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

[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