The Watchers of Night (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thewatchers) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
daybreakooc2019-10-09 06:00 pm
thewatchers) wrote in daybreakooc2019-10-09 06:00 pm
OCTOBER FEEDBACK POST
OCTOBER FEEDBACK POST
Log Comm | Network Comm | OOC Comm | Navigation
This post is a new feature per community request that we will be incorporating into our regular monthly postings. In this post, players are able to give feedback, make suggestions, ask general questions, and raise issues about the state of the game. The mods will work to answer questions as quickly as we are able, please bear with us as some items may take longer and require more discussion than others. All items will be answered in the order in which they are received.
When submitting something, we ask that you use the following format for the post header for ease of searching:
SUBJECT - TITLE
For the subjects, we recommend the following:
Question: Question about something in or about the game. Use this category for quicker clarifications, larger and more involved questions we may direct back to the FAQ.
Suggestion: Suggestions for the game that you think will improve it.
Issue: Issues you have noticed with the game
If you have other potential subjects, you may use them as well.
The nature of this post is not just to collect feedback, but to also have a conversation. The mods will answer every comment in this post as time permits. In consideration of that, we ask that people provide additional details as possible in their comments. For example, if there is an issue you wish to raise with us, please also elaborate on what the desired end-state resolution is so we know what goals we’re trying to hit. If there isn’t enough detail for us to formulate an appropriate response, we will ask questions for more clarity.
Issue / Suggestion
Issue
I'm gonna start with missions because this is something that's been a struggle in the game since it started--and I refer specifically to the mod-created missions, not the player plot submissions (I.E. Atchison's mission series).
A lot of them tend to just fall apart when it comes to execution. I can think of a few specific ones that died within a few comments, had the main part handwaved after the build-up stalled for a few days, and in one case didn't go up? The current structure just doesn't seen conductive to actually playing out the missions at all, and I can't say it's all one factor because I'm sure there's a few different reasons, but I've had a consistent issue when I was signing up for missions where my ability to interact was limited based on the bottleneck of information through one player on the mission, or the quick decline of it because one or two members stopped tagging and resulted in everyone else dragging to an end.
From a game perspective, it's frustrating to not be able to really use the missions for RP. From a plot perspective, it makes chunks of the storyline basically evaporate. I'll use the kelpie mission as an example because that mission was pitched as a plot-based one that was going to give the players more information on Nightfall upcoming, and then it fell apart in like... 6 comments. This happens a lot! I've been on other mission based games before and I know part of that is on how the playerbase engages it, but I think if as a group of players there's such a struggle in interacting with the mission format it's really not working out.
Tied into that, I think there's a growing dissonance on what the plot is and how it's handled. Right now Daybreak plays very sandboxy, which in itself isn't bad! I'm totally down for open sandbox... but we had a bomb dropped on the characters that Nightfall was coming in less than two years now and given that part of the backdrop of the school and the characters coming in is the awareness they're here to help stop it, the build up is kind of lacking. We don't see a lot of real consequence to the missions that revolve around that. The Herald mission sticks out as really lacking fallout considering the magnitude of it. A lot of characters reacted very strongly to it but it now just... doesn't feel like a thing.
It's like the bigger plot missions exist in little bubbles, and don't have any continued consequence to the setting that the characters at Daybreak actually interact with. There's a schism, and as a whole I'm not too sure on the state of the world as a whole is which also makes it harder to put together the missions we're going to other countries to solve vs the fact that the majority of the time so far is set on campus (obvs, it's a school). Everything around Nightfall just feels disjointed and difficult to interact with, but also impossible to ignore because it's been hung over everyone's heads already.
Suggestions
Obvs I think other people who've had issues should chime in because I don't think there's one specific cause and it'd help to have multiple perspectives about interacting with missions and the plot. I know I'm not the only one that's struggled, but the perspective of a faculty trying to run the log is different than the student just trying to play in it.
But I think in terms of grounding it, I think having more established lore on the state of the world, especially the areas touched by the missions the school goes on and having the results of those missions come back onto the school would do a lot. What's the UN up to, that spot in Australia, the sword in the stone and the world tree, etc. Have some consequences comes back onto the school, good or bad!
Also there's a lot of cool secret societies designed by players that I think a lot more can be done with as a concept. I get that trying to run a lot of named NPCs is work, but I think there's a way to marry the Nightfall plot that the mods are creating and the worldbuilding that the players have anchored our characters into.
+1
Likewise, it's absolutely jarring when the mood shifts from the direness of events such as the Herald to 'anyway, it's vacation time now'. Any lingering consequences or moods seem to just be encouraged under a rug, and it really removes the validity of those horrors from during the event.
Re: the lore. I keep hearing that there's lots of it. I encourage the mod team to please, not just wait until asked. If you can think of lore that could be relevant, share it, post it somewhere, don't just wait until someone has to ask. Especially surrounding larger forces at play in the game- I understand that the game needs to be open for other's AUs, but there's absolutely room for more cemented lore before it comes up as the result of a confused player finding themselves lost.
no subject
Missions:
We've definitely noticed the issue with the missions. Unfortunately from our perspective, there are some limits to what we can do - we create the missions to provide players prompts to interact with and things to engage with, we provide full details including resolution to the players with the intent that they will be shared. However, there are some changes we've been considering and are looking to implement in the next month. They are as follows:
-Reducing mission availability: The current system allows for a wide array of players to join a mission simply because they fill up so fast and our intent, above all else, is to give anyone who wishes it a chance to become involved. By reducing the total player count to around 3-4, our hope is that they will be easier to share full details and see through to completion. This does, however, bring up another issue that I'll be addressing a bit later.
-Providing templates: We are currently constructing some templates and suggestions on how players might successfully run a mission including formatting, timing, and organization. Our hope is that by providing these tools we can help players see these logs through.
Overarching plot:
There are some IC and some OOC reasons for what's going on here, we can share some of the logic. In terms of how things are treated in-game, part of Daybreak's operating structure is a focus on giving the kids as normal an experience as they can provide in a magic fighting school. The general approach of the school is to try to keep things "normal" as much as possible. With the big plot events, especially something as harrowing as the first herald, the administration as a whole is of the opinion that the best way they can help is to continue on as normal. There is, of course, some less than savory motivation here as well, normalizing this kind of activity is in and of itself preparation, if the students are able to move between desperate battles and normal lives the prevailing opinion is they will be more ready to step up during times of combat. Finally, depressingly, the administration is well aware that many of these kids will probably not survive Nightfall, so they want to give them as good an experience as they can before it arrives. An extended last meal, if you will.
Now to the OOC component. We try to generally keep abreast of the chatter as much as we are able and respond to what people are looking at and are interested in. In general, at least in our observation, we see a majority of players seemingly excited about the missions and the slice of life comedic aspect, which we try to provide in ample supply. During the mission, we in fact accelerated things a bit because our observations were that many players were eager to get back to the normalcy. If players are interested in exploring more of the overarching plot (which we honestly hope they are!) our thinking was that they would start putting together plots and start looking into or talking about confronting those issues, but we didn't much see it materialize. As we're making this a permanent fixture, our hope is this formalized feedback avenue will also help players tell us more readily what they want out of the game. We're running this so that you guys have fun, after all! So long as we know what you want, you're gonna get it.
That said, we definitely acknowledge that we can do more with the contiguous setting. While we do loosely track reputation with various groups based on the missions that occur, we can definitely do more. Starting this month, the Cassandra Upload will be expanded to include more news from around the world to showcase the impact students are having. As we finish up the first year of the game being open and get more worldbuilding out, things will certainly start to change, and even more rapidly in the months to come as Nightfall becomes closer. Our hope is this will help the feeling of connection to the main plot and give players who are looking for that more they can grasp on to and look into. Players will also be able to submit their own blurbs and articles, which should hopefully help with some of the other things we'll be addressing in just a moment.
Suggestions:
As mentioned in the news feed, our hope is that will give players more to grasp onto and a look into the changing world. Regarding Secret Societies specifically, the mods have been intentionally hands-off on all of them, our intent is that the Secret Societies are completely in the hands of the players that create them. Our intent coming into the game was that players would run player plots centered on them, our hope is with the news feed this will give players more ways to incorporate their unique ideas into the setting. While we have broad story beats and feel, a lot of the setting design is intentionally open and free because we want players to engage with it and make their mark.
Finally, we get to the missions, which ties into the suggestions as well. As noted, we are considering decreasing the amount of sign-ups for mod-presented missions. This does, however, create a problem. The open sign-ups are currently as large as they are because we want to make sure everyone has a chance to join a mission if they so desire. If we reduce the numbers, that would require us to create significantly more missions every month, and there's a definite limit in terms of mod time and inspiration to put full mission writeups with interesting concepts together. This is another aspect where we'll really need the players to help us out. Reduced numbers should help missions see completion, but it will also mean a lot less space. As such, we will be adding a way for players to submit their own mission prompts that they aren't required to run themselves. This allows them to incorporate their own secret societies and their own slice of unique worldbuilding into the game at large, but without input from players that means a lot less availability for missions. We're definitely going to give this a shot, but if we see players are missing opportunities and we don't have enough missions to go around, we'll likely need to look into some sort of rotation system to ensure everyone gets a chance.
no subject
Which I guess I wonder: how hands off or hands on are y'all, as mods, looking to be? My impression on events is overall they're very hands-off from a mod involvement perspective. The game plays out very sandboxy because most everything is in our hands and there's not actually a solid structure wrapped around us, which by itself is fine but definitely comes into the conflict with the running meta so far. Do y'all want missions and the direction of the plot to be in player hands or is there a storyline that you, as mods, want to see us guided through and interact with?
no subject
no subject
So my suggestion right now is do away with the pre-designed missions and slot limitations entirely. Since you do want us to explore, I'd shift instead to a format where people group up on their own in sizes of like, 2-10 or something (I'd do at least minimum two just given the context of the game) and sign up for blank spots with request for what kind of mission they're looking for: say following up on a specific plot hook, wanting to go to a specific region, or a type of mission like wanting a combat based one or a stealth based one.
Those blank slots could be limited per month, or you could have a dedicated post where people sign up for missions just whenever--either way I'd recommend some evidence of the mission posted on the comm and being played out (Crosscheck did a 15 total comment minimum for dungeons, which across say 3-4 players is only a few comments each) before they're allowed to sign up for another mission. Something that would just encourage people not to bite off more than they can chew and doesn't take up a bunch of mod time having Too Many Missions if a good chunk of them don't take off.
(I think templates are a good idea if you keep missions for people who still want to run large groups, but it also gives people the flexibility to run in smaller, more manageable groups if that's what they desire.)
Another idea is to just do away with the mission system entirely, lay them out as event posts and let people tag into missions under the assumption their character was signed up for that one in particular. No worrying about the limited slot numbers and it comes out to the same information getting to the playerbase as the current missions being pre-selected topics would be, but guaranteeing it gets out and lets anyone who's interested interact with it at their own pace.
Back to the other plot suggestions above: I think having a more consistent narrative for the world DB is set in would help a lot for establishing those kinds of plots and, again, really just give a sense of everything being in one place and giving players a way to anchor our characters in. I wanna second Usagi above that some information, if you have it, don't wait for us to ask--the broad picture, the way the school board is treating events, mass group opinions that paint the current climate that the characters are part of. Seeing the impact of what players do matters a lot in where we decide to go next, so monthly updates about the consequences of missions or other worldly events that characters should probably notice would be really helpful.
no subject
no subject
Such a thing could also include elements like what became of the BBC feature, how the political situation is after what happened in Australia and similar stuff.
I am very very !! about seeing how this new element comes to fruition in game, thank you!
Issue
Also I'm having to do this purely by phone, so not going to bother with fancy html stuff. And I have no idea how coherent or legible things will be.
Concerns(?):
I'm going to first second/third (no wordplay intended) about the current state of missions. Besides the stuff already mentioned, I guess my main question is what are the missions are actually supposed to be, narratively? Which I kind of realize is a pretty stupid thing to be asking now, this far in. But I guess the question I want to ask is Daybreak supposed to be more of a place for students to hone skills, or a straight up X-Men style task force? Because if missions are meant to be treated more as physical exams, so to speak, it would be much more interesting to see it actually affect student grade in some way depending on how they perform. But if it's the later, I kind of would expect a little more pushback that teens and kids are being put into these situations at all. Right now with the missions being perceived as something in the middle but the tone feels all the place and floaty, and based more on what sort of mission it is. (Ie: Retrieving a magic artifact shouldn't be as dark and gritty as say tracking a serial mage killer) ...Which there should definitely be missions of all various levels, but maybe there should be more reason as to why Daybreak accept certain missions over others, what they want to gain from it, and when it is supposed to be morally twisted and ridiculous and everybody knows it.
Not exactly sure if it's something to make side missions a little more enticing, but perhaps it could prevent more logs from being abandoned after 3-7 days, if they have more connections to keep it tied to the themes/tone of the game itself. Or cannot be as easily forgotten about a week later.
But I am also glad that the Avery missions specifically got a very brief mention too because that might be my second and much more personal concern. They were very popular missions! (Clearly, seeing how all three of them would fill up almost an hour after the pre-signups went live) ...I'm just getting very concerned about communication and clique risk, as certain groups of players and characters have gotten very active amongst themselves and there's not a whole lot for others to quite work with. Besides try to come up with their own plots and hope they can attract some interest.
But also even before my online time has come extra limited, I can name countless of plurks and long discord discussions I've missed out on just because I wasn't able to get online to read them in time, and by the time I can try to put in my interest/contribution there's nothing left, radio silence, or everyone's moved on to something else.
I realize this isn't something that can be easily solved, it affects all games, it's not something the mods can just police somehow and speaking out essentially "If I can't have fun then no one should, weh." easily just makes people avoid you more... this kind of stuff still gets very disheartening and lonesome the more times it happens.
...But I will try to end on a brighter note and say that even with its downsides, Daybreak is quite possibly the best game I've been at in years, and I hope will last for plenty of more time to come. (Are we roughly halfway into it's lifespan now? Will there be a post game after Nightfall happens??
Or sequel)no subject
Tone:
Daybreak is first and foremost a place for students to hone their skills and be safeguarded to some degree. While Daybreak task forces do exist, they consist of adults, and faculty members may even be part of those task forces.
Missions are meant to be situations where students are exposed to dangerous events in order to understand how to navigate them under the guidance of more capable and experienced faculty members, as well as teaching them to work together in crisis. These missions are often the 'leftovers' from events that other NPC factions are handling, or anomalies that Daybreak's task forces or monitoring are able to identify first. This is the reason the tone tends to shift from individual mission to mission.
However, we understand that this sort of division in duties and the explicit purpose of the Academy isn't made clear, which is definitely our mistake! The lore and setting FAQ, which several people have already mentioned as wanting, will be able to address and clarify these questions accordingly. In addition, missions will also be providing extra context and information from now on, so players can get a better sense of the world and where these missions are coming from.
COMMUNICATION:
Unfortunately, we're able to do very little about fast-moving conversations between players on their preferred choice of social media, though we will do our ample best to provide more avenues of discussion so that planning and communication doesn't happen solely through other third party apps. We are looking into providing something more robust than a general CR meme and combining it with Doc's suggestion of a mission brainstorming post, to generate more interest that can be easily accessed on the comms rather than through Discord or plurk, so nobody will miss out.
Suggestion
I’d suggest thinking of the things that every character in the game and/or magical world should know, like what Nightfall is and why it’s happening, what’s the in-universe justification for the veil and why seemingly everyone follows it, just the really vital stuff like that, things that are set in stone and no ones AU history will ever effect. Then maybe make the page with that info similar to the secret societies one, where players can put down their own relevant lore (or at least what they want to be lore). It’d be useful not only when playing but also a good way for players to integrate details into their AUs and player plots, or let players make character connections.
Re: mod missions, maybe have a mission brainstorming post once a month? Or a subheading in the mission signups? It’d be fun to be able to throw ideas at the wall for new missions/occurrences in missions in places where they’re permanent and public, which would hopefully help with some missed on discord/Plurk moments mentioned by others. Go back to the old school where all planning was done on the comms. I’ll also say the first come first serve nature of signups is sometimes a problem for me, often they’ll go up when I’m asleep and by the time I wake up the slots are gone. Maybe instead have a system where any number of players can mark their interest, with sort of RNG or IC by the mission leader for a selection of volunteers? This would especially be the case if the number of possible players per mission is decreased.
Otherwise, I’m a happy bunny in game. Have a 🍭 wowipop for your hard work!
no subject
I LOVE LORE INFO AND I WANT IT ALL.
no subject
We're not exactly able to predict what questions you might have, and we don't want to force players to go through every bit of information before they can start playing or feel like they're being too restricted, which is why we've been more sparse on the setting than is perhaps appropriate.
However, a lore and setting specific FAQ with the ability for players to add their own bits and pieces to the larger world is something that we can absolutely incorporate. This lore FAQ will go up very soon, so please look out for it!
A monthly mission/plot brainstorming post is something that we didn't think of, but would absolutely be fine with including. We will also take into consideration IC signups for missions, which would give faculty members more investment and ability to interact with the students they might like to take along.
no subject
As for everything else, thanks for listening and happy to help.
no subject
...And really, I want it more as like a bestiary to catalog all the daemons and Fey people come up with, or other magical creatures. Maybe some Outlands locations and secret societies.
...Are custom wikis still a thing? I don't see people talk about those anymore.
no subject
On the other hand an unofficial wiki sounds like the sort of thing I’d waste several hours on, adding heights and weights to character profiles.
no subject
Going with the wiki route too means anyone can add to it whenever they want so it's less on the mod's hands.
I guess the ground rule would have to be something like it can't be things that effect the world/metaplot too much; but dumb, flavor text things are okay.
mixed issues/suggestions
I also would suggest more emphasis on planning on comms as opposed to discord/plurk. Both of these are things I never used previously, and I am horrendously bad at chatting, but I feel like I have to be social in that specific manner to engage in the game. An example of this seemingly required social app environment is pinging someone on discord for a question about a thread that is currently being tagged when the other person isn't online on discord, but is actively tagging them and could respond to a pm or comment subject. It shows that while discord is the first choice for contact among many, it is an inconvenience to others, and the simple question goes unanswered until player B does log on to discord sometimes days later.
This isn't a mod problem, or something that can be addressed as anything more than a preference clash. Which is why focusing on the comms instead for general planning, as opposed to a formulaic cr meme, gives a chance for everyone to see comments related to the topic and not have to scroll through chatter to find something important if they've been at work or otherwise engaged when the chat dicsussion occurs, or not accidentally skip over something altogether because it's hidden in between several other unrelated topics on the discord. You can reply to certain people and have a linear conversation presented to check back on instead of relying on pings or asides through independent apps to get something together. I think players should be able to communicate solely through the game comms if they choose and not have it be a detriment to their envolvement.
Missions
Some level of RNG for missions would also be much preferable on the whole, especially with the limited slots and little ooc discussion taking place. I agree with everyone's comments above regarding the way they've been handled and played out and that, due to a combination of factors already mentioned by others, it leads to them either being abandoned or skipped. Nothing is learned by the players that didn't come out ICly in the log because the information given to the mission leader is never posted anywhere for the general playerbase to know what actually happened on a mission that had to be handwaved.
Regarding timezones, even if it's a 24 hour window for sign ups, it's very easy for someone to miss out on them if they are asleep while signs ups happen, and then only check in the evening when the time is already up. Even just extending that to 48 hours would make a big difference, but my suggestion would be three days to accomodate timezones and work schedules.
I will add a +1 to Athuria's suggestion of considering restructuring missions in the vein of gathering player groups independently and requesting a mission from a potential pool.
Lore
On the topic of lore, I think a page would be a great idea. Even if it just starts out with answers to lore FAQ questions and builds from there. I have had threads dealing with lore derived from the FAQ, but they've been mainly sort of separated from the game as a whole; engaging only one or two characters doing their own thing with it instead of making it a gamewide plot point.
---
That said, I personally have had a great time in the game and find things to do within the setting, but it's important to note I have a more sol-style character and people who have apped to the game with characters more inclined to engage with the advertised meta plot consistently don't have as much to work with.
no subject
OOC Planning:
Having run a number of games over Dreamwidth and Livejournal, the OOC planning issue is one of the constant issues we've encountered across games. We have noticed when we attempt to add OOC threads to posts they've often seen few comments, so it's unfortunately still occurring. The two major methods we're attempting to swing the balance, however much we can, will be the addition of more OOC logs and generally attempting to give more time for people to plan before jumping into plots with more information available earlier, in hopes that the OOC section will be utilized more.
Missions:
We are definitely looking at some RNG options for missions, they're usually good ways for people to get new and interesting CR which we heartily endorse. It, as with the longer sign-up window, simply require earlier posting of plots, something we are working toward implementing.
Lore:
As this is a common ask, we've already spoken a bit on where we're going with the separate lore page as you've noted, but this is definitely still a good idea and one we are happy to move forward with.
no subject
It does feel like, at times, the characters (and players, in a way) have been largely shielded from the meta plot as a whole. I can understand why that would be from a narrative standpoint, but I have a suggestion on how to make the encroaching Nightfall feel more real, for lack of a better term.
What are your thoughts on adding general changes in the world at large in a state of the game post? This can be a place that people can brainstorm missions, see what's coming through the pipeline, and ask questions about the event(s) of the month/missions. It's a little more work on the mod side, but I think seeing how the setting is being affected not only by Nightfall but by characters' actions would do a lot to add more agency and ownership to the game and what's going on. It would be just as easy to stick that information somewhere (a post, a Google doc, etc) for people to see when and how the world has changed as well. This does add a little more to your plates, so I completely understand if something like this isn't doable.
As said, I'm super happy in the game, and really appreciate all the thought and hard work you put in. Keep rockin' it, mods!
no subject
no subject
no subject
I will say that I do feel a bit "????" when it comes to the meta plot and i can see where a lot of people who want to focus on the big picture would have trouble doing so! I do think it's important to have a good balance between meta and sandbox, but I'm wondering if the thread of the meta is getting lost a bit in the whole. I don't really have a solution or anything, so I don't know how helpful that is, but yes.
And this is more a player thing, but I think it would be helpful if more people would post planning posts to the OOC, rather than do discordy and plurk things. Granted, I don't know how much is spread out between the different platforms, but I know for me that the OOC planning posts have always been a good way to figure out where this or that is going to go, to decide on outcomes, and/or to reference if you're like me and have the memory of a goldfish on what you wanted to do.
But yes. I have been enjoying myself quite a bit, intend to try and tag more people, and am really bad at conclusions so I am done now.
+1
no subject
+1
I know I'm absolutely guilty of plotting smaller things on Plurk, but I guess my question is how to encourage players to talk out their plans—at least for missions—on the OOC posts. Daybreak isn't an anomaly in this issue, but maybe it's less of a mod thing, and more that players need to buy-in to this method.
no subject
I can't really do much more than say "Hey, y'all should do the thing!" and encourage people to put as much relevant detail about the plot that they get as they can, though. It helps come to a conclusion even if the rping side doesn't conclude
And sometimes it makes it easier to okay out, too.
I say, having forgotten to do that for the Garden Witch plot and needing to do so for Graveyard Smash. So it's definitely a thing that slips my mind sometimes too!no subject
Also sorry this was a really roundabout way to say +1, fffff
no subject
But there hasn't been any posts for the free for all missions since... the Valentine's Ball it looks like, so we haven't exactly had anything in the OOC comm to really plot with. Which also makes it so we don't have a lot of information or a space to ask questions about those events until the post goes live. That makes it really hard to plot in advance or plot with the outreach that landing posts in the ooc comm do, and we can't be encouraged to use something that's not there, you know?
no subject
I probably should put one up sometime today or tomorrow now that I think on it.
But I see people do it for big player plots quite a bit, I agree. I just think general mission plotting posts are a good idea on the whole.
no subject
Basically: if it's not for everyone then I think people involved should have the freedom to use what channels they prefer. And everything open to the entire playerbase should have posts and details on the OOC comm.
Obvs that's for their current state though, and I've had opinions above how I think the whole system needs an overhaul which could change the nature of group planning and organization I.E. trying to coordinate with players looking for similar mission types.
no subject
Just to clarify—do you count events like the Herald as a mission, or as something else entirely?
no subject
Which, basically every event gets added onto the mission list including the most recent Lunar Harvest so maybe there should just be a little more of a line divided between the two.
But I'm not talking about the frequency of the missions, I'm talking about how most of them had no OOC plotting post provided in the comm to go with them, both as a place to ask questions to the mods about said event and to give players the space to work together and plan out what they want to do with it. So when the post drops, people default to plurk and the the game/private discord to work out what they wanna do with it.
no subject
I mentioned this in my comment, but I think this could be solved with a general state of post that goes over what's going on, upcoming missions, and a glimpse of what that month's larger log will be. I agree, having a unified place to plot would help, and putting that up well before would mean less scrambling
and slow players like me can get in on planning.no subject
As to the OOC planning on the communities, as noted in several other posts it's always been a challenge getting people to utilize the communities over quicker and more convenient social media of their choice. That said, we're working to get things up earlier so there's more time to OOC plot over the communities, which will hopefully bring more of that back onto the main communities.
Suggestion
Runner: Name of the player running that mission.
Character: If they have a character also in the log.
Tagging Speed: Once every 24 hours? Once every 48 hours?
Preferred Contact: Plurk? Discord? OOC comm?
That might make it easier to know what to expect for a given thread. It might also establish some ground rules: namely, if someone is not matching the mission-runner's stated tag speed, they could be skipped. This could also generally make communication easier, especially if you're playing with someone you don't know that well.
I think my leaning would be smaller sign-ups but also have some more event posts that players can do with as they will. You could also, maybe, do event posts that are a follow-up to other missions and events. FOR EXAMPLE: if we had a "help the wounded/survivors" event post, largely not mod-ran, after the first Herald fight.
Altogether, I am pretty happy with Daybreak; I appreciate all the work that goes in and y'all taking feedback, and the Lore FAQ looks like it will be super helpful.
Re: Suggestion
That said, the informational template as presented is definitely something we're moving forward with. We want to provide tools for players to standardize information and keep their logs flowing. Our goal is to create conditions for success while still maintaining the open, friendly atmosphere where everyone feels welcome everywhere.
no subject
Suggestion + Issue
especially if there's some wonky biased nonsense in there, I love that sort of thing, but that's an aside). I think a major move here is to make sure the missions, if not all, then most of them, have a later linking relevance.I'm going to site the Player plot Vanessa missions here as an example: Each mission built up and led into the other. It was a sort of foreshadowing. OOCly, we knew what was going to go down, but ICly, they're led along into something bigger (to the ultimate goal of Avery and his CR handling that issue). This doesn't happen with missions of either the big or small variety at least that I've noticed yet. I'd like to see that change, say, minor details becoming relevant later, repeated symbols and patterns. Foreshadowing, basically, where each piece connects to a larger picture.
As a secondary point, I understand the worry for keeping things light and sandboxy but as purely personal opinion, sandboxy style events are going to happen no matter what, as characters take time between events and as normal people do naturally. In that vein, I don't think mods should worry AS much about maintaining that status quo, certainly not as much as build up which needs to be maintained to survive.
From a meta-perspective, I think it's fine the school seems all for pushing ahead like nothing happened, but I think it would add some benefit to also highlight who's not all on board with that. For example, the recent hunt plot was jarring for some people, I noticed, as it seemed everything went back to normal. I and other players took it on ourselves to write some distrust from NPC students. I think incorporating stuff like that would give some oomph and variety, just mentioning, "oh, hey, SOMEONE noticed this".
Another example is the Australia mission, something I feel should be hitting these students again and again. The school won't want to bring it up but perhaps a news outlet is talking about it or, say, some very angry former resident of that place comes back blaming nightfall out of grief, or those soldiers from before make a move or are up to something. TL;DR when things are kept relevant instead of tossed out for fresh ideas, it adds a lot more power to older plots and gets characters thinking, "CAN I do something about this?? What can I do??"
So, for me I say, don't be afraid to drop some rough stuff. Warn participants that there may be consequences if you wanna cover that, but let them really feel a wound before a bandaid gets slapped on.
I vote more in favor of opening missions up than enclosing them because I'm always sad to miss out and, in my experience, while having less players means less chance of things dying out, it doesn't mean they won't. When things are more open, I have less issue going full steam ahead. I like that the clubs have been opened up as they have and I think missions would benefit from this.
Other than that for IC stuff, I really love this game and I really do love and appreciate the freedom. I've been in games so stifling all player plots would choke and die. This is truly a breath of fresh air. I admittedly was afraid to look in here and see chaos due to bad experiences in other games but you've been actually very receptive. Thank you!
OOC-wise, one minor crit, I notice things on mod pages like questions unanswered or apps that go missed fairly often. I've had requests that went entirely ignored (unintentionally) until it was too late to bring it back up. It's a little discouraging! And it makes me feel like the only place I can be heard is through discord, crossing my fingers, and trying to be subtle in my 'hey look over here' when outright pointing it out and feeling rude didn't work. Maybe making sure to track any questions sections and app areas, keeping up a rotating schedule of checking in could work. I understand mod work is hefty, believe me, and I know that people are busy and have lives, but I hope that something can be worked out.
EDIT: Back to suggestions, for me just on a personal level... more veil stuff. P l e a s e. I love the concept of combatting and challenging the veil while also still trying to accommodate for those who absolutely need it. Obvs I'm doing it with my own plotting but I also want to see if it could eventually lead into more (and maybe I could have my guy full on break it in a big way at some point WHO KNOWS)
also, you promised to bring back the zombie mission and inflict it on more newbies, you know the one, don't let me down.
no subject
Regarding missing things, we definitely try to avoid that whenever we can, when there's a heavier load or one of the mods is unavailable things do slip through the cracks. We're looking into a few solutions on that as well which we will have more on by the start of next month.
As to zombies, well, keep your eyes peeled :)