Company Picnic Event Feedback

[Resilynn]

So this was the first of our monthly (or more) holiday CCIA events.  

This was definitely one of the bigger ones we have planned.  The company allowed the crew to go to Beach 8 on a distant moon, which was prepped for a company picnic.  They were ordered to keep the shuttle accessible to all crew.

A few 'NPCs' were spawned in, if you noticed them: A journalist trying to find out about NT's research and sneak on station.  A buff lifeguard type from the Upsilon.  Some guy who didn't even work for NT who showed up to steal food.  A member of the board, there to coordinate the event.  A trained shark, a giant snail.

I tried my best to just create a setting to immerse the crew in, and to create just a few prompts for RP but keep everything neutral otherwise.

Special thanks to furrycactus for mapping faster than should be humanly possible, and to alb and arrow for handling the dev end of things.

We will be having more events like this, so your feedback is absolutely important.  Let us hear it!

Edited June 22, 2019 by Resilynn

[BridgeAssistantWhen?]

I liked that there was an interesting environment that we could explore and that we weren't obligated to follow any storyline we could just do what we wanted.

[Rushodan]

I really enjoyed the trained shark - I fed it..played ball with it and generally had a fantastic time.

Can now say I rode a shark IC which is fun.

Wish I knew there were no comms. CCIAA had us set up some discreet security detail but I couldn't ever talk to them because nobody had bounced radios.

9/10 Really good event. Wish I knew I would have no coms tho. Setting was brilliant and time flew by.

[BoryaTheSlayer]

The round was fun and all, y'know, except general lack of organized communication. You had to run through the whole map to find a doctor sometimes. And well, that murderbone at the end of course.
All in all-- I'd say the idea is great, but maybe organize it a bit more tightly next time? Just to prevent that shit from happening. Anyway, the fun was had, and time flew by fast. Really cool stuff.

[Resilynn]

We are for sure going to include handheld radios in future off station events.

[furrycactus]

I thought it was extremely fun, and think it's set a very positive precedent for future holiday related events as well. The freedom of being off-station and getting to just relax and roleplay without the overbearing feeling of needing to do your job was a very nice change of pace. It was very fun.

 

I'm also insanely happy that people enjoyed the map ❤️ 

[Doxxmedearly]

This set an excellent bar for holiday events. The entirely separate map (THANK YOU JOSHIE) was what really set it apart from other events. No obligations to work, with a whole new environment to explore. It was like super extended, and it worked out wonderfully. The additional NPCs were great. The small events like the hotdog eating contest were nice touches. People made their own fun and had a great time. I think this was a fantastic test run for holidays.

I bet the map would have been even better with more advance notice!

Overall, this gets me excited for future holiday events. Well done to everyone who handled it, from map to dev work to npcs to organization.

[Conspiir]

28 minutes ago, Doxxmedearly said:

This set an excellent bar for holiday events. The entirely separate map (THANK YOU JOSHIE) was what really set it apart from other events. No obligations to work, with a whole new environment to explore. It was like super extended, and it worked out wonderfully. The additional NPCs were great. The small events like the hotdog eating contest were nice touches. People made their own fun and had a great time. I think this was a fantastic test run for holidays.

I bet the map would have been even better with more advance notice!

Overall, this gets me excited for future holiday events. Well done to everyone who handled it, from map to dev work to npcs to organization.

Basically this. Doxx just pulled the words directly from my brain and put them down for me, so all I need to say is

 

"I agree."

[AmoryBlaine]

NT NEEDS to provide a special security team. They can be in plain clothes, with vests, or something. But we cannot expect normal characters in Sec to focus on policing an event's amount of people instead of enjoying the event. I would be willing to be on call for these sorts of events, because as much as this was a great event- the, deadly brawl and drunk and disorderly people numbering in the dozens for a corporate event at a public beach would have us all fired and NT lampooned LOL. So yeah, top tier event, seriously, but it just needs some legit control over the party when things go crazy.

[Resilynn]

9 minutes ago, AmoryBlaine said:

NT NEEDS to provide a special security team. They can be in plain clothes, with vests, or something. But we cannot expect normal characters in Sec to focus on policing an event's amount of people instead of enjoying the event. I would be willing to be on call for these sorts of events, because as much as this was a great event- the, deadly brawl and drunk and disorderly people numbering in the dozens for a corporate event at a public beach would have us all fired and NT lampooned LOL. So yeah, top tier event, seriously, but it just needs some legit control over the party when things go crazy.

I considered it, but ultimately thought I may have too much trouble getting enough people who wanted to play that role and stay out of the fun- sure enough, even the roles I had that WEREN'T strict strong security guys ended up cancelling last minute to go play their own characters chilling on a beach.  While I'm willing to open the option for spawned in security details, I am not sure we'll be able to reliably have them.

[Carver]

Either needs more handhelds, a telecomms relay or some form of 'helper group' to act as lifeguards and keep people safe (from each other as well). Also a bigger shuttle.

[AmoryBlaine]

7 minutes ago, Resilynn said:

I considered it, but ultimately thought I may have too much trouble getting enough people who wanted to play that role and stay out of the fun- sure enough, even the roles I had that WEREN'T strict strong security guys ended up cancelling last minute to go play their own characters chilling on a beach.  While I'm willing to open the option for spawned in security details, I am not sure we'll be able to reliably have them.

For the future, I'm more than willing to deal with it, even if I can't play Carmichael

[Xelnagahunter]

One thing I think would have been for the best would have been a "private comms relay" that only worked on the beach or a PDA server for it. Additionally, a better way to access the beach, such as a teleporter in place of the shuttle that we couldn't recall once stranded on the moon, would have done wonders, there were a few times I wanted to leave for the station and couldn't.

 

Otherwise this was a blast. It was a lot of fun seeing character gather that wouldn't have normally, such as several heads of staff with overlapping positions. It was worth being stranded there and spending 15 mins trying to find someone.

Edited June 22, 2019 by Xelnagahunter

[Skull132]

4 hours ago, AmoryBlaine said:

For the future, I'm more than willing to deal with it, even if I can't play Carmichael

Alternatively. Play visitor. Some security players might enjoy dealing with this kinda stuff.

[AmoryBlaine]

6 hours ago, Skull132 said:

Alternatively. Play visitor. Some security players might enjoy dealing with this kinda stuff.

I was for the first chunk of the event, an event character. I cryo'd after the RP died down, and rejoin'd as a visitor. The active Sec team were not doing their jobs. They were leaving equipment laying around that was being stolen and used, leading to one of the abusers to be banned IIRC. They failed to deal with the murder, or the attempted murder. Or the many many drunks. I already said its unreasonable to expect non-event characters to focus on policing the event, when it's designed to be a day off from work for everyone else. Its much easier to just get some volunteers to act alongside the event ICly as security, rather than leave it on people with character investment with the event, to unfocus from the event.

[Scheveningen]

I honestly think the event was fine in some respects but it had some weak moments.

There were two notable groups of people: Flash mob and the actual vacationers.

Flash mob was pretty much composed of people expecting a hyperactive round and being inevitably disappointed, so they just participated in drinking so much their liver had an out-of-body experience. If they had fun, that was pretty great, as long as they stayed out of fights, which ended up happening anyway. There is such a thing as having too much fun, apparently.

The Vacationer crowd was mostly more chill, with people focused on just chair-RPing and socially interacting. Most of them intentionally tried to stay out of fights and didn't directly seek them out.

The flash mob created a lot of fights, though, and I attribute this to the fact that there wasn't much of an active security presence as one officer decided to YOLO it directly into a shark and the other security staff left were mostly hanging out and socializing.

It would've been better if there was a more active attempt on the security department to ICly moderate and deal with fights, in addition to responding to them. It was a great round nonetheless, although soured by two things: some characters excessively drinking and starting fights for the sake of it, and no active security presence to deter people from even thinking about acting stupid. It doesn't help that Shark Bait set the worst possible example on what to expect from sec though.

[KingOfThePing]

You guys actually seek fights in a canon chill vacation beach party event?

 

oof...that's really something. Still sad I missed it. 

[Fekkor]

The event its self was pretty fun, apart from the lack of radio and/or PDA messages, which sometimes left you feeling alone and/or unable to find people.

I even tried to play "sec" but if i was the other end of the beach by the time the word of a fight reached me, it was often waaaaaaaay to late, and being unable to do anything about it.

Edited June 23, 2019 by Fekkor

[TheOrleans]

Next time it could be cool if we were given a map of the place, add comms and that's all the improvement I would need

Everything else was fantastic

[Resilynn]

Side note. You all realize at any point you could have gone back to the station and gotten handheld radios, right?  Sure, next time we will spawn them in. But they were always an option. 

[Carver]

10 hours ago, Resilynn said:

Side note. You all realize at any point you could have gone back to the station and gotten handheld radios, right?  Sure, next time we will spawn them in. But they were always an option. 

I brought one, it didn't solve any of the issues seeing as no one else had them.

[Brutishcrab51]

People getting drunk and acting aggressive in a holiday-esque and casual environment? Reminds me of the Fourth of July on Lake Pleasant.

I'd love to help the next time something like this happens, though. I primarily play a Contractor character that wouldn't be too into casual beach getaways with NanoTrasen coworkers, so I'd be happy to play a security agent in beach shorts and a bulletproof vest.

Edited June 25, 2019 by Brutishcrab51