Pre-Opening Address: Welcome to El Nysa.

[natha]

Good evening, El Nysa. Thank you for your continual patience as we tidy up the communities in wake of game opening. We know it has been quite an extended application cycle. All this preparation is to secure a smooth and worth-while game opening that you, our players, expect and deserve. We are nearly there with five days left, and we are just excited as you are.

There are some topics we wish to go over with you tonight, some more important than others. We’ll start with the most important:

Application Cycles, and subsequently, Activity Requirements.

The next application cycle will begin Friday, September 1st. That means we'll be here for a good month and a half before potential fresh blood comes in. The initial reason for this is fairly simple: because the game opens on mid-month, July 15th, we wanted our players to get their footing with the game's setting, as well as get accustomed to our approach at events and plots before it gets chaotic for the application cycles again.

This extra time will also allow us, the mods, to see what works and what doesn't. We will be observing to see what our playerbase tends to gravitate towards when the write-ups and quests come around. And finally, this also gives us the mods and you the players an opportunity to get to know each other's styles.

All that to say that a 4-week cycle is simply too short for all of this to be possible.

That brings us to our next topics of discussion, in two parts: first, activity requirements. Despite the extended activity check cycle, we will not be changing the requirements outlined here for the first round, so you may rest assured of that. Activity checks will begin on Sunday, August 27th and will last for four days. Please consider tracking modposts as a helpful reminder.

Now, this raises an interesting issue that we would like to propose and discuss with you as our playerbase: because of everything outlined above, we are considering the possibility of keeping these 6-week app/activity cycles permanently. If we do, that means that activity requirements will subsequently be bumped slightly to match the extended time. While we are pretty set on the 6-week cycle proposal, we are still open to discussion about activity requirements. Please let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Rooming & Housing Arrangements.

This is a topic that has been brought up several times. We initially wanted to randomize rooming arrangements complete with a list, but had decided against it because we found we wouldn't have time to maintain another list. That is why all rooming and housing may be arranged by you.

There are two primary locations your character will find themselves: first, Olympia's "starter" dormitories, and second (to a far lesser degree), Thesa Station living quarters.

Thesa Station's living situation is completely randomized, but no one has "permanent" rooms unless they personalize their area somehow. Additionally, it will be rare that all of the Refugees will be back at the station at once; once they descend to El Nysa, they will be able to return to the Station whenever they please. For this reason, we don't feel it's necessary to have a list of the rooming assignments for Thesa, but if you would like to, by all means!

For Olympia, the starter dormitories range from 2-4 people quarters, all unisex, and again randomized. We will have a section on the CR meme Wednesday for you to declare your rooming plans. Emi, the player of Porpentina Goldstein (goldsteins) and Artoria Pendragon (estimable), has stepped up to volunteer to set up an organized rooming list. If anyone else is interested in helping, please be sure to contact her. Once she has gotten a group, mods may again be approached so that we can disclose the dormitory floor plans for this benefit.

For plot reasons, we will not be releasing the rest of Olympia's locations page until game open.

On Discord, Taken list, Username Directory, Natha REP, and TDM.

THE DISCORD CHANNEL. For those who are unaware, we have a Discord Server that is created for players to get to know eachother. While it's not a requirement, we do answer minor questions there quite frequently. Like all communities, there are ground rules. Please be sure to check the #rules channel before chatting.

THE TAKEN LIST has been updated. Please let us know if there are any errors.

THE NETWORK USERNAME DIRECTORY. Zee, our Bruce Wayne (beknight) and Asha Greyjoy (laveers) has created a Network Username Directory for your reference. This is an opt-in. As written by Zee themselves: "your character will need to ICly install a phone app to view the entire list. If your character wouldn't do that, please right click and delete the row." Please contact Zee if you have any questions.

YOUR FIRST NATHA REP. Please remember to submit your Training Module threads for your first NATHA REP. The deadline is this Saturday, July 15th. While the thread would count for both characters as long as they're of qualifying length, we require both players post their own comments. Include your character's name and series in the comment for ease of reading and listing. Thank you!

Finally, THE TEST DRIVE MEME. We will not be providing an additional overflow. Please move the threads into your journals if reCAPTCHA becomes an issue.

That concludes our first mod address. We will not be giving access to the OOC community until after the CR/Intro meme to avoid mass confusion. Please refer to the thread below if you have any questions.

Comments

QUESTIONS.

[natha]

[unprays]

hi mods! about the housing on olympia: how strict is the 2-4 person limit? would it be possible to somehow cram 5 people in one housing unit, even if ICly one (or more) would have been assigned to a different dormitory? and if this isn't possible, how close are the different dormitories/quarters to each other?

[natha]

Officially, the limit is 4. You may cram 5 people into a housing unit, so long as the landlord doesn't find out.

[global]

Hi mods! If we want to squeeze 5 people into a house but they're all strangers and dont want to squat, is it possible for there to be a paperwork error or something like that? And would they all get beds or does someone have to sleep on the floor...

[natha]

That is entirely possible! The starter houses are messes; some are used as storage, which means that it's possible they were stuffed in a house with an extra cot/mattress. We'll leave the creativity up to you!

[ruffboi]

Re six week cycles, I think it timing wise, that sounds like a good amount of time. But my first thought was that this would mean apps/AC doesn't come around at the same time of month every time. I see that as less of a problem with app cycles than with AC. Even with the goal of tracking the mod comm, I find it's kind of confusing when AC isn't the same time of the month every time. It's just easier to think in your head, oh, last week of the month, Nysa AC coming up, better make sure I'm ready!

Anyway I won't be put out if you go with six weeks or anything, but that's my 2 cents.

[natha]

Just a thought, maybe: what if the AC cycle remains at the end of every month regardless of the differing app cycle? Would you consider that too confusing?

[ruffboi]

Personally I'd be fine with that! The downside of de-synching AC and apps is that if you're waiting for someone to idle so you can app you might have to wait longer, and if the apps and AC are happening at the same time of month that might be burdensome on the mods, but personally I'd prefer AC at the same time of the month every month, yeah.

Maybe that's just me, though!

[coolerjunpei]

Going to chime in here because I literally google searched a calendar to try and draw out what this would look like and it messed me up already, sooo: I agree that AC being fixed in the month is the best way to go. That said, apps being out of sync with AC feels like something that would get confusing, especially in regards to the "first month" of AC for a given player/character. For example- eventually there will be an app round that's the week before fixed AC, meaning technically those players have less time before their first AC than people who apped during the week right after AC, when that cycle arrangement turns up. If "first month free" AC is applied like it is at other games, that also would then raise the issue of people having staggered numbers between their ACs that they're "required" to provide for. this is a mess, i drew a calendar, it was bad

I just feel like breaking up n*sync here is going to lead to more confusion of keeping track of who owes AC and when after they app in, but maybe that's just me.

[luxuriant]

I agree with the problems illustrated here, as well as the ones above, that having certain dates set is just more convenient for not only players, but for mods to keep things going in a timely manner and have a rhythm set. Basically, months are already organized for us neatly like they are.

What my suggestion would be is an app round every OTHER month, but AC every month. I would also suggest that AC be free for the first month when you app in, if you feel 4 weeks of the first settling in to not be enough to gather! I think AC should be the same days (the last week of the month, let's say), and apps should always run the same days (the first five days of a month).

That's what I think would work best to address everything! The main thing you'd have to consider then is the types of events you'd carry on app months and non app months, but in my opinion that's not too difficult of a problem and can help new players get involved a lot more.

[coolerjunpei]

i will agree w/ this

[natha]

This is a wonderful suggestion. If the majority of the playerbase are in favor of app cycles being every other month, then we will implement it in the following cycle. Thank you all for your input.

[motivation]

I agree. Of all the possible options, I think this is the one that's the least confusing and least work for everyone, especially the mods - and waiting two more weeks in order to app a character hopefully won't kill anyone.

tl;dr: +1

[otiosity]

I agree with this comment. I feel like being able to just in my head know when AC is without having to calculate is really helpful. I could see myself forgetting otherwise, especially if it landed over a trip or something and was different from all my other games.

+1

[kimaris]

I had the same thought! Six weeks is a perfectly fine amount of time, but doesn't fall neatly into any fixed date which could make it a little bit of a hassle. But it's definitely up to you mods about what would be easier/better for the game, so I'm supportive of whatever you choose!

Alternatively, you could try the six weeks out thing for a second app round, see how much you like it?

[rhygret]

Personally I think that the best option would be whatever is the least amount of work for you guys as mods considering the size of the game. If you can set google calendars up to repeat the app/AC cycles automatically so you don't need to keep track of it and it's not an issue then I don't see much wrong with the proposed system (aside from what's been brought up below re: waiting for ac idles/drops vs apps).

I think you made a good call on not maintaining another list as far as housing goes, and I think maybe taking that same mentality here too would be good. If calculating and managing the timing every six weeks would be be another item added to the plate, maybe a fixed date might be better?

i.e. Having a fluid date means that the reserves (which currently lists the 3rd of every month as their expiry) & apps page need to be updated every month to reflect this changing date. I don't see an AC page right now so I'm not sure if you're going to have a static one or a posted check-in for the cycle, but either way there you're going to be posting a whole new entry with a different date every time or updating the page every time to reflect the dates. WHICH I KNOW IS A 2-SECOND EDIT but it can add up if you have a lot of tiny things to edit and change.

So I guess it comes down to how much extra tiny work you feel like doing :|a Of course you could always just have a link that says "refer to the calendar for dates pertaining to x".


THIS GOT LONG sorry.