First thing's first! The mod apps closed a few days ago and we are pleased to present our new mods
Ingrid (player of Byakuya Togami and Carlos the Scientist) and
Duck (player of Maedhros and Celeborn). We're sure they will do a great job \o/
Now, with that out of the way, we move on to the meat of the stuff that has been incoming for about a month and a half and kept getting put off because Fi-mod was pathetically sick. Please click
here for a
tl;dr of all the below points, but we would appreciate it if you took the time to read them all and offered any input you have in the comments.
So, what's the problem?The current problem is simple. Over the past year or so we have taken on a great deal of plot material which is now serving us absolutely no purpose at all. It is unfortunately dragging the overall game down and making it difficult for players to feel they can really make an impact (as nobody really seems to know what's going on!). NPCs are overly cryptic because of this uncertainty, when they might otherwise offer more information.
It has created a great deal of extra mod work which is entirely unnecessary and is not something which the mod team has been enjoying having to handle and, as Fi-mod was often told in her uni days, if you are struggling then the reader knows that you are! You are our 'readers' and we want to write the best story that we can for you.
Okay, what are you going to do about it?What we are going to do, first of all, is cut out a lot of the dead wood. As you may have noticed (or not noticed) already, the 'threat' page has been gone for quite some time - this was an easy enough decision to make, as we feel you are all creative enough to conjure up a monster attack if that's what you want to play. You are most certainly
allowed to do this! Ruby City is not supposed to be a
safe place.
There is also going to be an alteration in how events are laid out. It has become clear to us that the 'rumour war' setup, while good in theory, has never panned out in the way it was originally intended to. With that in mind we will be ceasing to run them as we have been doing (as they create a great deal of mod work for very little payoff) but don't worry, that doesn't mean that events are going to stop having an effect on how the city behaves - in fact, the intention is to make them more relevant than ever. What we hope to do by cutting out the hefty amount of fiddly work behind the scenes is to create events which we enjoy running as much as you enjoy playing in. More details about this will be outlined below!
Another, very firm change that we are going to make is the dissolution of the 'Ikaros' character. While his introduction was well-meant, we have found him incredibly difficult to manage as a concept and feel that his presence causes too many problems in running the other NPCs. Your characters are free to remember him and question his lack of presence, but he will not be appearing in the game again. We do not want to drag out the removal of this NPC as he is not really relevant to many player characters, and many of them will have never met him at all.
Moving over to the other NPCs... it has become abundantly clear that we have far too many! Again, a well-intentioned introduction has turned into something of a nightmare from an operational standpoint, and we have had problems with keeping up numbers in terms of people who wish to play them as well as explaining how they really relate to one another. As such, and since none of the 'Vice' characters are being actively played, each 'pair' of Virtue/Vice characters will be pulled together into one character, reducing the number back down to seven. This isn't going to be an easy transition for them (and don't worry about Chassie, we have no intentions of making her into any more of a strange child than she already is), but we are confident that it will make things far, far simpler going forwards. Our seven main NPCs were always supposed to be the 'bad guys' - or, at least, to be perceived as such by most - and their ability to have an impact is something that we need to get back. This, being far more of a shift will not be something that just 'happens' - but more on this is outlined below.
What else? Keep reading!
How is all that going to work?Hopefully with the assistance, patience and blessing of the playerbase. We want everyone to be able to enjoy their time here and know that many of you have a great amount of love for the game. We want it to be the best it can be, and right now there are many things holding it back.
There are two ways in which we can achieve what we want to with the NPCs. The first is passive on behalf of the players (for the most part), in which actions by Chassie will prompt an event, after which our aim will be achieved. The second option is one which is active on behalf of the players and - while still being led by Chassie - will involve more active input from player characters. Both of these options are perfectly acceptable to the mod team, and we will put it to yourselves to decide if you would like to take the 'active' path a little closer to the end of the month. Either way, this will not simply 'happen' in the background and your characters will definitely be affected in some way - the choice will simply decide how much.
What does that mean for our characters?Mostly, these changes mean that we will have the ability to put things in place which will give character actions far more of an impact over the setting of the game. This, which was what was originally intended right at the start, will result in what your characters do directly affecting their environment - sometimes in ways they might not have expected.
In terms of NPC interactions, there will be the potential for far more of them, and a more solid background theme.
How will things in the game change?As stated above, your characters will have a better ability to impact how their environment changes. This includes the overall setting, wildlife behaviour, and even in some cases the overall tone of events. How we propose to do this is by tracking character actions month by month, when they hit one or two particular Vices or Virtues. The Virtue NPCs have always been heavily impacted by the actions of those around them, and we would like to use that.
It hasn't always been the case that the Virtue NPCs have had such a direct impact on the environment of the game itself, but this is where the blending of the two sides comes in. The introduction of the Vice NPCs did allow this connection, and the NPCs overall become more and more what they are perceived to be due to the effect that their connection with Ruby City has on them as individuals (as well as their own desires). As such, we feel that this would be a fine way to bring in some real connection between what player characters do and how the world they are inhabiting behaves.
Should this idea be met with overall approval, the NPC page will be reworked to give each NPC an overall 'score' and a monthly 'score'. On this page and during AC periods you will be encouraged to let us know when your character does something that you would consider aligning directly with an NPC trait. For some characters this will be easier to pinpoint than others, but we have faith in you! Depending upon the monthly score under each NPC, the month following the AC check will display the effects. This means that these 'effects' will roll over due to the timing of the activity check (for example, the bulk of May's effects would be shown in July).
tl;dr- There is far too much going on in the game. It's just a big tangled mess! We want to parse it all down and make it easier and more fun for everyone.
- To do this, we're going to cut out a lot of unnecessary and unneeded things currently clogging the game up and keeping us from moving forwards.
- How we are going to do this is through one event, or two connected events, which will be prompted by Chassie. As may have been noticed in her last post, she's tired of people fighting all the time. How much of an impact your characters have in driving the direction of these events will be up to you!
- After this is all done, we will be back down to seven NPCs, a different event structure and in a better position to do everything we wanted to from the start.
- Our end aim is to allow the player characters to have a far bigger impact on their surroundings through their own actions, driving the development of the environment around them.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rubycitymods