The Atlas Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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theatlas_ooc2016-11-28 04:11 pm
atlasmods) wrote in theatlas_ooc2016-11-28 04:11 pm
Entry tags:
Player Survey
Hey everyone! It's been a wild first month here at The Atlas, and the mod team would like to thank everyone for hanging on while we got things rolling. There have been some ups and downs, things we've needed to work on, and some good fun had! We've done a bit of looking inward on our end, and now we'd like to look outward and see what everyone thinks so far in order to help improve and grow the game. To this end, we'd like all continuing players to please fill out this form with as much information as you'd like to share. Everything said here will be read and considered as we prepare to move into the next couple months and the next stage of the game. While we know we can't please everyone, we would like to see where we might need to fix or change things to make a game that everyone can enjoy.
1. The Overseer Drone 24-Hour Event
While there was a good amount of participation, the turn-out was much less than expected. Those who did participate, we appreciate your efforts and are working to figure out an outcome for you! Those who didn't, was there a specific reason? Were you not sure what you could or should do? Was it simply a bad time to run an event? Is this sort of event not fun or interesting? As the previous 24-hour event had gone rather well, we'd like to know what was on everyone's minds going into it.
2. Discoveries
There has been talk of revamping discoveries to make them less mechanical and easier to handle on our end. Are you happy with the current system? If yes, what do you like about it? If no, what would you change?
3. Pacing
There has been some concern about the game moving too fast, or characters not having time to settle. How is the game speed? Is there too much going on? Would you prefer less intense events to let characters relax and interact in non-stressful situations? What elements did you enjoy the most so far of the first month?
4. General
For now the game is taking place on Kharas, but soon enough it will be opening up in a big way. With that said, what sort of things would you like to see? What might be interesting or fun to engage with? What would make your playing experience that much better? As newer mods we are all learning as we go, and if things haven't been working we would definitely like to try to change that for a better mutual experience.
5. Concerns
Outside of these categories, are there any issues or problems that you've seen? Things that haven't gone as smoothly as you'd like? Matters that you feel need to be brought up on their own merits? There are a couple issues that have already been addressed (using a real world cipher instead of completely randomizing an alien language, and tone on mod/OOC posts for example), but if there is anything else that has been hampering enjoyment, please let us know.
1. The Overseer Drone 24-Hour Event
While there was a good amount of participation, the turn-out was much less than expected. Those who did participate, we appreciate your efforts and are working to figure out an outcome for you! Those who didn't, was there a specific reason? Were you not sure what you could or should do? Was it simply a bad time to run an event? Is this sort of event not fun or interesting? As the previous 24-hour event had gone rather well, we'd like to know what was on everyone's minds going into it.
2. Discoveries
There has been talk of revamping discoveries to make them less mechanical and easier to handle on our end. Are you happy with the current system? If yes, what do you like about it? If no, what would you change?
3. Pacing
There has been some concern about the game moving too fast, or characters not having time to settle. How is the game speed? Is there too much going on? Would you prefer less intense events to let characters relax and interact in non-stressful situations? What elements did you enjoy the most so far of the first month?
4. General
For now the game is taking place on Kharas, but soon enough it will be opening up in a big way. With that said, what sort of things would you like to see? What might be interesting or fun to engage with? What would make your playing experience that much better? As newer mods we are all learning as we go, and if things haven't been working we would definitely like to try to change that for a better mutual experience.
5. Concerns
Outside of these categories, are there any issues or problems that you've seen? Things that haven't gone as smoothly as you'd like? Matters that you feel need to be brought up on their own merits? There are a couple issues that have already been addressed (using a real world cipher instead of completely randomizing an alien language, and tone on mod/OOC posts for example), but if there is anything else that has been hampering enjoyment, please let us know.
no subject
Amber did an excellent job of laying out how I felt about the event. Lots of uncertainty. I was wary using meta knowledge or anything that could be seen as god-modding, and ended up having my character do something useful but not fighting - when actually, even with powers knocked out, she should be a good shot and therefore useful in fighting. But I hadn't asked for a weapon IC or OOC, and didn't think it would make sense for her to have moved Hunk very far and then have time to come back to the fight and demand a gun, because what's on screen could only have taken a few moments.
2. Discoveries
I don't think the rolling the dice aspect of Discoveries is a bad idea. Variable levels of success make sense, and in theory ameliorates players feeling like they failed because they aren't clever enough to figure out the setting. That said, while Breq failed her roll to look for useful things in the city, since I mentioned she would investigate and follow the whistling arches I was little disappointed I didn't get some hint of whether they do anything besides look and sound pretty or some indication of where they lead. Perhaps I should have made a separate discovery roll? Made something up myself?
3. Pacing
I agree there's something wonky with the pacing. Some of that may be how spread out we all are, timezone wise. It can make it hard to get threads moving quickly even if even if the people involved individually have the time and energy to do boomeranging. Hopefully, it will smooth out.
4. General
In general, I'm just really not sure how much of other discoveries and other meta-knowledge I should let my character have. By the calendar, Breq's been on the planet a week, so it seems reasonable she'd have least heard everyone's names, and been shown most of the useful things that have been found, but since a lot of that hasn't happened on screen, how much should be handwaved? I can tag out more, to get around to threading with all characters, of course, but there's a limit to how many threads I can juggle at once without feeling overwhelmed.
5. Concerns
Maybe set out some guidelines about how players can participate in worldbuilding and content creation? I'm getting the impression a lot of us are excited about the lore and exploring the setting, but worried about stepping on the mods' toes.
edit: Just wanted to add a thank you for being receptive to feedback and for setting up a game that's been fun so far and has a lot of potential. I think the mix of tabletop-like gaming and online RP can come together to make something really awesome.