![[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}
wearethecrystalmodsHello again, Gems! We've got a couple of cool new announcements for you, as well as a...kind of mini-"How's The Game" where we'd like your opinions on some possible changes to Cosmo!
First thing's first...
☆ New Test Drive Meme
That's right! There's a brand new TDM up over this-a-way. And from here on out, we're planning to put up a new one every two months, using prompts from the last event and/or any other cool things that may have happened over those two months.
☆ Infopage Overhaul
The road to getting a new TDM up involved fixing up Cosmo's info pages for new players' sake, since they'd been around for quite a while and we'd been made aware of some contradictions and outdated information on them. When we dragged them out for what we thought would be some light touch-ups, we found...way more that needed fixing than we thought.
There were a few reasons for that. One was that the pages were simply disorganized in a lot of ways - information was distributed arbitrarily across pages that didn't need to be separated, while some pages combined unrelated information for reasons unknown. We've rearranged it into two main pages - one for OOC information, like rules, appable characters, AC standards, and other mechanical doodads, and another for IC information, like what Gems are and what characters see upon waking up - with a few peripheral topic pages, like locations, fusion, and powers.
The second reason was that there was a lot of information from the original modteam that players simply weren't using, either because it was written early enough in Steven Universe's run that it conflicted with canon (like monsters being part-human), or because it was less interesting for RP (like the Temple having one door that led to everyone's room instead of dormitory-style halls). In these cases, we tried to rewrite it according to the world our players have actually been playing in and the rules they've been playing by.
The third reason was a lack of detail in some places that really called for it. In spots like the locations page, we've added descriptions and explanations for things that already exist in Cosmo but have been left vague, with the hope that providing detail will spark creativity and encourage players to use aspects of the setting that might have been forgotten. Check out the new section on the Temple on the main Locations page!
The fourth reason, and a more minor one, is that the metaplot has undergone some drastic changes behind the scenes as the game has changed hands and information about the game's original direction has vanished in the process. There are some "retcons" in the new information pages, and we strongly encourage reading them over to get a handle on anything that might have changed. Our goal was that no players would have to do any outright "retconning" of their own, but if you have any problems with anything on the new information pages, let us know and we can help you reconcile it.
☆ Excursions?
We're still working on them. Getting this organizational stuff out of the way took priority once we realized it needed doing, since it makes up the core of the game, and the core needs to be solid before you can add flash. The good news is that, besides week-to-week maintenance stuff, this was pretty much the only thing besides Excursions that needed doing, so they're now the main project!
☆ Some Future Possibilities
Your mods have been discussing sundry aspects of the game, based on player feedback and our own observations, and we'd like your thoughts on some possible tweaks to OOC aspects of the game.
We want your feedback! Let us know what you think about any of the above, right here. We welcome feedback from those not in the game but planning to app in, too.
Thanks for your time!
First thing's first...
☆ New Test Drive Meme
That's right! There's a brand new TDM up over this-a-way. And from here on out, we're planning to put up a new one every two months, using prompts from the last event and/or any other cool things that may have happened over those two months.
☆ Infopage Overhaul
The road to getting a new TDM up involved fixing up Cosmo's info pages for new players' sake, since they'd been around for quite a while and we'd been made aware of some contradictions and outdated information on them. When we dragged them out for what we thought would be some light touch-ups, we found...way more that needed fixing than we thought.
There were a few reasons for that. One was that the pages were simply disorganized in a lot of ways - information was distributed arbitrarily across pages that didn't need to be separated, while some pages combined unrelated information for reasons unknown. We've rearranged it into two main pages - one for OOC information, like rules, appable characters, AC standards, and other mechanical doodads, and another for IC information, like what Gems are and what characters see upon waking up - with a few peripheral topic pages, like locations, fusion, and powers.
The second reason was that there was a lot of information from the original modteam that players simply weren't using, either because it was written early enough in Steven Universe's run that it conflicted with canon (like monsters being part-human), or because it was less interesting for RP (like the Temple having one door that led to everyone's room instead of dormitory-style halls). In these cases, we tried to rewrite it according to the world our players have actually been playing in and the rules they've been playing by.
The third reason was a lack of detail in some places that really called for it. In spots like the locations page, we've added descriptions and explanations for things that already exist in Cosmo but have been left vague, with the hope that providing detail will spark creativity and encourage players to use aspects of the setting that might have been forgotten. Check out the new section on the Temple on the main Locations page!
The fourth reason, and a more minor one, is that the metaplot has undergone some drastic changes behind the scenes as the game has changed hands and information about the game's original direction has vanished in the process. There are some "retcons" in the new information pages, and we strongly encourage reading them over to get a handle on anything that might have changed. Our goal was that no players would have to do any outright "retconning" of their own, but if you have any problems with anything on the new information pages, let us know and we can help you reconcile it.
☆ Excursions?
We're still working on them. Getting this organizational stuff out of the way took priority once we realized it needed doing, since it makes up the core of the game, and the core needs to be solid before you can add flash. The good news is that, besides week-to-week maintenance stuff, this was pretty much the only thing besides Excursions that needed doing, so they're now the main project!
☆ Some Future Possibilities
Your mods have been discussing sundry aspects of the game, based on player feedback and our own observations, and we'd like your thoughts on some possible tweaks to OOC aspects of the game.
Mandatory/Prompted IC Inboxes
- What? In many games, characters are expected to have a post on their journal that serves as an "IC Inbox", where other characters can contact them directly instead of making a post to the entire game. Though they're called "inboxes", they're not just for email or phone conversations, and can be used for any kind of one-on-one interaction. These would be made "mandatory" in the same way that the Stats/Permissions posts are, by prompting players to make them when they submit to the Taken Characters page, and threads from them would count for AC.
- Why? Simply enough, we think that these posts encourage players playing with each other. Some players are shy about arranging locked posts and like having a more "private" option for one-on-one tagging, while others are more likely to thread out one-on-one interactions if they have a more "spontaneous" option. If these posts are something people like to play on - and by their use in other games, this seems to be the case - it's only fair to make them part of our system and eligible for our AC.
Character Cap Decrease
- What? Paring the character cap down to four.
- Why? Six characters is a lot of characters. Also, since we're trying to evolve Cosmo into a game where there's more things to do and more ways for individual characters to influence the game world, we feel that four characters might come out to the same raw quantity of RP that six characters would have before.
AC Increase
- What? Doubling our AC requirements by requiring two "proofs", where we currently require only one.
- Why? Cosmo's AC is really slim. While we know the low AC is a draw for some players, we're also concerned that it enables character squatting. We're open to suggestions on ways to encourage activity while keeping AC pressure low.
Game-wide HMDs
- What? Regular "How's My Driving?" posts where players post their characters and others can let them know of any considerations, concerns, or praise they might have. May be either mandatory or optional; if mandatory, our HMDs would be locked to the game's players. (If optional, our HMDs could still be locked to the game's players.)
- Why? First, because these are important to RP and always have been; having a designated time and place to raise criticism helps diffuse tension and keep communication open. Second, because they give us mods a more regular schedule for "How's The Game"-type announcements and feedback requests, instead of springing posts like this on the comm when nobody's specifically expecting it.
We want your feedback! Let us know what you think about any of the above, right here. We welcome feedback from those not in the game but planning to app in, too.
Thanks for your time!
