MOD HMD;

[asgardmods]

Hello, hello! It's time for Asgard's first ever:

How's My Driving: The Mod Edition
which we hope is every bit as exciting for you as it is for us. As you may or may not know, last September marked the year anniversary of Autumn, Draggy, and me being mods in Asgard, and this December marks the two year anniversary of Asgard as a whole. We think the very best way of celebrating these awesome landmarks is to bend over and cough to make sure everything is working okay! If this HMD proves fruitful, we may consider doing one of these at the end of each story arc. So slap on some gloves and give us your everything, guys, this is open forum.

If you aren't interested in participating in mod HMD and would like to skip ahead to the player poll RE: Arc 4 and endgame, go here!

HOW THIS WORKS

Responding to this meme is not mandatory. However, we would greatly appreciate any and all feedback / criticism you might have, as it helps us better the game for your enjoyment. This post will not be comm-locked as the player HMD is, because the face of the game affects not only current players but past and future players as well, so we are leaving this open to everything. Anon is disabled, however, because we feel that our players are the only speaking authority on the game's successes and failures and we want to know that we can have a discussion with our players.

Because we understand that dishing out crit is not the easiest of tasks, we've decided to break down the things we feel are most important to be addressed so that you can simply respond to them if you feel the need. Think of it like the "Known Problems" part of the player HMD; these are the things we would most like feedback on, but they are by no means the limit to what there is to critique, so you can make your own comments as you like. The basic breakdown will be as follows:

• EVENT FEEDBACK: We've listed out every event from Arc 3 with links to all related informations posts / logs in separate comments. You guys can give us your thoughts on the successes / failures of each one individually or on the month as a whole.
  • Consider the set-up of the logs and the timing of the events. Was enough information given to understand the event? Was there enough for you to work with in terms of plotting, or were you left uncertain of what to do? Do you like our use of volunteer positions or do you think we do it too often / not often enough? Things like that!
  • We also listed the opt-out options that we've given in separate comments. Please let us know whether or not these opt-out options have worked for you. Did they help keep your interaction with any plot you didn't want involved with to a minimum? Were they interesting / enjoyable alternatives to the main plot event? Is there anything you would like to see more of? Etcetera, etcetera.
• TONE / PACING FEEDBACK: Let us know how this Arc's set-up worked for you. Were the events placed far enough apart / too close together? Were there too many of them? Did the tone fit the theme of the story arc? Was it too dark / too light-hearted / an uneven mishmash of all the squishy bits inbetween?
• NPC FEEDBACK: You can call out one NPC in particular or speak to the presence of the NPC cast as a whole. Are they fun to interact with? Are they easily accessible / do they make enough appearances? Is there anything we should encourage more / less of?
• INDIVIDUAL MOD FEEDBACK: If you feel the need to address any one of us in specific, here is the place to do so! We do pretty much everything together, as we have constant communication up in the background, but if there's something any one of us has done that you'd like to discuss, we're happy to do so.
• MISCELLANEOUS FEEDBACK: For anything we might not've covered in our headers!

And that's pretty much it as far as the HMD goes. It's a free-for all, so respond to as much or as little as you'd like wherever you'd like. This post won't really close, since there is no deadline or AC for it, so feel free to respond and discuss at your leisure. We appreciate anything and everything you guys have to say to us, so have at it!

Before you go, though, we want to talk shop with you all. Arc 4 will begin in January, and though the overall storyline will follow Yggdrasil's collapse, it will also be pushing us closer to Ragnarok 2.0, which will likely take place in Arc 5 and ultimately conclude Asgard Eventide's run. Because of this significance, we are going to let you guys decide what direction the game takes as we move towards end-game. This is super duper important, so even if you don't choose to participate in the HMD, please still vote in this poll! To make room for questions and discussion, we've put the poll in a separate post over here.

Comments

EVENT FEEDBACK

[asgardmods]

Going by month, we will list every plot event / special event / opt-out event we've hosted for all of Arc 3, which was our very first story arc written entirely by the new mod team. Giving us feedback on these events will help us in writing the upcoming story arcs to make sure what we do works for you guys. Both positive and negative criticism is welcomed!

HOLES

[asgardmods]

The Holes events were introduced in August both as a fun way to bring in things from your canons to become in-world features, but also as another hint towards Arc 3's conclusion and Yggdrasil's collapse. Things falling into the universe is not a good omen! Let us know if you guys enjoy having these things around, if it's been fun to tinker with canon features, or if it just feels like unnecessary noise!

RUNDOWN || AUGUST || SEPTEMBER || OCTOBER || NOVEMBER

JULY

[asgardmods]

SPECIAL EVENT: TRIUMPH AND TRAVELLERS

[asgardmods]

Our 4th wall event, and the first event that was intended to hint towards Arc 3's conclusion with the earthquake and the tear between the realms. This is officially when Yggdrasil started showing signs of collapse.

RUNDOWN || LOG || LOG || NPC POST || NPC POST

PLOT EVENT: SOMEBODY'S POISONED THE WATERHOLE

[asgardmods]

This event was meant to show the consequences of the Travellers' earlier decision to spare the life of Thiazi's spy. We wanted to try showing that the Travellers do have influence over affairs and that the choices you make have an effect on the plot and the world.

RUNDOWN || LOG || NPC POST || PC POST

AUGUST

[asgardmods]

SEPTEMBER

[asgardmods]

OCTOBER

[asgardmods]

NOVEMBER

[asgardmods]

DECEMBER

[asgardmods]

[ex_outofcontrol435]

My only request as far as events go, and this counts for all of them, would be that the catch-all logs be divided by day rather than district when there are drastic differences between days. Personally, I'd find it easier to track down the kinds of comments I'm looking for that way, as it doesn't often matter where the character is - the chaos tends to send people spreading everywhere - but I tend to have specific plans for each day. I also forget where I've placed each top-level comment sometimes for that very reason, so days would just be more intuitive to me personally.

That said, the more free-form events have mostly had thread guides, and those have been AMAZING. I know they're a lot of work, so I won't expect one for every event, but they really are a huge help and appreciated more than you could imagine.

[2cool4guardian]

Sorry, also commenting on the way log are presented to tag (all ok with your explanations, those are very clear!). Wouldn't be easier jut not to have top level comments by the mods at all? I found that the easier log to navigate has been the apple-blessings one, where we didn't have TLCs. I could see all by just scrolling, without having to expand, and the log would break in pages which would make it load faster. You mentioned the problem with Vanaheim, but to honest I don't see much difference with our regular logs? The houses are only a couple of headers too.

TONE / PACING FEEDBACK

[asgardmods]

In April, before we started writing Arc 3, we took a player poll to figure out what event pacing and overall tone we should strive for. The results asked for one plot event and one special event every month, and a return to the war tone with some darker events. This format has changed a little bit from month to month depending on the nature / length of the events, as well as the addition of the Holes events that are generally very minor, but we have stuck to this formula for mapping out each month with one plot event and one special event, usually alternating between darker and lighter as we feel fit.

We want to know whether or not you guys feel as though we've succeeded in this task. If we have, are you happy with this format and would like us to continue in this manner? If we haven't, what do you think we need to change to better accomplish these guidelines? Did we go too dark / not dark enough? Does it feel like we are back in the war, or are we still somewhere between fighting and exploring?

If you guys would like to motion for another shift in tone and/or pacing, let us know here. With enough player response, we will host another poll to see what everyone is thinking and try to mould to that for the next story arc. It's all up to you lot, so let us know!

Re: TONE / PACING FEEDBACK

[lt_blade]

Maybe it's because I'm still relatively new to the game, but I find it a little fast for me.

Having something happen every month, part of it makes sense because it does keep the game from getting stagnant, and it would make sense in a 'war game,' but at the same time it does come off as overwhelming to try and set up threads private or separate threads, or wondering if one should stick with gathering posts.

The tone of the game works and is a definite change from most games, but maybe separate the plots to every other month or so.

To use the war metaphor, not all war has battles all the time and there is something to be said for war as being' long periods of boredom followed by random spurts of chaos'.

[averagemedium]

Starting here and popping around TOTALLY OUT OF ORDER sorry.

personally, I've been loving the tone of things and I'm looking forward to where things go downhill from here. The only thing about the lighthearted events generally alternating with darker ones is it does kind of feel like this is eventually going to fall a bit flat as we start heading into Ragnarok 2.0? Which you guys may already be thinking about! But while the pattern doesn't feel off so far I think it might start to, especially IC, as sort of an 'okay yeah that's a nice band-aid but we've got bigger problems' thing. On the other hand I totally get that a stream of EVERYTHING SUCKS becomes less than fun, especially for people that really want the lighter ones. This is just looking at the lighter events we've had so far though!

So on that note, going forward, I think it'd be good to see the lighter events as more like the fix-it event and less like the festival (WHICH I LOVED don't get me wrong here). More 'let's gain a little ground back' or working toward other helpful goals as the light events feels like it'd fit in better than a mood-booster sort of thing? Things like the festival and the prank wars seem like they might kinda detract from the 'sup, Ragnarok's coming around again' business.

But it's worked pretty well in this arc, IMO-- it feels more like things are ramping up, with the opt-outs still giving us a chance to do other things in the world like everybody doing things in Vanaheim, or the forest side trip (which I have another note on I think, if I remember to drop it there.)

Re: TONE / PACING FEEDBACK

[livedtwice]

Looking over the plot events and coming here, I think this is actually the best place to start. Because when I saw that the watering hole event was supposed to be a sign that people's actions had an effect on the flow of the city, it was a bad effect. I know people also (ICly) chose to have Thor save everyone, and I think that was a better turn on it. The biggest concern I see with the tone is that the travellers are basically presented as tools. In nearly every single plot, it's not the travellers who necessarily solve the problems, and there's no headway made by the characters themselves. It becomes more survival horror than war setting, and I don't think that's what you guys are aiming for.

I think with the poll on the direction things are going for in the next arc, things will definitely change on this front, but it does seem like the characters are hopelessly waiting to be caught in yet another thing that they can't actually rectify themselves.

I guess a little more hope would be nice. Moments where the travellers actually do achieve victories, where they come together, and so forth. OOCly, you guys might want to direct people toward what would be a more positive choice, but let people come up with that themselves and come up with a plot, more team work and building exercises and so forth. Giving people opportunities to participate in these victories are nice. Even if victories come with prices, I mean. Occasionally having moments where you have three victories and then a DEVASTATING loss would be awesome.

But my impression (and it may be incorrect) is that there have been a lot of losses, with the exception of getting Freyr's soul back. Or when there's a minor victory (ala the frost giant attack in August), it's followed by a LOT of bad things happening. And the plotting itself is beautiful and wonderful, but it might help to balance. Maybe even one victory to every three losses.

I think this does reflect on the pacing, because while the pacing is actually fine, it starts to feel like doom doom doom doom, at least from my perspective.

I'm not sure if I'm communicating this well, but some semblance of hope would be nice. Even if that comes in events like "we might all die but at least we have each other," it'd be awesome. It doesn't have to be wins, but moments where things aren't as bad. That may also be on us as players to try, but yeah!

Re: TONE / PACING FEEDBACK

[madcuriosity]

This is me personally and sort of echoing on previous statements. I think Allison said it best buuuut here I go giving it a shot.

Having come in around the beginning of Arc 2 and all the way through Arc 3, I think the pace, while realistic ICly for a war, OOCly is definitely... perhaps not rushed but it doesn't leave much room, personally I feel, for recovery?

Taking Arc 3 as example it was, as said best, doom doom doom doom FESTIVAL. And considering the combined (and even still on going) comment count of the LOOK! A DISTRACTION I think it sort of became clear that so much doom doom doom BREAK is clearly a little hard on muses and muns and levity was sort of deeply and desperately desired. Which is realistic in an actual war, but makes for a difficult long-term tone?

I'm having difficulty wording this. But I believe that maybe if muses could, as said before, feel like THEY were attributing to something in the war rather than "You are completely helpless, you'll have to send the gods in... again..." and then I feel like, it would be more realistic to HAVE maybe a small party, game wide or player plot when there is a victory done BY the muses. I also feel like all the really dark horrible things should be more spaced out more? I mean it was month after month of darker events and for me, they started to bleed together. And while that's realistic in a war, it also makes muses go "oh, world's ending... again, guess we better wait for the gods to save us this time too."

It sort of loses any poignancy because 1. Muses inevitably always have to rely on the gods. and 2. It's happening month after month after month and then Festival.

So I think, while not every other month may not be the answer (although that would certainly extend the game :D!) I do think it might be best to figure out a better balance than death death death death CAKE and then when good and bad things come, muses aren't as jaded, I think, from only having fought for their lives and their sanity only in-game-wise a few weeks earlier.

NPC FEEDBACK

[asgardmods]

Following some criticisms from earlier in the game's run, we've striven to get the NPCs more involved in events as well as making them more accessible through IC inboxes, more frequent posts, and the likes. Our NPC helper team is a great bunch of folks devoted to helping out the game and giving back to the playerbase they are a part of, so any feedback you have for any of us helps us accomplish our goal of having unique, interactive NPCs. Though we won't be doing anything like Look! A Distraction! again anytime soon, we do want to make sure that NPC presence is working out for you guys, so let us know here!

[tonsofpun]

This is an absolutely huge game and it must be stressful as hell to actually find the time to tag around as NPC's. I don't know where you guys find the time to manage it, especially with the massive amount of modwork going on.

Giant high five for you guys who manage this, especially during plots.

I think what I love the most about these characters is that they're open to quick bursts of casual, personal CR with characters in the game. I've never seen that before. Whether it's Ellie giving Thor a high-five and a thank-you for saving her ass, snapping back and forth with Fenrir, or even getting a quick hug and a smile from Sigyn, it really contributes to the overall feeling of the game, and each of those threads were very small, one-off things.

If anything, I want to see more of these guys. They're awesome.

[madcuriosity]

This might be me saying this alone and I am a little nervous even posting this, in all honesty... but, sometimes it's really frustrating to start a thread with the gods and just have it be dropped not even four comments in. (Although I'm the common factor so...)

But I often felt like, well why bother responding to any of the gods when inevitably the thread will just sit there in the middle of a conversation or leaving a question unanswered.

I know that you all have other muses, which I perfectly understand, but I just feel, if you're going to make the decision to have the NPCs show up and say something, either individually or as one big group, then you've decided to make the commitment to at least finish those threads and I've seen multiple threads by multiple gods who never responded to anyone after so many comments.

To be perfectly honest, I don't even want to tag certain gods anymore because I know after two or three comments, the thread will be dropped for the sake of something else or someone else. And I don't even mean my going all the way to someone's voicemail, which I understand is sort of a "at your leisure," this was a god making a game-wide thread.

So... I've been mostly keeping this to myself and I might be the only one who feels this way or has had this happen so I do apologize if this comes across as "wah wah pay more attention to me."

INDIVIDUAL MOD FEEDBACK

[asgardmods]

If there's anything you'd like to say to or ask of either Autumn, Draggy, or me, please do let us know here! Whether it's our plurk presence / availability, something we have or have not been able to help you with, yelling at me for answering questions on the monthly rundown posts with whatever journal I happen to be logged into at the moment, etc etc. You can call us out here and we will be more than happy to answer! ( Though I will probably still be too lazy to log out of my character journals when I answer questions, sorry. :c )

MISCELLANEOUS FEEDBACK

[asgardmods]

Do you have any other things you feel need addressed? Application processing? FAQ responses? Activity Checks? Any of the new info pages? Feel free to bring anything you'd like here!

[averagemedium]

Wasn't sure where else to drop this, but! I know we track how generally grey the city is, would it add too much extra work for you guys to sort of track the state of the city as well, especially in light of recent strings of attacks? Like, after the earthquake, and the fire/ice giants attacking at once, and Bad Moon Rising and the ice giants before that-- it's kinda hard to guess at how much we've managed to fix before the next problem hits.

For clarity's sake, I am totally not asking for 'this happened to THIS district and this other district lost these buildings' because that is definitely a lot of work! Just more of a general State-of-the-Asgard maybe. Which is a bit moot right now as the answer is 'earthquaked' but it might be good to have more of a feel for how badly things are disrupted.

Re: MISCELLANEOUS FEEDBACK

[ffuckoff]

i'm sorry this is late but i've been going back and forth over whether i should say anything and ultimately i decided i should? but i want you guys to know it's not a big deal or a deal-breaker or anything, it's just a personal problem

UM SO lately i've been finding it more and more difficult to read official mod-written posts? both event posts and plot posts. ones that detail crucial information, too? i don't know if this is the case for others-- i have a learning disability that includes reading comprehension-- but the huge sprawling nature of the posts are getting to be a big problem for me.

i still have not been able to read the mod post explaining what's going on for december, despite trying multiple times, i just can't parse it at all, and have basically been relying on friends' summaries of it to figure out what's going on this month. and november i only made it through the post after multiple tries. for an example of what worked out really, really well for me, the way the post for the festival event was incredibly easy because of how it was organized, but posts like the nature & nurture event were much, much more difficult for me to understand. I know you guys include a tl;dr version at the end of posts, but often those are so small that i don't get the totality of what's happening in the entire the post. and honestly it isn't the volume of words that's tripping me up.

it's not that they're too verbose, but they're extremely wordy and kind of... unorganized? or well they're not unorganized, but the information is sort of randomly scattered all over the place within the post. like, i think the level of detail is great and really helps me get a picture of what's going on! i definitely don't want that to get tossed. i'm just saying it might be a good idea to maybe organize it better so the placement of information, and the priority of that information, is consistent throughout the post?

in summary:

difficult for me and possibly others to understand

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah on day 373, odin will discover cat macros blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah on day 1284 the frost giants discover disco blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah on day 732 the sky will open up and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah don't forget to blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

much, much easier for me to understand, even though it includes the exact same number words and the same phrasing

• on day 373, odin will discover cat macros blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
• on day 1284 the frost giants discover disco blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
• on day 732 the sky will open up and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
•don't forget to blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME oh god

[iin2ufferable]

Not sure if this would go in event or tone/pacing, and I want to disclaim both that 1) this isn't a thing that really bothered me too much and B) I might be the only one who felt this way. But it was something I thought about when I first came in and that I just recalled in light of other concerns about the ability of new players to get involved.

Anyway, something that did throw me off when I first got in is that there were all these events on the calendar for the next month, which is great! But it came off to me like a lot of players had already done their plotting at the start of the month when the November events were posted, and even those who were apping second/third/etc characters still already had a head start on it.

In retrospect, it wouldn't have been too hard to go back to the post and comment around, but it was a lot to take in all at once. Like I just got in game and I was already trying to catch up with stuff I "missed". Plus when you're new, you don't really want to be That Guy who comes to the party late and comment to a bunch of people who already have a ton of plans and make things awkward.

Now, personally in the end I did make some plans for the mirror plot and wound up dropping the ball myself, so I'm not too fussed about that specifically. I don't know if this is actually a problem for anyone else, or if it's the timing of these specific events, or just the fact that I'm playing a less social character. But I wanted to share it anyway in case I'm not the only one...