State of the Game

[etrayamods]

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.

Locations

• 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.

Missions

• 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!

Meta Plot

• 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!

If you prefer to provide your feedback in private, we have our mod contact post which is always open to players.

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.

Comments

[oblige]

Hi, mods!

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!

[etrayamods]

Thank you for the suggestion! We think this is a good idea and will begin working a post to suit mission suggestions here shortly.

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!