Pacing: This was way too long. The idea of one planet's worth of adventure taking place over 4-5 weeks would have been more than fine by me so long as there was more of something for everyone over that time period and from what I've seen from other players, that wasn't the case here. Maybe smaller missions for everyone, or some way of feeling like everyone was involved in the larger Oros event without them having to leave the ship.
As far as pacing for the Alpha/Beta mission goes, I understand what you were trying to do with giving us lots of time to plan/thread at a pace you thought would be easy for us to manage. However, I think it encouraged more feet-dragging than anything. As someone who was trying to help OOCly spearhead the plotting among participating players, we had a really hard time doing anything that even vaguely resembled planning the whole thing out in advance, because it was just too long a time to deal with. We wound up having to keep striking up conversation every few days to discuss our next steps, when it honestly could have been easier to have a shorter time frame where no one had to worry about wanting to change their minds in a week, or whatever the exact holdups of various conversations were. What could have been entirely plotted out and finalized for smooth OOC sailing weeks ago wound up getting held up until some time last week, just because there was no sense of urgency for players to weigh in on plotting or end decision making in a timely matter and I think we were all guilty of just letting it fall to the side.
On this note, I think a mission that long could have been fine with either fewer people or more mod input re: what dates things should happen on, or even specific setbacks to encounter on specific dates, but as it was, it was long and kinda unruly.
Participation: The penalty system still seems like a great idea to me, honestly, so long as you have a fair method of keeping track of what qualifies as actually participating and what doesn't. If it's just "did they tag at all," that's nice and clear, but anything muddier than that will leave room for argument with both the people who didn't do much participating, whether because of RL issues or any other reason that would have stopped them. And honestly, that muddy area is somewhere that other players can get frustrated with, too, because there's a big difference between a fellow player who has input into planning conversations and tries to tag where they can and just can't because of whatever reason and one who don't make that OOC effort. (A disclaimer that this isn't about anyone on the Alpha/Beta mission in particular, just that this is a feeling I've gotten in other games before and with an event like this, there was definitely a risk of it coming up and both hindering plotting and creating negative feelings.)
On top of the penalty system you already have in place, I admittedly really like IC rewards for participation, especially ones that come with an invitation for future plotting, like Sombra's puzzle box and the other ones from your aftermath post. This is a nice bonus incentive and also really helps to make someone feel like their results weren't predetermined and something unique could come of them, something that's hard to find in most games.
Mod Guidance: Thank you for giving us so much freedom! That's a rare thing in rp and we had fun knowing that we could throw ideas around without worrying about having to hold things up to come to you. I think it really encouraged creativity and I know I'm thrilled to know that Beta team's actions wrecked a planet. That's freaking awesome.
However, like I said above, it was hard to coordinate this much freedom with this many people, which definitely had me wishing at a few points that you'd given us a little less. I know it's a new game and you're still sorting out balances, but having a few more limits with anything involving this many people in the future might be beneficial just for ease of plotting. This much freedom with a smaller group would have been fun, but I think there were just too many of us and because all decisions were in our hands, it unfortunately turned into a few players making most of the choices for the mission, because otherwise we'd have never gotten anywhere.
And oh my gosh, I'm sorry that this got really long but I'm loving this game so much so far and that fact that you're open to feedback about all this just makes me love it more. I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with next. ♥
no subject
As far as pacing for the Alpha/Beta mission goes, I understand what you were trying to do with giving us lots of time to plan/thread at a pace you thought would be easy for us to manage. However, I think it encouraged more feet-dragging than anything. As someone who was trying to help OOCly spearhead the plotting among participating players, we had a really hard time doing anything that even vaguely resembled planning the whole thing out in advance, because it was just too long a time to deal with. We wound up having to keep striking up conversation every few days to discuss our next steps, when it honestly could have been easier to have a shorter time frame where no one had to worry about wanting to change their minds in a week, or whatever the exact holdups of various conversations were. What could have been entirely plotted out and finalized for smooth OOC sailing weeks ago wound up getting held up until some time last week, just because there was no sense of urgency for players to weigh in on plotting or end decision making in a timely matter and I think we were all guilty of just letting it fall to the side.
On this note, I think a mission that long could have been fine with either fewer people or more mod input re: what dates things should happen on, or even specific setbacks to encounter on specific dates, but as it was, it was long and kinda unruly.
Participation: The penalty system still seems like a great idea to me, honestly, so long as you have a fair method of keeping track of what qualifies as actually participating and what doesn't. If it's just "did they tag at all," that's nice and clear, but anything muddier than that will leave room for argument with both the people who didn't do much participating, whether because of RL issues or any other reason that would have stopped them. And honestly, that muddy area is somewhere that other players can get frustrated with, too, because there's a big difference between a fellow player who has input into planning conversations and tries to tag where they can and just can't because of whatever reason and one who don't make that OOC effort. (A disclaimer that this isn't about anyone on the Alpha/Beta mission in particular, just that this is a feeling I've gotten in other games before and with an event like this, there was definitely a risk of it coming up and both hindering plotting and creating negative feelings.)
On top of the penalty system you already have in place, I admittedly really like IC rewards for participation, especially ones that come with an invitation for future plotting, like Sombra's puzzle box and the other ones from your aftermath post. This is a nice bonus incentive and also really helps to make someone feel like their results weren't predetermined and something unique could come of them, something that's hard to find in most games.
Mod Guidance: Thank you for giving us so much freedom! That's a rare thing in rp and we had fun knowing that we could throw ideas around without worrying about having to hold things up to come to you. I think it really encouraged creativity and I know I'm thrilled to know that Beta team's actions wrecked a planet. That's freaking awesome.
However, like I said above, it was hard to coordinate this much freedom with this many people, which definitely had me wishing at a few points that you'd given us a little less. I know it's a new game and you're still sorting out balances, but having a few more limits with anything involving this many people in the future might be beneficial just for ease of plotting. This much freedom with a smaller group would have been fun, but I think there were just too many of us and because all decisions were in our hands, it unfortunately turned into a few players making most of the choices for the mission, because otherwise we'd have never gotten anywhere.
And oh my gosh, I'm sorry that this got really long but I'm loving this game so much so far and that fact that you're open to feedback about all this just makes me love it more. I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with next. ♥