Mod Announcement

[sodder]

Regarding AC

Hello! It has been brought to our attention that our AC could use some improvement and we completely agree.

This game is brand new and we are still trying to figure out the best pacing for the game itself, so we do appreciate everyone's patience as we find our bearings with what will work best. We always knew that the AC was going to be a point of difficulty since us mods aren't particularly savvy when it comes to the math aspect of AC.

On Horror AC: We plan to clarify horror AC better on the AC post itself. Things that count towards horror AC.

Since it seems like there has been some mild confusion around horror AC and as this is the first month for horror AC, we will be giving the collective playerbase a pass on horror AC for just this month. If you met horror AC, that's great! You'll get rewarded AC as usual. Any horror bonus points will add up all the same. If you haven't met horror AC, it's fine to just use regular AC for just this month.

We have a theory that it might be easier to instead of grouping together AC points by batches of five, it might be easier for the player base to gain points through each individual comment equating to a single point.

We are extremely open to any ideas and suggestions that you may have as the playerbase. Let us know what you find confusing, what you find easy, or what you think would make more sense. If you are struggling with the AC or dislike it / like it in any way, this is definitely the time to speak up since we hope to make the appropriate changes and figure out a permanent AC for the game. Not that we would be opposed to changes in the future, but the less changes we need to make, the better!

Leave your advice/commentary in a comment below!

Thank you everyone for your time and patience and feedback. It's always nice to hear from everyone.

Don't worry if you've already added up your AC! This won't impact you in any way. AC will be added up the same way it was last month for this month. Any changes made to the AC will officially take place in the following AC round.

Remember: you can take a pass on the AC! So if you really are scrambling for AC because you misunderstood something, you can still check in during AC and simply receive a strike. It's not a big deal, the strike goes away the following month so long as you meet AC for that month.

Regarding the HMD

It seems that the widespread opinion for a game-wide HMD is against holding a bi-monthly HMD.

We are completely fine with this choice! It was an idea floating around that we wanted to see if anyone held an interest in, and we definitely see the validity in the various points made about it both on Plurk and on the feedback post itself.

So we won't be holding an HMD post at all! Instead we may include a part on the CR meme where one fills in a link to their character's HMD as an option for people to use if they need to.

Thanks, as always, for leaving feedback!

Comments

[lednikovyy]

I like the idea of AC/bonus AC being by the comment and not by 5 comments, but if you switch to that, I think it would be a good idea to say that AC can't be more than a certain number of pieces to avoid people tagging a bunch of stuff only 2-3 times and then dropping it all but somehow making AC anyway. I think limiting it to 3 pieces, for example, gives it flexibility to hit the 40 points without making it so easy that someone can be pretty inactive and still pass.

[ishisstrength]

What if you also did something along too; After 5 tags it's a point for every tag. That way it's easier to count up threads but players need a minimum of five for the comments to count. Sort of as a way for less dropped threads.

Also i did read through the AC and idk if backtags count for AC but maybe have something like the date of the tag has to be in that months AC period but the start of the thread can also be from the month before. That way if people have those months that they fall behind and can't start something new, they can still man AC. I'd do only one month into the past but it's an idea.

[hondoyota]

My main thought is that it's so complicated--as soon as we get into the level of "here's a handy SPREADSHEET to help you figure it out!" I think that it's way too much. I would recommend stripping down some of the complicating clarifications like the cross-canon interaction bonus: the game's just too small for this to be necessary and it stacks on already complicated AC calculations to be like add five to all of these except these two... Also I'd also rather reduce the counting by removing the stacking bonus. Instead of being able to rack up 60 points from a thread that I boomeranged, I'd rather just have 20 points per thread that meets the 5 log / 10 network requirements. No additional points for long threads. It's easy to count "yes this network thread has 10+ comments from me" and stop. I have a long inbox thread that started as texting and then moved to action and it has 24(?) comments from me and I've already counted it three times and every time I get a different number and every time I scroll down I lose track of where I was and I'd rather just not get points from it than have this headache.

My second thought is that there are too many points for the reward levels. I'm only halfway through this AC calculation and it's already looking like Adam's going to be getting points where he can just... get stabilizing gems every other month. That's too much. That stabilizing gem is a big reward that I would like to work for and save up and get in 3-6 months. Not my first month here as if these things pop out from any corner vending machine. I don't think I'm all THAT active of a player, either. I'd like rewards to feel earned rather than feeling like I could deck Adam out in stabilizing gems while sitting on a stack of magical weapons in front of his garage full of Ferarris. (Honestly this also wrecks my character arc if Adam can just suddenly afford two sports cars a month.)
[Updated with results. Unless I'm counting this significantly wrong, Adam clocked 215 regular and 185 horror points, and from the AC rewards chart he could thus afford three ferraris, a dragon large enough to ride, a stabilizing gem, and Excalibur. In his first month. That is game-breaking levels of reward points.]

[justbeingknife]

I'd say that the AC page could benefit from some better chunking, if anything. For example, I think the most important thing is ensuring people know how to turn in their base AC proof, so all information required for that should be short, grouped together towards the top, and separated completely from bonus AC (this includes the horror requirement).

In fact, I'd suggest that the ways in which you can get base AC be simplified so it's X comments over Y threads, period. To me all the "25 comments for log posts, 15 for network posts", etc. stuff is fairly complicated and a big ask for first-time ACers to understand. It's almost gamified, which hits my personal buttons because I'm a weirdo but I think it's best aimed at those willing to put in the work to file bonus AC.

There's also like four different forms, which is pretty confusing, and because of the way info is grouped now, I do feel like I have to read multiple pages of rules to feel like I understand AC -- even if the rules are actually pretty forgiving once you do understand them.

On a more specific note, the horror rewards list +5 per magical weapon, but magical weapons are 50 points, so I'm not sure if a magic knife would be 20 points or 50 points.

That aside, I'm enjoying the game a lot and I'm totally adding up all my points.

[stealyoursoul]

No system is perfect, and of course tweaking is needed as player activity settles into a pattern, but just speaking out from personal experience with these kind of rewards systems in the past before, two things strike me. Less is more. Right now, the AC pages seems unnecessarily complicated. There's four different ways to gain points through a player plot. I feel like one set amount of points for anything listed in that section would work out fine.

That brings me to the second point. There's honestly a few too many ways to gain extra points and I feel (and I will fully admit this is entirely a personal problem) unmotivated as a player to try and count them all up. It's much easier just to go with base AC and that's that. A good system I had found as a player in the past is one similar to the one Undergrounds had several years ago. The same basic problem was found at first in that too many people were gaining points far too quickly, so the system was adjusted in that more comments were needed for points. The other thing that was put into place is that characters were required to do certain activities like run a plot plus have the proper amount of points.

[hext]

i definitely prefer a point system and for each individual comment to count toward that system, rather than need to be recorded in batches of five. if absolutely necessary, we could need, for base ac, a thread to reach 5 log comments or 5 net comments (i don't see any real pressing reason for the number to be different based on type) before the thread can be counted for submission.

i do like the idea of continuing open toplevels or open network or open log posts (aka encouraging crosscanon cr) being rewarded with a touch more points than just an individual comment; aside from the fact that there's typically more writing involved as it's often a longer type of starter.

in general i like the idea of ac rewarding for effort, no matter where or how that effort was made, or how those comments were split up, especially when considering bonus ac. in particular, threads depend on two people, and sometimes those threads get dropped by one person for unforeseeable reasons due to no fault of the other partner (for example i've been slow this month due to health), and if all they could manage to get was 3 comments, i feel they should get credit for those 3 comments — not throw them away because they don't reach 5. or if it reached 9 comments for one character and came to a natural conclusion, get credit for those extra 4 comments and not throw them away.

i'm in another game that uses a point system that i actually find pretty simple to understand and reach, so i'll use it as a base example:
minimum AC is 200 points / month.
each network comment = 10 points
each log comment = 15 points
each open network post = 20 points
each open log post = 20 points (or 25, not sure)
each event toplevel = 20 points
and each comment no matter where it's made is counted toward your point level, no matter how long the thread is.

this kind of math seems a LOT simpler to use as a foundation imo? even if you want to make sure that horror points are included every other month and that not all comments are made to the same character, you can still use this AC skeleton as a base to work with. you can also increase or decrease the 200 points minimum as you see fit! just wanted to show you another option and start a conversation.