For participating in an actual intensive event for the first time here, I can only say that I'm MAJORLY impressed. Good rounds tend to stick with me for a long, long time, and this will be one of those. The objective and the pace was great (especially when we opened the gate and after ten minutes had more than forty IPC corpses. That really gave some perspective). My feedback, both good and bad, would be the following:
The environment was really interesting to be in. Moving from the well-lit home base to the darker forest parts, having some of the only light be street lamps on the road really helped set the atmosphere, as Bejewled said. We had a shuttle base with a command center, a small, wrecked town, the power station, the bridge and the warehouse itself. All these environments were unique in their own rights.
The sheer amount of people made it feel like controlled chaos. This might be something I'm not used to enough, but there were just so many damn people. It made it feel like an organised operation - further improved by the fact that there was only 'personnel' in each department. Speaking of which...
The personnel organisation. I played Operations Personnel during the event, so I can mainly speak from that perspective. It would've been nice to see the directives given in the Discord relay somewhere in game, like the event menu. But that's a minor nitpick. I liked that the departments did not have specialised roles, only personnel. People needed to organise themselves under their Head of Staff, which permitted a lot of freedom.
There was, from my PoV as Operations Personnel, too little equipment. Bejewled touched on this as well, but the main chaos we experienced was "Someone needs this but we can't really get this easily." Be it wires, welding fuel, metal, armour, ammunition, whatnot. Ideally, we would have the equipment (mainly an autolathe board, maybe other things) to build a forward base. The trek from the power station/bridge to the base was pretty long. If logistics were intended to be part of the challenge, then my point is moot. But the round basically already started with "Operations we need so much more steel for the autolathe." I commend the creativity with salvaging things to get more steel, though.
Science, specifically. One of their directives was to 'retrieve IPC bodies' to the base. We already started the round with over forty IPC's, even before reaching the town. From an outsider's perspective, Science had next to nothing to do in the round besides dragging around IPC bodies (which there were so many of the lighting engine shit itself.) They weren't armed (makes sense, we had Security personnel for that), did not have any fabrication to do, and they played no role in 'solving' the issue. It would have been cool to see Security escort Science to the Warehouse or something, to inspect and get a better understanding of the beacon. That way, they would be in danger from IPC attacks, while still having something to do (even if it isn't mechanically supported, just some fluff action means they gain significance) that isn't "pile up IPC bodies." They could've worked together with the Machinists, sending them off for more supply points or whatever.
All in all, though, the event was a LOT of fun. The amount of chaos we had at the bridge, being attacked by some player rampants (of which like three G2's, blimey) really solidified the spirit of the round for me. I'm rating it four stars, partially because this is the first active event I'm part of, but also because the premise was really solid.
Silicon Nightmares Event 4: Trial by Fire
in Event Calendar
Posted
For participating in an actual intensive event for the first time here, I can only say that I'm MAJORLY impressed. Good rounds tend to stick with me for a long, long time, and this will be one of those. The objective and the pace was great (especially when we opened the gate and after ten minutes had more than forty IPC corpses. That really gave some perspective). My feedback, both good and bad, would be the following:
All in all, though, the event was a LOT of fun. The amount of chaos we had at the bridge, being attacked by some player rampants (of which like three G2's, blimey) really solidified the spirit of the round for me. I'm rating it four stars, partially because this is the first active event I'm part of, but also because the premise was really solid.