MOD POST: UPDATE #8

[asgardmods]

updates and event stuff. Howdy, y'all! Faith here with some rather important stuff on the docket leading into October. The timing of things is a little weird with the upcoming app round, but with the slightly calmer size/speed of the game, we're hoping to make October's event somewhat more involved than the lighter and shorter things we've done recently. This ties into our previous discussion about event pacing; the general consensus was to stick with one event a month with some leeway to pick the pace up again when things slowed down a bit more. We're hoping to get some feedback from you all on that as we design October's event - but more on that below! First, there's a few other things we'd like to discuss with you, and some handy reminders to toss out before that: Reserves are now open! They close on September 30 at 11:59PM EST. Applications open on October 1 at 12:01AM PST and close on October 7 at 11:59PM EST. September's AC is due by September 30 at 11:59PM EST on this post. Please remember to post your AC on time! ❧ info page updates. One major thing we're looking at right now is restructuring some of our info pages. Asgard Genesis was designed to be an open-world experience for players and PCs to explore and build upon in their own ways. We've had some really awesome stuff come out of this already, and we'd like to make it more clear that this is our ultimate goal for moderating this game. While we have a main underlying plot to unfold, our focus is on letting you shape the world around it as we go. This month's event was a maybe overt example of what we mean by this (and we will post the results of the discussion on this post in October's event post, so your character can still jump in on the conversation!), but player plots and open ended events like these will influence how the game progresses and what living in Asgard looks like. In the interest of clarifying that overall, we're going to make some minor adjustments to the information listed in places like the FAQs and such. Nothing major that will impact the game in anyway; we just want to advertise the game we're selling. Latroma rather aptly compared it to a fusion of the Sims and Civilization in DWRP format: this is your world to build in and we're here to help tell your story! We'll hopefully have these updates done by October 1 in time for the new application round, but I (Faith) am a walking human disaster so it might take a bit longer than that. Stay tuned on this front! ❧ october's event (player poll!) This leads into what we'd like to discuss for October's event! As mentioned previously, we're setting up our next combat scenario for the game, and this one will both highlight some of the deeper implications of the Wanderers' presence in the game and broaden the scope of what you're all here for as compared to our startup events. We are still finding our feet as a game and there is a lot more to be done! That said, the more we explore our options for this upcoming event, the more it becomes apparent that it won't really fit into the one-post format we've been relying on for our monthly events. It's also a little awkward with the app round, since we'll need to have an intro log that ties into the event so we don't overload you all with logs and stuff to look at. The arrival of new characters can easily tie into the plot itself; our concern is more about how to unfold the plot without dropping more than we're comfortable with handling. In the interest of catering the game to our playerbase instead of throwing out a lengthy plot and hoping for the best, we'd like to get your feedback on this one! What we're currently considering would look something like this: an NPC post on the network the intro log on October 8 a secondary log later in the month, likely split into two halves for an option to opt-out of combat The NPC post would likely coincide with the intro log, and the secondary log would cover a longer stretch of time starting in the middle of October. The timing is still a little strange because it would make more sense ICly to roll everything out consecutively, but we can do some jazz hand-waving magic to space it out for us OOCly. We could also skip over the NPC post and do an IC poll instead, but we figure y'all might want the chance to discuss things with each other (this will make more sense once the event is announced, I promise!) Basically what we'd like to know is if this sounds manageable to you! An NPC post + intro log on the 8th, and a longer log that would probably start around the 19th and last several days. And since we're already asking about it anyway, we might as well take a temperature check on event pacing overall - so here's our next player poll! Please make sure to fill this one out in the next few days, since we'll need the information to set up the event post going up on October 1. As always, we super appreciate the feedback, and please let us know if you have any questions or concerns! A few other quick things before we let you get out of here: We're working on getting everyone's god power applications processed before the event begins, since combat will be involved. If anyone has not submitted an application yet, please do so by September 30 or we will assign a sample set to your character for their stay in game. Unfortunately, our player for Sigyn had to step down for personal reasons. This means we now have openings for Sigyn, Njord, and Tyr. If you're interested, you can read about the role and find the application on this page; we'll be accepting applications on a first come, first serve basis. As a general disclaimer, I (again, Faith) am in school right now, which is eating up all of my time. I do want to apologize for any slowness in mod things you may have noticed, and doubly so for my NPC tags that are taking five million years to get anywhere. I'll likely be picking through my current threads to find ones that seem important for your characters and dropping the others, but please let me know if there's anything you'd specifically like to continue. Please also always feel free to contact us to discuss handwaving interactions between your character and any of the gods! I think that's it for now. Or at least I hope it is, since I've already thrown a huge wall of text at you. Please do fill out that player poll when you get the chance; I'm very excited for what we've got waiting for you all, and I do hope that sounds a bit ominous as it should. :) Remember to submit your AC, and as always, please feel free to leave any questions/comments/concerns/dirty jokes in the comments section below or on the mod contact page! navigation.

Comments

[winscenario]

Hello, Mods. You mention assigning a "sample set" of god powers in order to stay in the game, does this mean we'll be able to alter those later? Or will we be stuck with that random set unless we submit until the 30th?

[asgardmods]

Hey there, and thank you for your question! You would be stuck with the random set for the rest of the game, unless you submit an application by the 30th. We've discussed allowing people to swap out their second or third level powers before they reach that level, but we're not 100% sure we'll allow it yet and you can't change your first level at all.

I hope this helps, and please definitely let us know if you're interested in creating your own set but need help with it!

[winscenario]

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately my main issue here is that I wasn’t warned beforehand that there was a deadline to decide on powers and apply, and I’m having an incredibly busy week/weekend at work, at best I will only have time to sit down and look at this properly the next friday October 4th. I feel like this has been sprung on us out of the blue and if I’d been warned like a couple weeks ago then I could’ve done it when I had the time, which I don’t now.

Is there some way to send in my application a few days later, or alternately go through the event with no powers whatsoever?

[asgardmods]

We're sorry that you missed the notice about this! It was mentioned in our recent update about god powers, but we'll make note of the time limit in our acceptance letter moving forward so no one misses out. Since you've already notified us way in advance, don't worry about getting your application in right on the 30th, although we would ask you to submit it as soon as you are able so we can focus on the new characters coming into the game for October.

If you can, please send us a PM reminding us that we've discussed this already so we can keep the notification in our inbox. We apologize again for not advertising this more clearly! And we will definitely mark it on our acceptance pages moving forward. Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns!

[winscenario]

Yeah that’s a really small note that’s easy to miss. If I can, I’d suggest adding a note on the god powers page and/or the FAQ so people know that there’s a deadline to submit for god powers after acceptance. I checked both after acceptance but since there were no dates there I relaxed thinking I’d have time to read over everything and decide calmly. Now I don’t even know if I’ll have the time to do this unless I sacrifice some hours of sleep to submit it on time, and undoubtedly stress myself out over it in the process.

[asgardmods]

It's completely understandable to have missed it, and it's a great idea to add this information in as many places as we can. However, it has been two months since your acceptance to the game, and the god powers are an active mechanic broadly advertised in general. We want to have the previous round of applicants processed before we start bringing in new applicants so we don't get swamped by it; the god powers are by far the most labor intensive part of moderating this game for us. The option to customize your set is there for your enjoyment, but you do also have to be mindful of submitting an application at some point to take advantage of it.

Still, you can take your time with putting your application together as soon as you are able. If we still haven't heard from you by the end of October, we will assign a sample set and you will not be able to change it (unless we decide to allow adjustments to the second/third levels as mentioned). Please understand that we aren't requiring this as a punishment for not submitting an application yet; we simply need to have our applications fully processed on time to keep our work load manageable. We will add language to all mentions of the god powers to make this clear for everyone entering the game. Your powers have to be settled at some point to meet this fixed mechanic, whether you play with them ICly or not.

Thank you again for bringing your concerns to us, and don't hesitate to reach out for help with your set if you have ideas but maybe not the time to finalize it. We're happy to help with this so you aren't scrambling in the dark.

[winscenario]

I’ll try to submit it by the 30th nevertheless, but if you can give me an extra couple days that’ll be a great help, thank you. If I can’t manage to find the time I’ll just pick one of the suggestions you have on the page.

[asgardmods]

That sounds perfect. Thank you for your understanding!

[invicto]

No, thank you for your willingness to help. I'd also like to apologize for having spoke in such a brutish way last night, I've been having a stressful couple of weeks and yesterday was particularly difficult on me, but of course that's no excuse to be rude to others. So I'm sorry again, and I wanted to let you know that I genuinely appreciate your efforts to accommodate all of us and to help me manage to get this done. I will try my best to get this done before the 30th, so I'm not an added burden to you when apps open and new players roll in.