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jigokuooc2022-05-02 04:58 pm
jigokumods) wrote in jigokuooc2022-05-02 04:58 pm
Entry tags:
Mod Feedback Response
MOD FEEDBACK RESPONSE!
Our Modding Philosophy We're gonna start with this since we think it will help explain where we're falling on a lot of this feedback. This is the core philosophy we approach running this game from. While this is not carved in stone, it IS what we generally check what we want to do and what we can do against.
Our modding philosophy is to let our players guide the game. We give you the basic plot and direction, but ultimately, the power is in the hands of the players. We want you to have as much fun with this setting as possible. Outcomes change based on the actions of players and that’s what we want. We want players to feel like they’re a part of the plot.
For example, the outcome of the turf war is being completely determined by player actions. We have plans for possible outcomes, but what outcome the game winds up with (even if it's something we didn't plan for), is entirely on the players involved to come to. This will not be the only plot like this in the game.
In that same vein, we also want to give you guys as much freedom as possible. This means not micromanaging everything and leaving it up to you to decide what’s appropriate for your character. This is why we don’t outline exact numbers for raises and the like. We trust you guys. Everyone having fun is more important to us than exact figures. If you can come up with a reasonable enough explanation as to why your character can obtain something in the game, we're not going to fuss over the details.
Another thing is that we’re not trying to run a unified storyline with all players in perfect alignment. There will be times when a common goal arises for players, but it's not really the point of the game. You’re welcome to branch off in any direction you find interesting to develop. Everything doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be collaborative and with a good spirit behind it. You can’t ‘win’ this game, you can only enjoy it.
We should note that, with regards to the game's plot, we do not intentionally "bury" anything. A lot of things that come up in the question and response process with players would not come up at all were those questions not ask, and likely would not have become relevant. We do have basic outlines for plots, but a lot of the meat of them are improvised based on what the players themselves feel is worth inquiring about. Basically, a lot of it is serendipity at work, but we definitely know that it's important to link especially important plot developments where everyone can read them.
We do not consider answering plot questions busy work. In fact, we kind of love it. We love what you guys come up with to ask about. At no point should you worry about being a nuisance, this stuff is fun for us.
What's more, no one should feel rushed to participate in this game at any pace but the one they're personally most comfortable with. This is a big part of why we do a 2 month cycle, and ultimately only one substory, and the event, actually drive the plot in those 2 months. Everything else is choosing one's own adventure, and the pace they wish to explore that adventure.
Our ultimate goal is to create a game where our players feel liberty to just try things out and not let their dreams be memes, so to speak. If you've got a wild idea, let us or other players know, and we'll all work together to make it fun!
Okay on to the rest;
Labeling stuff: So we dropped the ball in the April event by not properly labeling what was specifically plot relevant in the event post, and in turn just allowed anything related to it to be used for 2 point reward threads. That being said, we've added special label tags to the network and log communities that will allow both players to label things themselves, but also make clear if there's an OOC plotting thread within those posts, like there were in the faction meeting logs. We hope this will be more helpful in the future!
Game flow outlines: So we already have a basic outline of game flow on the FAQ, BUT since the game flow has sort of evolved since then, we're going to be updating it to better reflect things. As it stands now, the basic gameflow is like this;And so on and so forth like that. Obviously this isn't a perfect schedule and open to evolve further, but we think this lays things out well enough. If it helps, we'll start posting this as a reminder at the beginning of every 2 month cycle! TDM and RESERVES - Week before previous month's end APPS - First week of Month 1 OPENING MINGLE and SUBSTORIES - During app week or right at the end, depending on mod schedules MINI-EVENT - Middle of Month 1 MAIN EVENT - Start of Month 2 FURTHER PLOT DEVELOPMENTS - Throughout Month 2 as needed TDM and RSERVES - Last week of Month 2
Plot Summaries: This is a proposal, mostly, but rather than creating a singular "Story So Far" post, we create a trackable tag (that we will link on the Navigation page) that tracks plot summary posts. We mostly want to do this since a single post would start to get very unwieldy after enough plot development. We will definitely try to better summarize plot developments since it can be easy to lose the thread, sometimes.
Player Substory Ideas and Player Plots: So we've already been handling these via the Mod Contact page, but we're going to update the Nav page and the text of the contact page itself to reflect that those are the places where it's best to hash out that kind of thing. This way all the comments are screened so surprises can remain surprises!
Player Submitted Locations: We have that now! It should be noted these are different from player owned locations, which will get their own subthread on that page if they become more of a thing BUT for now, this is where you post if you just want to participate in the worldbuilding!
CR memes: We'll be combining a CR meme with the bi-monthly OOC introduction post, since they kind of serve the same purpose, in the opinion of the mods. Please look forward to that when it goes up! And in that vein...
Event plotting posts: It was mostly an accident that the plotting post went up after the event post in April, but we've found that format actually worked out very well for our players, since it allowed us to keep the major plot twists as such, without feeling a need to spoil them for the sake of a plotting post. We're going to keep doing this for now, but we're open to changing it in the future.
Rewards and Power Scaling: This kind of goes back to our modding philosophy, but we're not terribly interested in micromanaging this. Since all rewards must be approved by the mod team anyways, we still have ultimate control over the balance of our own game. If we ever feel as if something borders into "too much" territory, we will definitely let the players know and work on a solution from there. We've actually already done this with a few requests. That being said, we also take note to make sure the power balance of the game never starts to drastically tip in any one direction (unless the plot needs it to).
Other Reward Avenues: So this one is gonna be in y'alls hands, something we'll possibly integrate but only if there's noticeable interest in it. Two threads of qualifying length but aren't related to any substories or plot being able to count for a single point. What do you guys think? The idea is to make sure people do not only prioritize their reward-tier threads (though it should also be noted this is why you cannot use your reward threads for AC and vice versa). Let us know in the comments below.
Final Thoughts: It's been a wild first two months in what is has been a lot of experimenting both from us as mods and y'all as players. We are very glad to hear people are enjoying themselves, and we hope this can all make the game even more enjoyable moving forward! Ganbatte, Jigoku-cho!
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1. If you decide to go through this route, would any previous threads be grandfathered in for points or would it only be moving forward for May?
2. Would inbox threads be allowed for submission? I speak for myself and say that I have done some plot relevant threads in people's inboxes just because it might not have made sense to do in an event log, or because it transitioned naturally from a message format to an action thread. It would be nice if they could be submitted as part of this new system.
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2) SO! We talked about it, and while we think we'd be cool with substory related inbox threads being used for rewards, anything else (but especially plot relevant threadS) we'd prefer to come from the comms themselves. With plot, especially, we just want as much of that to exist in the general public space of the game as possible. Substories exist more in the "fun things to do" sphere and thus we have no qualms with those coming from inboxes.
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I'd definitely be interested in your proposal of allowing 2 threads of qualifying length count for 1 point. I feel going that route encourages participation in the plot and substories while still allowing room for players to thread out exploration of CR or the setting as well without shifting game focus to pure slice-of-life. Personally, I've felt that I needed to focus on plot and substory-related content over exploring other interesting aspects of the game due to time management constraints and turned down potential CR I would otherwise enjoy in order to make the most out of the time and energy I have available for RP. Since this seems to go against your modding philosophy, I figured it was something worth bringing up.
Having this other reward avenue available might relieve pressure and stress for other players with similar time/energy management concerns and keep the game growing in fun and interesting ways.
Anyway, those are my thoughts! And thank you again for all your hard work. You're doing great!
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Other than that this is all great stuff to see and definitely soothes my anxieties about things! orz Thanks for being very patient and excellent, mods!
+1
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Two: This all looks good, and I'm super glad you guys thought of a way to potentially implement the normal threads for points thing too! I'm a little biased since I'm the one that brought it up, lmao, but you've obviously got my vote for it.
I super appreciate y'all being open and honest with us too with how things are going, and I'm looking forward to how things keep going on in the future!