowboys suddenly appear to do battle on horseback with the knights. In the back of your mind you realize that you're seeing a very limited view of the world (Medieval Restaurant), but it's still jarring to suddenly have another genre suddenly appear in it. Specifically in this case, sci fi meeting eastern fantasy.

As far as complaints go this is a minor one, I still enjoyed the plot and I enjoy the game very much, but my hope is that this event isn't setting a standard of sci fi events to come in the game.

[ironwood]

Hey anon, I hope this clears things up a bit! And thank you for your comments, they're always greatly appreciated.


Tu Shanshu has always been presented as a 'science fiction/fantasy' game, which has been in our header and descriptive write-up since the game's inception. The satellites first came up in-game in November as a minor detail during the Landfall event of the time, and have been on the back-burner ever since. Keeliai is, as you said, a small portion of a larger overall world that is very much not eastern fantasy in nature, which has been explored so far in the two Landfall events the game has had, and in other details of the plot that are starting to come to light with recent events.

The technology level in-game is also increasing, with things like console upgrades and there being numerous tech-savvy characters who are amassing the resources to build things of a more technological nature than what naturally exists in Keeliai. The resource scarcity in Keeliai itself and the nature of the kedan hasn't lent itself to significant advancement, but Konryu was once upon a time a world more advanced than modern Earth, and there are numerous remnants available in-world that reflect that. It should also be noted that the 'culture' of Keeliai is transplanted from the world the kedan come from, as they are not native to the game-setting of Tu Shanshu.

For the sake of the metaplot we probably aren't going to alter our planned trajectory at this time, ie: limiting it to strictly eastern fantasy. The game combines theoretical sciences (ie: the cloning) and magic to provide the basis for its overall structure.

I hope this explains our reasons and rational a little better, but if you have any more questions or comments feel free to ask.


edited to add:

That being said, if you have any ideas or suggestions for a smoother marriage of the two concepts I'd also love to hear those!