tushanshu_ooc | State of the Shell | Game Developments

Entry tags:

State of the Shell | Game Developments | MAY 2014

Greetings, Chelonauts! May has arrived and with it come the winds of change. Some of those changes have already occurred, as with Malicant's occupation of the palace and some are yet to come. This post will hopefully address any questions that have come up regarding gameplay but if there are other things you would like to see clarified as to the new state of things, there's a comment header below for such.

MOD CHANGES

CHANGING OF THE GUARD

But first, an announcement. I (I being Roy, in this case) am stepping down as a mod of TS. It's been a wonderful (nearly) two years, and I'll miss the game dearly! By the end of May I will have phased out all my PCs and will no longer be directly involved in the plot advancement of the game, although I will continue to play my NPCs either until I can phase them out or until such time as the game draws to a close.

Li will be continuing on as head mod and will taking over direction of the metaplot, however we are looking for additional mods to be brought on for support. We are hoping to take on an additional 2-3 moderators who will help with coordinating and overseeing events, constructing missions based on existing templates, be comfortable reviewing applications, and addressing player questions and concerns. A more complete breakdown of mod duties is supplied in this comment at the conclusion of the post, with information for prospective mods to put in an application via email.

Applications for mods will be open until Thursday, May 14th at 9:00PM PST. Should no one wish to put in an application, the endgame for TS will advance immediately and the game will be due to close within a few months' time, to finish sometime in August.

But now! The IC changes, as promised!

IN CHARACTER CHANGES

What is the current atmosphere of the game?

Shit is getting real. Though Malicant has done little since gaining access to the palace, there is a definite downward tonal shift. The mandated foreigner 'jobs' have been suspended (although characters can still work if they choose, it's no longer considered necessary) as they prepare for what is widely believed to be a full-out offensive war effort. The kedan are frightened and a little withdrawn and now more than ever they're striving for a sense of unity with the Foreigner population, and have also begun to amass together in safe houses and outside the city, but they are not a fighting species and therefore need a leader to start even the slightest of resistance movements. There's also a growing unease amongst them in regard to the Alderwood Emperor's leadership, given that his absence from the palace allowed Malicant to take over, and this has shaken the kedans' faith in him as a capable ruler.

Malicant's spies have been setting up eyes and ears everywhere, meaning that characters are going to need to work a lot harder to keep their activities clandestine particularly as the consoles are not currently a viable way of coordinating any countermeasures (though possibly a great setup for a Trojan horse!). In addition to these spies, which will do their utmost not to be found out so long as they are able to feed information on the Foreigners to the Palace, Malicant cultists are literally having their glory days. Believing that they'll be protected, they'll be boldly attacking people and shouting on street corners like those crazy Apocalypse nuts-- wait, that's basically what they are.

Will Malicant having control of the Palace be an ongoing aspect of the metaplot? What happens if characters try to take the Palace back?

At this time, Malicant's usurpation of the Palace is an indefinite plot state. However there is every chance that characters can successfully lay siege to the palace if they can band together to accomplish it. The palace is a heavily fortified position, and it would take characters of every caliber and a variety of abilities to do so with a hope of success. From a mod perspective, it is not currently planned that this will happen in that it would have to be brought forward as a player plot. But it is a viable possibility. Please discuss it with us if you're interested, so we can plan accordingly and try to make it happen.

From the event description: The outer walls of the Palace are black and spiky, reflecting the presence of Malicant inside of it. There is also a barrier around it, extending upward to the outer barrier surrounding Tu Vishan and below the shell, preventing flying overhead to get a closer look or burrowing underneath to find a way in. Touching this barrier will result in one of several possibilities: characters will lose consciousness, be hit with several thousand joules of amperage, or their skin may be turned some funny colour which does not fade or scrub it off. Energy directed at the barrier, such as the sound waves or magic energy, would be sent back at double the strength and likely hit the source unless they moved very quickly out of the way. Conversely, hitting the barrier with a physical object like the rock would cause it to bounce away, but with approximately half the strength of the initial force of it connecting with the barrier. Neither will (presently) breach the barrier but energy-based is definitely the more dangerous option.

Does Malicant controlling the palace affect anything in the city in a physical sense?

Presently, there are no observable side-effects in Keeliai indicative of Malicant's control save the lingering issues from the recent bombings. However the servants who were still inside the Palace when Malicant possessed it are now his agents if they could be corrupted, and the ones who couldn't have presumably been killed.

What is the ongoing status of the consoles?

For the next few weeks, the consoles will continue to be unreliable as described in the event update post. However characters are encouraged to pursue IC methods of trying to purge Malicant's influence from them, because they're not secure at all at this time.

Where is Evandau staying, and where is the current seat of power?

Evandau is currently staying at the police academy located in central Keeliai, which is where he resided before Eshai's death. He is working to turn this into his command center but as it's lacking several of the strategic benefits of the palace, it's hard going. The building does have nominal magical protection and Evandau will be touching base with the magic-users of the city in an attempt to cobble something together, so there is a 'refuge' for people to escape to should it become necessary.

What is the state of the police force and the martial law in the city?

With the changes that have come to Keeliai, Evandau acknowledges that he can no longer be a xenophobic dick and keep people at bay. As stated in February's State of the Shell, characters seventeen and over have been permitted to train with the police force for three months and now Evandau's planning on making them active members. Furthermore, he will be appointing a 'Foreigner' chief of police – one Billy Costigan – to oversee the activities thereof. This will be announced via an IC post shortly, as will the announcement of a new NPC who has been promoted to fill the place of Commander.

Wait, what new NPC?

As Roy's NPCs are going to be slowly phased out of gameplay, Li will also be managing the newest addition to the city's notables: Celaunn, a captain on permanent loan from the Chihuelan military. She actually arrived slightly over a year ago while Tu Vishan was docked at Atamsichar and has been training with the kedan since then. Evandau had originally intended for her to be his second in command and liason with Atam but with Eshai's death and his promotion to Alderwood Emperor, along with the dire situation in which Keeliai (and by extension, the entirety of this world) found itself, she has chosen to swear fealty to the Emperor and been awarded the title of Basswood Commander. She will be coordinating with the Foreigner Police Force and in charge of fortifying Keeliai, as well as protecting the Emperor. She will be posting from the

basswood journal and will be available for threading upon request.

Speaking of NPCs, where is Han? Missing: one Worldeater!

In the chaos of the bombing and the occupation of the Palace, Malicant and Han had a brief spiritual skirmish and the Worldeater, still not fully recovered from the last time he was possessed, was forced to flee Keeliai. He has currently taken up residence in one of the mountain ranges of Tu Vishan, in fact very near the Iashu Shrine but far from the city itself. While this does not completely protect him from corruption, it does offer him some measure of protection since to pursue him, Malicant would have to loosen his grip on the Palace. He will still be able to speak telepathically with characters, but begs their forgiveness for leaving so abruptly (though no one wants to fight a corrupted Worldeater a second time, right?) and he will be planning with the Foreigners to come up with ideas on how to proceed from here.

How will new characters arrive in Keeliai when joining the game? What about canon updates? In-game resurrections?

Upon their initial arrival to the city, characters will now wake in lukewarm tubs of water in a warded room in the police station which is acting as the current seat of power in Keeliai while the Palace is occupied by Malicant, by the actions of the NPCs Evastelei and Milyn in a combination of science and magic. The room is guarded by the Alderwood Emperor Evandau while the new arrivals will be moved to a handful of metal cots around the room with Milyn immediately checking their vitals, etc to ensure that they were summoned wholly intact. Characters who have supernatural, magical or otherwise extrasensory abilities will find that they are completely drained and/or barely functioning. Then, Eva will appear in their line of sight, her arms soaked to the elbow with water - a key part of the magic that brings characters here - and waving a hand flippantly at the care. She'll be apt to say that your character is fine and that the grogginess will wear off within 24 hours and that any missing abilities will return around that time. If it doesn't, try a spot of coffee and you'll be right as rain!

There will be considerably less pomp and ceremony than what has been managed in the past and, given that there is now an established assistance program in place that is much less apt to draw Malicant's attention to the ongoing summoning of people to defeat him. They'll be escorted quietly and discreetly by a policekedan from the police station, informed of their housing assignment and dropped off on the steps of the Welcome Center, where they will be filled in on the important information of the city.

Characters being resurrected from in-game death will awake to find themselves in Milyn's care at her apothecary and clinic, as their souls were already present in Tu Vishan (she'll be oddly mum on where or how) and thus not requiring Eva's assistance. Though she will fuss worriedly over them, they might also get a stern talking to about being more careful in the city! She's mostly healed any injuries sustained from their death as best she can (though not completely, if the player prefers!) but that it can only be done so many times. Once she's certain they're in a good enough state, she'll send them off with a warning not to draw attention to this place, for fear it could be targeted by Malicant or his agents.

Canon updates will be receiving a complete overhaul. Before, characters would be treated to a movie-reel of their life in the palace, this system is now defunct. Instead, Evastelei will be sending people physically back to their worlds to live out the events with no memory of Keeliai. She is doing his for purposes that aren't entirely altruistic, but to prove that she can return people and to inspire the foreigner population to fight without losing hope of their eventual return to their worlds. This means that unlike previously, any physical changes they sustain during the intervening time including injury, aging, etc will be brought back with them to Keeliai and that they will wake in the tubs of water as if they were new arrivals. They will not remember their time in Keeliai while they were in their own worlds, but will have both sets of memories upon their return.

And finally, a little housekeeping:

ORGANIZATION

What is the status of the missions?

Mission formatting will continue to happen as they have been each month, though the focus of them will be drastically narrowed to such tasks as will directly and/or immediately provide an advantage in the current situation of Keeliai. So a little less casual world exploration, for example. That said, Han is still capable of leaving Tu Vishan's barrier so off-shell missions are still possible.

However, the timing for the missions will be shifted forward so that they run from the 15th of the month to the 15th of the following month. This is to eliminate the overlap that happens during the first week when Activity Check is going on, where people are trying to finish up threads for comment requirements and thus might not have adequate opportunity to give the missions the consideration for their character(s), and also to have more time to make player missions if they'd like.

• Mission sign up posts will go up on the 7th of every month.
• Mod missions will be tallied and handed out on the 11th.
• Player mission signups will close at midnight on the 14th.

Mission tagging will continue to be eligible for AC, so long as it still follows the "post date" rule (meaning you can't use the mission for both months' worth of AC comments.)

Additional questions will be added to this post as they come up and can be asked in this comment.

I (Li) will be working to update all this information to the game's core posts so they reflect the new game developments, so please be patient with that. It's our goal to have the game continue uninterrupted through these changes, so if there's anything we can do to make the transition easier for everyone, please don't hesitate to let us know. Thank you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If you have any questions regarding the in-character changes being implemented, or any other aspects of the metaplot development, please direct them here!

The charms received at Christmas functioned by using the palace's magic. Does that mean they no longer exist or?

They do still exist and function with their original abilities however using them as of the Palace's occupation will carry in increased risk of Malicant gaining access to their minds. Not instantly, it would be a cumulative effect over repeated uses.

Awesome. Thanks!

Canon update-wise: Would characters returning from a canon update be able to lose items on their person they had in Keeliai previously, or conversely, gain items from their person in their canon update upon their return to Keeliai?

~~i'm asking this for Reasons~~

Items that they have on their person will be confiscated and kept in holding for them while Eva completes the transfer to and from their worlds, so they wouldn't be able to take anything from Keeliai back to their worlds BUT they'll get them back. Any items coming BACK to Keeliai would have to have been on their person at the time of their new pull point, just like when they app in. Anything after that could be acquired through a landfall item (which we'll still be doing periodically). Also their suites won't be cleaned out so anything they own that's kept there will remain for them once they're back.

So, to clarify, if, say, Gene lost his glasses during a canon update and came back to Keeliai sans glasses, his glasses in Keeliai would be kept in holding for him when he returned despite the fact that he didn't have them on his person in canon when he was pulled back?

This is really confusing and I'm sorry.

Yes, with the caveat that characters aren't ending up with two sets of "significant" items, like Jack's staff or Gene's rings, etc. So you could wind up with two sets of glasses because, they're glasses but not two sets of Iron Man armors.

Right, okay.

Neat. Thanks for the clarification! It's helping me determine how I want to do his canon update.

What impact does the newfound boldness of Malicant cultists have on the hatchlings, if any?

Aside from the consoles, are there any other 'bugs' placed around Keeliai or characters' places of residence?

What impact does all of this have on foreigners' jobs at kedan workplaces, if any?

I can't think of any other questions at the moment, but would like to thank Roy for helping to manage such a nice game! :)

1. The cultists are a mixed bag ~~of cats~~ when it comes to the hatchlings. Some of them are pro-Malicant but don't see the hatchlings as a threat and some see them as obstacles to his bid for power. I'm letting the players decide which ones they run into, if any, so there's certainly increased threat overall to them but it allows each parent group to go with what they want.

(To all turtle parents, please coordinate with your group's members before having your hatchling attacked or whatever, so everyone's on the same page.)

2. None that are known at this time.

3. By and large the kedan will continue to employ Foreigners if they want to keep working, though they may get glances like "uh don't you have more important things to be doing" because Malicant.

I have loved modding it, definitely! It's been a huge pleasure, so thank you for that. <33

Can previous canon updates be done once more with the new method?

Yes, they can.

Is the bartering and offering system still in effect for canon updates?

I'd like to have Armin canon updated soon, it would make him much more useful in the current situation.

Not insomuch as it was before where Evandau would solicit items or services from them in trade. However because this isn't something to be done frivolously (ICly, of course, not implying OOC) characters may need to make a case for having it done. Eva's magic isn't unlimited so "hey I wanted to be there for my 20th birthday party" probably won't fly for good reasoning.

Oh, of course it should be used judiciously, I was just wondering :) Titan is a monthly manga so he wouldn't have anything worth updating for again in a long time anyways, haha. Armin has completed a mission, for example, could his point be used or used towards a Canon Update?

If ICly he could use "hey you owe me a favour for doing that missions for you" as justification (though Evandau might not appreciate the extortion lmao) that would be fine but OOCly, we would never require a player to spend the mission credits on something like a canon update, they're available to all players even if they're not interested in missions.

Right right, that makes sense. Alright, I will use the official Canon Update page then!

Also, just a small concern over Roy leaving (bye dude!) he was the only one on the mods list that had a non-plurk contact, and so the only one I could talk to if I had a question. When this whole process is over, could you please also list the e-mails or AIMs or something of the mods as contacts?

Edited 2014-05-03 01:26 (UTC)

(Roy is a girl)

The mod email has always been available for those who prefer not to contact by plurk, as well as PMs to the mod journal (this one). All these methods are listed on the mod contact post which is linked in all the comm profiles. Roy's preferred email has never been the only way to reach the mods.

Oh, I'm sorry I misgendered her! :x It was an honest mistake.

AND that's just my dumb self overlooking obvious things again, whoops. I would have used that in the past if I... noticed, durr. Nevermind that then! Keep on trucking!

No problem on both!

TO BE FAIR IT'S A REASONABLE MISTAKE TO MAKE

(roy happens to be short for 'royali' but no one calls me that oops)

(also hello)

lol you had me going for months!!! I seriously thought you were a dude!!!

omg I'm sorry I STILL ADORE YOU

(also that Eva tag is still in my inbox I haven't forgotten about it! LIFE HAS JUST BEEN REAL but I should e-mail you and chat about things because Eva might end up giving him an easier time for the canon update than for other people because she likes him so!!)

aw, thanks for remembering! small blonde childe has his way of weaseling his way into people's hearts. go ahead and throw me an email and we will chat!

... okay, not sure if this will be used, but. Does the barrier around the palace stop objects smaller than, say, living cells? Since Cassie can go smaller than can be seen by a microscope (and it's not suggested that it's the limit of how small she can get).

The barrier around the palace is the same basic construction as the one surrounding Tu Vishan himself. So it would stop Cassie, but not because of her size, it's sensing her life energy and that's what would prevent her.

(That said since it's possible to leave the shell on various missions or when accompanied by Han, etc, theoretically it is also possible to breach the Palace barrier too, and something in that vein may be part of this month's missions, yes indeed.)

Thaank you!

Is the police force still taking applicants? Or are just the people who signed up a few months ago eligible to join?

Any applicants from here on can sign up but would have to go through Costigan.

Thank you!

As mentioned above, we are currently looking for an additional 2-3 moderators to be brought on by mid-May until the game's projected endgame in March 2015. Below we have outlined the duties which you would be expected to share in, should you be accepted. All told, we ask that those who are interested in applying be willing to put forward approximately 5-10 hours per week toward the game, between all duties listed below.

Having a plurk is not a requirement for these positions. We ask that you provide at least one form of contact that you check daily (or as near a thing as possible) so that queries or tasks do not go unaddressed for undue lengths of time. Previous experience is also not required, but is certainly an asset.

• Communication
Clear communication skills are a MUST for anyone that is involved in these roles. You must be comfortable and willing to discuss all topics related to your role (plots, events, etc) and should there be any unexpected topic that raises personal discomfort, you will be expected to at least communicate that you are not comfortable and therefore unable to assist in that particular instant before referring the inquiry to another mod. Communication is a key foundation for any administrative team to be successful. You must be willing to field queries from members and potential applicants in a respectful manner. While an answer may seem obvious to you, others may not have made the same connection and should never be made to feel bad for that. In this vein, you must also be ready to re-direct queries or do additional research/confer with Li to ensure that answers are accurate and consistent with set precedence in the game (such as NPC behaviors, metaplot information, etc).

• Application Review
These duties will involve judging apps regardless of canon familiarity (app mods will be expected to have time available to do some form of canon review in the event of unfamiliar canons) and writing up the accept/revisions/reject notices using existing templates. This is a position that will take roughly 2-5 hours a week, per person, with the majority of the time falling between Wednesday and Friday due to our current application cycle.

• Events & Missions
Moderators would be expected to take on some responsibility of doing event and mission write ups and, as applicable, coordinating sign-ups and RNG results. It will require a fairly solid comprehension of the world of Tu Shanshu, and an ability to work with and adapt to that world. Creativity and the ability and desire to offer input on current and future metaplot directions is a plus. The amount of events run vary from month to month, but this position could expect to have between four and seven days' worth of work in any given month. If chosen for this position, it's expected that any PC characters you play will have minimal roles in future events.

• Core Post Upkeep
Mods should be comfortable editing HTML code as it pertains to upkeep of posts like Reserves, Taken, and our app response templates, etc. (You don't have to be a code wizard but please know how to bold things and make working links.)

We ask that all mod applications be sent to the tushanshu [at] gmail [dot] com email address before 9:00PM PST on May 14th, 2014.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

State of the Shell | Game Developments | MAY 2014

QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

Re: QUESTIONS

MOD APPLICATIONS