// ANNOUNCEMENTS_

[eluviomods]

// ANNOUNCEMENTS_ ➣ Mod Availability Due to urgent real life complications, one of the members of the mod team has had to take a hiatus until things get resolved. This will and has already begun to affect mod availability. Going forward, this means that we may not be as quick as we have been to answer questions, process applications, update lists, or attend to the rest of the administrative tasks of running the game. That's not to say that it's going to take us a week to answer a question, but that if you do ask a question, we may not be able to respond to it within a day the way we've been trying to do. Because of this, we ask for your patience during this time. ➣ Luxuria's Effects Because we've received a few questions about this, we want to take a moment to clear up some potential confusion about the effects of Luxuria. The aphrodisiacs in Luxuria are not strong enough to remove a character's capacity for consent. Characters are told about the effects of the different districts when they are given the tokens. The district causes characters who enter it to become aroused and that arousal grows the longer they remain inside it, however it is no stronger than the arousal that the characters might feel in normal circumstances. At no time will it cause characters to force themselves on other people or prevent characters from saying no to unwanted advances. ➣ Jobs As many of you noticed, we did not give jobs to the new characters accepted this month. This was deliberate. The fleet does not work and has not worked for weeks. With only essential systems online, places of employment have been shut down. Therefore, it did not make IC sense to assign jobs, as the NPCs have more important things to do than worry about the newcomers having employment, such as work round the clock to make sure the oxygen system doesn't cut out again and kill everybody. This, like the two player ships being destroyed last month, is another example of how IC actions have IC consequences and the game environment will change to reflect what's currently going on. Nothing is permanent in this game. We will throw curve balls at you. The plot will necessitate changing how things are done, whether on a temporary or permanent basis. ➣ Application Guidelines Because of the number of revision requests and declined applications during March's app round and the questions we received during the process, we thought it might be beneficial to put together an application guideline and explanation list that we hope will make things easier for applicants. This information will be linked on the application page as well, since we know that prospective applicants often have questions about what is considered an acceptable app and cannot find this information by looking at previous app decisions. GENERAL We give revisions for minor issues, clarifications, powers not being explained properly, requests for suitability statements when we are undecided if a character is suitable for the game, or if a single section needs revised. We decline applications if characters are unanimously deemed unsuitable for the game, the application does not meet our minimum writing standards, the personality section is comprised of more headcanon or fandom-based opinions and beliefs than actual canon, or there are so many issues that we would essentially be asking for most or the whole of the application to be revised. Our revision window is 48 hours. If we decline your application, you may always pm us for the reason. SPECIFIC Personality sections should give a well-rounded view of the character and should be comprised of canon information or information that is reasonably extrapolated from canon. We do not accept "fanon" in the place of canon facts. We do not accept alternate canon information being used in place of the information of the canon being applied from (for example, supplying comic canon for the movie version of a character or movie canon for the book version of a character). Headcanon should be used sparingly and only for minor details. If you're ascribing whole motivations and life-altering experiences to headcanon, you will be asked for a revision at the very least. Acceptable headcanon includes minor details, inconsequential opinions (like a character's favorite color or that the character doesn't like the taste of a specific beverage), information that is reasonably extrapolated from the canon setting and does not alter or majorly influence a character's opinions or motivations (like a character from a modern type setting with no training in space flight understanding the concept of space travel), or any other minor bit of information that helps flesh out the character's personality or memories. Unacceptable headcanon includes major details, opinions and beliefs that influence a character's thoughts and behavior (like a history of trauma unsupported by canon), information that is not reasonably extrapolated from the canon setting (like a medieval character instinctively knowing how to encrypt digital software), experiences that have dramatically shaped the character's opinions and motivations that are not shown in canon (like deciding that a character had a non-canon sibling who was the victim of a serial killer to justify the character's non-canon hatred of a certain type of character), or any other major bit of information that alters the character's personality and memories in a way that has no canon substantiation. Abilities/Powers must be written out and, if applicable, translated into the setting. Anything beyond that of a perfectly ordinary person who is not a master in anything that is not listed here will not be accessible in the game. Links to Wikis in lieu of writing out the powers/abilities or explaining them in terms of inappropriate mechanics (hit points, status effects, etc.) will result in a revision. Remember that this is not a powers based game and there is no winning by being stronger than everyone else. In the case of overpowered abilities, we encourage players to offer their own methods of reducing such abilities as part of the original application. At this time we are not nerfing powers completely and may only require that especially overpowered abilities be toned down to fit the setting, however be aware that this is subject to change if need be to maintain the atmosphere of the game. Inventory should include whatever is on the character's person at the time. Items that are not with the character at the canon point chosen will not be brought into the game with the character. Pets and space vehicles are the only exception to this. Samples should maintain a consistent standard of writing, showcase the voice described in the personality section, be in character, and demonstrate the character's voice. Poor or inconsistent grammar, consistent tense changes, poor readability, OOC behavior, behavior and dialogue inconsistent with the personality and history of the character as described in the application, or an inability to hear the character's voice will result in at least a revision. Suitability is something that we look at with every character. Being on the younger end of the spectrum does not automatically make the character unsuitable and being on the older end does not automatically make a character suitable. (For example, any incarnation of Deadpool would be unsuitable for the game because we do not allow 4th walling.) If we're undecided about a character's suitability, we'll issue a revision and ask you to explain how and why you believe the character is suitable and make our final determination from that. If after reviewing your application, Wikis, and canon material, we are in unanimous agreement that the character is not suitable, we will decline the application. You may always contact us prior to applying to check suitability, though please be aware that if your application ultimately contradicts what you tell us in that initial conversation, we may still decide to decline the character for being unsuitable. ➣ Game Cap After some discussion about the size, growth, and pace of the game, we have decided to institute a game cap of 100 characters. Our reasoning is twofold: 1. We want to make sure that we can continue to manage the game administration in a timely manner. 2. We want to make sure that we can continue to build an IC environment without sacrificing the scope or depth of events and metaplot. This cap may be lifted in the future, once the game has advanced far enough in the metaplot modules to support a larger number of characters. Until we reach cap, app cycles will remain unchanged. Once the cap is reached, we will require reservations to apply and we will have as many application slots as there are spaces each month. This will require us to change the dates of the Activity Check from the 1st through the 5th to the 1st through the 4th so that we have an accurate number of open slots. We are aware that this reduces the number of days players have to complete the AC from 5 to 4, however we believe that 4 days is still enough time to do so and that doing it this way will allow us to offer as many slots as possible to applicants. When we make the move to application slots, we will be making an additional change to the application process. For the first 24 hours, applications will be open to new players who have reserved only. After this time has passed, the remaining 72 hours of the application cycle will be open to current players who reserved. We have made this change in order to balance the game cap with the current character per player limit and the desire to ensure that new players interested in the game are not unduly penalized by the game cap. Please note that this is how we anticipate doing the application cycle given previous months' drop rates. If we reach cap and only one slot is opening up every month or so, we will reevaluate the plan and do something that makes more sense. As it stands, we cannot accurately anticipate how things will be in the future and can only state the current plan. We will change and adapt the process as needed to try to keep it as simple and easy for players to navigate as possible.