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
24-hour Event
Echoing the holiday weekend in the US probably put a damper on things (I was able to participate a decent amount, but even I was travelling most of Saturday morning/afternoon ET). I personally think single threads are great for events like this and take a lot of pressure off of me as a player (because I can jump in when it's relevant and hang back when it isn't), but I totally get why that might not be the case for everyone. I agree that limiting slots for the "big thread" could help with some of the nervousness on part of the players, since I think a lot of the anxiety comes from not wanting to step on someone else's toes or box other players out. Just knowing in advance who's on deck to be in the thread could help a lot to facilitate OOC communication, because that way you know that you jumping in isn't taking opportunity from someone else.
I wasn't around for the first 24-hour event, but having read through the posts, I also really liked the methodology of the Stay thread, and I think there's value in having both types of events (big, single fight threads vs peppered individual comments in character threads). They don't necessarily need to happen at the same time every event, since I can imagine that'd be a lot of work for you guys, and I don't necessarily think that every character needs to be involved in every 24-hour event (especially if the game gets bigger), so maybe making them leaner will help them pack more punch.
Discoveries
I'm in favor of these being revamped, especially if it makes things easier on you guys! As has been mentioned, I really, really like the discoveries mechanic and the tabletop feel it gives things, but it has made me a little hesitant about what I can/can't assume and how much branching out I can do before I step into infomodding. I feel like striking a middle ground could make it both easier on us and on you guys— maybe we could get more "basic" information that everyone is permitted to use (provided their characters do the necessary poking around), and save the Discoveries page for more special/fun/plot related info?
The example of the stories on the monoliths someone brought up is really good— I wasn't sure if I was allowed to use that information ICly because I hadn't been the one to get the discovery, but it did seem like the sort of thing anyone could have potentially stumbled upon. I feel like that would've been something great to include in the main post, with maybe bonus info restricted to the main Discoveries page (like maybe there could have been broken pieces of the monolith nearby that helped fill in some of the blanks of the stories that you could only get via Discovery, but the basic outline of the stories were available to everyone— this sort of thing isn't my area of expertise but hopefully you get what I mean!!)
Pacing
I agree with the sentiment that the pacing seems to be uneven, but imo the onus is more on the players than the mods to create the sort of communal/cooperative environment between the characters IC to help alleviate the valleys (there wasn't that much to do event-wise between the arrival log and the big event log, but there also weren't that many open posts during that time, either). That said, I think there are a lot of good ideas in this post to help facilitate that; I think opening up more basic environment info/potential discoveries and saving special information for Proper Discoveries would give people more room to be creative (and thus be more comfortable to post), as would giving more OOC space to ambient events like the storm. I think a lot of the issues here boil down to us not being sure how far we're allowed to push info about the environment, so hopefully balancing that out will help resolve most of them.
Like other people have said, though, the game is still new! We're all getting a feel for things, so honestly I'm sure this'll even out with time.
General/Concerns/etc
This is all I've got for right now, but if I think of something else I'll be sure to jump back in. But basically: I've been having a ton of fun with the game so far, and I think you guys are doing an awesome job at juggling what has to be a really logistically complicated game behind the scenes. Hopefully this is helpful for you guys, and thanks for being so great!!