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etrayaooc2026-02-20 11:39 am
etrayamods) wrote in etrayaooc2026-02-20 11:39 am
Entry tags:
State of the Game
Hello, Etrayans!
Here is a summary of recent updates to the game, as well as some requests for feedback!
Activity Rewards
- The Activity page was revised, and a new method for acquiring reward points was added that utilizes a written summary instead of tracking number of comments.
- Adding locations as an AC reward was removed, but you can still renovate existing locations for 30 points.
- The Locations page has had a map update.
- After a character has been in the game for at least six months, the player can request a free location for them, one per lifetime of the character in the game. We started tracking these requests in January, so everyone has started from a clean slate there.
- On the upcoming intro CR meme for this app round, we will be including a new thread where people can advertise locations their characters frequent. This is a way of encouraging people to make use of the locations already in game, and to plan out chance encounters or assumed CR as desired.
- Please continue to leave mission suggestions on this post or anywhere else to us to your heart's content! We do save these and have used several of them in the past.
- The game has gotten much bigger than originally anticipated, and we've been experimenting with the mission formats to hopefully accommodate a variety of play styles. We started adding exploratory leads and optional meta plot involved side quests in missions, and we're interested in your feedback on how that's gone!
- We would also like to invite people to come to us with offers to run missions or events of your own on the Plotting page. This can be an IC effort or just one you as the player are volunteering for. Although we can't guarantee we'll take up every offer, we know we have some motivated, capable, and creative players in game, and we want to open up the idea!
- The Story Thus Far page has been updated.
- Also on the Story Thus Far page, all of the previously distributed notes pertaining to the meta plot are available here out of character, and thanks to the addition of an in-character data repository, several are available for player characters to view.
- We encourage players to come to us if you're interested in exploring the meta plot further, and would love some feedback on how to balance plot within the overall pace of the game! Is there enough meta plot for you right now? Too much? Not enough? Let us know down below!
Finally, this month marks Etraya's 2-year anniversary and we want to thank everyone for making this game what it is! We've come so much farther than we ever thought we would. We all as mods appreciate all of you so much.
mission suggestions.
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Like lmfao i'm imagining that bit in Lilo & Stitch where she's like "dear God i need a friend send me your nicest angel" and then it hard cuts to Stitch cackling maniacally...
But like yeah imagining we respond to a call to the supposed heavens that isn't related to Echo's efforts at all but can be taken advantage of would be interesting to me just as a setup B]
Precisely WHAT about us collectively that could be the clincher is what I'm still chinscratching on; maybe we got some imperviousness to whatever is blighting said world on account of being outsiders or sth? Isekai stink. Or idk only strangers from distant realms/heavens can pilot the combining mecha to defeat our enemies etc etc...
general game questions.
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How are these widely available if the notes were distributed to specific individuals who have not come forward with them?
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I have a suggestion for something that worked quite well in other mission-based games I've been in prior. Would it be possible to have a permanent post we could reply to with mission suggestions, linked in navigation? I feel it would both encourage sharing of ideas and let people glance over and easily see if someone else had the same thought before.
Regarding balancing, I personally would like more time in exploratory missions such as the last one. I can't speak to the general sentiment of fellow players, but I got the impression it took a bit of time for groups to find their footing, and then the mission was ICly over. Since it felt to me that there was a great deal of potential, I'd love to see an exploration/survival mission have a longer duration in the future. Conversely, I find I struggle with when slice-of-life style events run long, so mileage will surely vary. My hope is that these variable durations will be mixed between the meatier and lighter events where feasible.
Thank you for all of your hard work!
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As for timing with exploratory missions - you're correct in that we do try to work with variable durations depending on the context of the mission to suit the wide variety of play styles we have in game. We are wanting to include more exploratory missions in the future, and will keep in mind that having them longer does assist in successfully exploring through new grounds for some!
Thank you again, Ren, for your suggestions. We love having you around and appreciate your input!
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I haven't been here long enough to experience a huge variety in missions, so grain of salt, but the last one missed the mark for me on one factor. Team missions for team-centric CR? YES! Choosing your own team? Alas, no. Granted, there weren't a lot of us who didn't get picked, for whatever reason, but if you intend for everyone to have an equal opportunity to be on some kind of team and there are still leftovers? Kind of a problem. I'm wholeheartedly into teams but going forward, I'd suggest only having RNG'd teams if you have to stick to teams of limited numbers. Leftovers may be able to pretend they still had some sort of useful role in the mission but lbr, it feels like failure and being unwanted, and nobody enjoys that. We also didn't get to really thread anything that would have led to IC success, and that also kind of sucks.
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We're sorry that the way we did team assignments didn't work for you this time around. We do want to let you know that we try to mix it up - sometimes, we offer RNG as a main way to build teams while allowing players to specify if they want a specific other character in their character's group, while other times we ask players to build their own teams and offer RNG to those who cannot find teams or do not want to look for them. Choosing teams and RNG is generally always an option during missions with smaller teams, though we do tend to swap which option is the "main" one.
We've found that mixing it up works well for most players, as sometimes allowing players to determine teams helps to work towards specific CR goals, while sometimes people do prefer to build CR via RNG. As a game that is generally heavy on back-tagging, we do try to include ways for people to thread outside of teams in every mission that includes teams, and we're always happy to respond to plotting happening in older missions as necessary.
Striking the right balance is always a work in progress and we appreciate your feedback! We will keep it in mind going forward.
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