![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
MOD ANNOUNCEMENT: EXPLORATIONS UPDATE
Aug. 6th, 2019 05:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inthenightmodsHey there, players! If you're one of the folks that's put in an exploration request or started a thread with one of the NPCs, you've probably noticed that things are moving pretty slowly in those parts of the game. That hasn't gone unnoticed by us mods either, and we want to start off this announcement with an apology. There's no excuse for the delays there, but the issue has more to do with us learning to balance our workloads a bit more efficiently than a lack of interest.
Anyway, point is, we've decided to make some changes to the exploration system to help with this backlog! Between some very generous player suggestions and our own brainstorming, this is what we've come up with:
From this point forward, explorations will be broken into two categories: Minor explorations and expeditions. In addition, we'll be implementing some limitations on how often expeditions can be submitted.
Minor explorations are pretty much what it says on the tin. Some characters have taken initiative on the explorations page to do things such as communicating with the forest spirits in town, interacting with the church's trap door, communicating with the lighthouse via Morse code, building structures, throwing crap into the river, etc. All of these count as minor explorations in that they take place within the discovered (and therefore safe) areas of town; they aren't lengthy quests into the great unknown. We will not be implementing any limitations on minor explorations.
Expeditions are the types of explorations where characters are venturing out into undiscovered portions of the map. These explorations typically take a bit longer to thread out as they're more complicated for a number of reasons. In order to better manage our workload as mods, there may only be 5 active expeditions happening at one time. To keep track of this, the explorations page has been updated with an OPEN/CLOSED system similar to what you'd find on the apps page. We'll also comment to the page itself when the status changes so that players can track the page (or track toplevels to that page) for updates. We won't be doing a separate announcement every time explorations open/close as that would be... annoying, frankly! We don't want to spam you.
Since expedition slots are now limited, each character in the game will also be limited to 1 expedition per month to make space for everyone to get in on doing cool stuff in the game. Again, this does not apply to minor explorations—do wacky stuff in town to your heart's content! This limit also applies only to characters, not to players. Players with more than one character may send each of their characters out on an expedition over the month, though if we notice anyone appears to be doing more than their fair share of expeditioning, we do reserve the right to ask you to wait to give others a shot.
We know that these limits may be a bit of a bummer to you folks, but we want to assure you it will come with the benefit of faster responses. With these limits in place, we as a mod team will be better able to stay on top of the expeditions/explorations currently running, which will allow us to resolve threads much more quickly to avoid holding up any expedition groups. Since we'll be able to dedicate more time to fewer expeditions, we'll be able to clear the queue in a more timely matter, which will ultimately result in more folks being able to do stuff without waiting around for mod replies. And if that doesn't work out, we're still open to feedback and altering the system in the future if need be! As always, we so appreciate your willingness as a playerbase to learn with us and to provide us with feedback to help improve the game experience.
As of now, the expedition page is closed until further notice while we work through the stuff we already have on deck. Given the nature of expeditions, we can't say for sure when it'll be open again, but keep an eye on the page! We'll do our best to have more slots open soon.
Thanks everyone! Please ask any questions you may have below.
Anyway, point is, we've decided to make some changes to the exploration system to help with this backlog! Between some very generous player suggestions and our own brainstorming, this is what we've come up with:
From this point forward, explorations will be broken into two categories: Minor explorations and expeditions. In addition, we'll be implementing some limitations on how often expeditions can be submitted.
Minor explorations are pretty much what it says on the tin. Some characters have taken initiative on the explorations page to do things such as communicating with the forest spirits in town, interacting with the church's trap door, communicating with the lighthouse via Morse code, building structures, throwing crap into the river, etc. All of these count as minor explorations in that they take place within the discovered (and therefore safe) areas of town; they aren't lengthy quests into the great unknown. We will not be implementing any limitations on minor explorations.
Expeditions are the types of explorations where characters are venturing out into undiscovered portions of the map. These explorations typically take a bit longer to thread out as they're more complicated for a number of reasons. In order to better manage our workload as mods, there may only be 5 active expeditions happening at one time. To keep track of this, the explorations page has been updated with an OPEN/CLOSED system similar to what you'd find on the apps page. We'll also comment to the page itself when the status changes so that players can track the page (or track toplevels to that page) for updates. We won't be doing a separate announcement every time explorations open/close as that would be... annoying, frankly! We don't want to spam you.
Since expedition slots are now limited, each character in the game will also be limited to 1 expedition per month to make space for everyone to get in on doing cool stuff in the game. Again, this does not apply to minor explorations—do wacky stuff in town to your heart's content! This limit also applies only to characters, not to players. Players with more than one character may send each of their characters out on an expedition over the month, though if we notice anyone appears to be doing more than their fair share of expeditioning, we do reserve the right to ask you to wait to give others a shot.
We know that these limits may be a bit of a bummer to you folks, but we want to assure you it will come with the benefit of faster responses. With these limits in place, we as a mod team will be better able to stay on top of the expeditions/explorations currently running, which will allow us to resolve threads much more quickly to avoid holding up any expedition groups. Since we'll be able to dedicate more time to fewer expeditions, we'll be able to clear the queue in a more timely matter, which will ultimately result in more folks being able to do stuff without waiting around for mod replies. And if that doesn't work out, we're still open to feedback and altering the system in the future if need be! As always, we so appreciate your willingness as a playerbase to learn with us and to provide us with feedback to help improve the game experience.
As of now, the expedition page is closed until further notice while we work through the stuff we already have on deck. Given the nature of expeditions, we can't say for sure when it'll be open again, but keep an eye on the page! We'll do our best to have more slots open soon.
Thanks everyone! Please ask any questions you may have below.
