Thanks for tossing this up and being willing to take in some feedback. /o/ I think it's especially important for a game that has a lot of mechanics and technical things going on to help make it run as smoothly as possible and I hope what people have to say will help you guys out and help the game run more smoothly in the future.
1. The Overseer Drone 24-Hour Event
I feel like in concept, an event like this isn't a bad idea. It has a tabletop feeling to it that I think some people would enjoy and it doesn't bury mods in having to respond to several threads at once. But I did feel like stylistically doesn't work for a game that just has so many characters and players in it. It was a struggle to tangle so many characters into one thread. There's the argument of out of character communication and how much that would benefit a thread like that. And I do wholeheartedly agree with that. But I feel like it's important to also note that that can get tricky when there's a lot of players involved in the thread and there's no limit to how many players can be involved.
One thing I would suggest (and I see that Lance-mun also mentioned this /o/) is a limitation perhaps? Asking players to sign up prior to an event would let everyone know who is involved and those people would then be able to coordinate among themselves. I feel like that would be one way to help things run smoother. It would help prevent the dogpile effect where there's just far too many characters funneled into one thread and it feels like you don't know what's up from down.
Another suggestion would be to maybe split things up a bit so that there are multiple threats at once giving characters more things to react to and spreading them out. I know it would require more work from the mod team, so I can see it being something you guys might not be feeling as much, but I really feel like it would help make everyone feel involved and that they're able to do their part it in.
Either way, I would have loved to participate more in an event like this, myself, but I found myself drawn away and in over my head and backed off due to the sheer number of players in the thread and the lack of coordination. It was a bit much, I'll admit.
3. Pacing
I'm still pretty new, so I can't really speak for the pacing as it was before. But I do tend to feel like I was grabbing at straws and agree with much of what others have said. I didn't really feel there was a lot to react to as far as the starter log went and it honestly made for a difficult start to get engaged with the game. I don't think the discovering mechanic is a bad thing. But I do feel like more interactive prompts outside of the event ones would be great and give the RP side of things more momentum. When events do happen, they are interesting though from the ones I've read. (I just ended up pretty busy in the end with holidays among other things, so I ended up not participating as much as I should have with the event log and that's of my own fault. @@; )
4. General
More wold building opportunities would be great. I am also in agreement with less focus on mundane things like worrying about rations. From prior experience, a mechanic like that admittedly becomes like something of a chore after a while and tends to take away from focus on other things that are more the bread and butter of the roleplaying experience.
I think you guys have got a lot of spunk and enthusiasm to try and make this work. I think you guys have a lot of courage, too, for trying the mechanics you're trying. I just think it's more or less a matter that you have the foundation laid and it's definitely not a bad foundation by any means. Just a matter of tidying things up and getting things in order from here. Figuring out what works and what doesn't through running it. /o/
no subject
1. The Overseer Drone 24-Hour Event
I feel like in concept, an event like this isn't a bad idea. It has a tabletop feeling to it that I think some people would enjoy and it doesn't bury mods in having to respond to several threads at once. But I did feel like stylistically doesn't work for a game that just has so many characters and players in it. It was a struggle to tangle so many characters into one thread. There's the argument of out of character communication and how much that would benefit a thread like that. And I do wholeheartedly agree with that. But I feel like it's important to also note that that can get tricky when there's a lot of players involved in the thread and there's no limit to how many players can be involved.
One thing I would suggest (and I see that Lance-mun also mentioned this /o/) is a limitation perhaps? Asking players to sign up prior to an event would let everyone know who is involved and those people would then be able to coordinate among themselves. I feel like that would be one way to help things run smoother. It would help prevent the dogpile effect where there's just far too many characters funneled into one thread and it feels like you don't know what's up from down.
Another suggestion would be to maybe split things up a bit so that there are multiple threats at once giving characters more things to react to and spreading them out. I know it would require more work from the mod team, so I can see it being something you guys might not be feeling as much, but I really feel like it would help make everyone feel involved and that they're able to do their part it in.
Either way, I would have loved to participate more in an event like this, myself, but I found myself drawn away and in over my head and backed off due to the sheer number of players in the thread and the lack of coordination. It was a bit much, I'll admit.
3. Pacing
I'm still pretty new, so I can't really speak for the pacing as it was before. But I do tend to feel like I was grabbing at straws and agree with much of what others have said. I didn't really feel there was a lot to react to as far as the starter log went and it honestly made for a difficult start to get engaged with the game. I don't think the discovering mechanic is a bad thing. But I do feel like more interactive prompts outside of the event ones would be great and give the RP side of things more momentum. When events do happen, they are interesting though from the ones I've read. (I just ended up pretty busy in the end with holidays among other things, so I ended up not participating as much as I should have with the event log and that's of my own fault. @@; )
4. General
More wold building opportunities would be great. I am also in agreement with less focus on mundane things like worrying about rations. From prior experience, a mechanic like that admittedly becomes like something of a chore after a while and tends to take away from focus on other things that are more the bread and butter of the roleplaying experience.
I think you guys have got a lot of spunk and enthusiasm to try and make this work. I think you guys have a lot of courage, too, for trying the mechanics you're trying. I just think it's more or less a matter that you have the foundation laid and it's definitely not a bad foundation by any means. Just a matter of tidying things up and getting things in order from here. Figuring out what works and what doesn't through running it. /o/