Ghosts of War lore arc feedback

[Alberyk]

Ghosts of war was a short canon lore arc hosted last month. The basic idea was to give some spooky/halloween vibes while creating a mystery/threat to keep people engaged. It was short compared to my last arcs. I tried to make the first two events less violent, while having a big finale. You can read more about it here: https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Ghosts_of_War_Arc

Please post your feedback here. Tell me what you liked, what you did not like, what could be different, and etc.

[Bear]

Fantastic arc that engaged all who tried to participate. Lots of mysteries and clues sprinkled in for all to find and give those who looked for it an in to join the overgoing investigation arc. Thank you for running it.

[Kintsugi]

I hadn't really paid attention to the arc until the last event. This is mostly because I haven't been too much on the server recently, for the most part. The last event, however, I did play, and it was fantastic. The story of Bayonet Hand unraveling and their true motivations coming to the surface was great - the fact that it was truly not railroaded was outstanding. I participated in one of the roaming groups of people trying to put a stop to him and the many clues and key details found along the way was really fantastic storytelling - every little piece falling into place, narrowly escaping being avoided. There was multiple times where we hit a dead end, only to realize something that we missed: in my case, this was the satellite station. All around, a lot of fun and a great experience imo - even if you missed out on the story, trying to stay alive in the casino was a lot of fun.

[RyverStyx]

I enjoyed the event! I loved boarding up the station on various extended rounds and hiding with coworkers. Even though one of my characters died at the casino I did love the vibe of being hunted.

[Zelmana]

The arc to me was good. I had constantly been thinking about it during rounds. Speaking to investigators and possible tajarans involved in the picture. I was not there for much of the final event, but it seemed out of place. The antagonist was portrayed as a serial killer with precision in its victims, and being personal with knife attacks, yet then attacks a large amount of people via bombings?

[KingOfThePing]

I could only attend 2 of the 3 events but they were fun. I am biased since I helped out with it but still, I think it was something entirely different for a change. Having a Halloween arc instead of the yearly Halloween party was a nice change, too. 

 

The details were very nice and I think the people who actually played got really invested into it. The way how freeform it was, was also pretty impressive. I dont know how limiting SS13 is in this regard, but mystery and (kind of) grounded paranormal stuff is just something I dig big.

Currently its hard to keep up with all the lore, but I was sure to take my time to read all the arc related articles and trying to piece it all together. Great stuff.

Was just too scared to die in the end so I had to chicken out 😅

Edited November 5, 2021 by KingOfThePing

[Alberyk]

23 minutes ago, Zelmana said:

The antagonist was portrayed as a serial killer with precision in its victims, and being personal with knife attacks, yet then attacks a large amount of people via bombings?

No bombing happened during the final event. A bombing was prevented in Mendell city due to the crew's action in the final event.

[Zelmana]

1 hour ago, Alberyk said:

No bombing happened during the final event. A bombing was prevented in Mendell city due to the crew's action in the final event.

My apologies, then. I joined the round in the last 5 minutes. I saw a TON of bodies.

[Kaizr]

Solid arc, interesting outside involvement, lots of chances for people to get involved in unique ways!

 

One issue I did have, or a suggestion at least for future events, was to maybe put a bit more character behind Bayonet Hand. I feel like with some of the more isolated attacks, there were some opportunities for him to say more than just one-liners with some more exposition. Even suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper short one-to-one convos between some characters (Tajara more specifically, since this was an anti-xeno plot mostly) would be really interesting. Locking someone in an area and having him step out of maintenance to deliver some SPOOKY words and then leaving would've been a fun way to put a face behind the killer. That, and perhaps letting people talk to him or at least see him being dragged off by FIB with his mask off only to explode afterwards with one final "Insert anti-xeno oneliner here" or "My plan hasn't failed yet" kind of line would've been fun. But, hindsight is 20/20. Just some ideas to play with if we ever see a villain like this again.

Edited November 5, 2021 by Kaizr
me bad at wording these D:

[Kaizr]

5 minutes ago, Kaizr said:

"Insert anti-xeno oneliner here" or "My plan hasn't failed yet"

Fairly sure Bayonet Hand was near dead so it wouldn't have made a difference, just a thought if anything.

[VisVirific]

So, I've been thinking a lot about this general event arc and from since the first time I've heard of it to now, days after the finale, as someone who tried to keep up with it and ultimately couldn't keep up, I've reached the conclusion that I'd have enjoyed it far more if I had been merely observing it from the start over trying to play it.

 

I'll recount my general thoughts as the arc went on, but all of those will be under spoilers to not be a gigantic wall of text despite the TL;DR version at the end explaining how I've come to this conclusion despite legitimately enjoying what I could. It's may be a long read for those wanting to go into my personal experience with the event.

First Event Round (plus week interaction)

Spoiler

I was initially greatly interested in the spooky investigative side of the event (despite being Tajara themed), as depending how it could go it meant that a lot of more people would have their chance for their own small types of investigations relating to it. And then it starts with an article about a Murder of an specifically Tajara person by a specifically Adhomai-born rumor who is practically a violent vigilante. This already gives preference to a specific type of characters to actually interact with the event, mainly Security characters and Tajara characters. This is reinforced with the first event, however minor, when Gennady Maduev is murdered on-station during the Dholma Festival Celebration.

Sure, there was the cow corpse sacrificed to the Bayonet Hand blood sigil with the photo in maint as the General Hook so that other people other than Security could have some type of opportunity to get involved, which even then was hard to do considering the photo was rationally given to Security as evidence. Which makes sense, any information about the Bayonet Hand is, ultimately, Security Evidence against a (supposedly) Tajara Murderer who is targeting Tajara both planet-side on Biesel and also out in orbit in a space station.

Despite knowing all of this, I was still legitimately interested and trying to get (however small) some type of investigation done. This opportunity would appear later during other rounds, where an Unknown (later revealed as Andrey Yanayev as the event went on) would contact people directly through their Chat Clients in their personal computer modules (PDAs/Wristbounds/etc) asking if they were present during the murder on-station Saturday, asking what they knew, and then asking if they wanted to help solve the situation. That anyone could help, even though this is pretty much in Security's field as a Murder Investigation.

I opted in. Especially since it turns out the Unknown was claiming to be the next victim in line to the photo I was lucky to get a screenshot of, and would later receive a copy of the updated photo myself so that I could actually have something and use it in the Relay Discord Server to actually get more information. Information that, in the end, I realized I couldn't actually use or do anything with because all signs were pointing to the fact that I was helping some type of antagonist side.

 

Second Event Round

Spoiler

Now onward to the second round, with the civilian ship docking with the station. I think this round is the best out of all of the event related rounds in terms of Investigation because it managed to reach to other departments, not just Security. I was very lucky just as I was pushing my luck to be able to further snoop and actually investigate in a way I could contribute to, as well as trying to pry into the mystery via being able to actually talk to people who may or may not know anything about it (with the bonus that you can't just confiscate conversations in contrast to any evidence found, which still makes sense to do), even though the primary investigation location (the ship) was being looked over by Security due to, as you can imagine, even more Murder and Assault and Contraband. Especially with the Bayonet Hand in person stalking through the station.

Due to very bad timing on my part, I couldn't actually partake in any possible week interactions, but I did manage to observe one. Me observing other players (primarily Security) engage with the event mystery in and out of the game server felt far more enjoyable for me. Not only because it was easier, but because it simply made sense. It was just logical. It's an escalating Murder Investigation involving Tajara people because of Tajara Motives.

It was also by this point where I realized I couldn't keep up. Forcing further investigation with the knowledge I was certainly helping the antagonist (both in-character and out of character) just wasn't something I personally wanted, or that made sense. Security already had this mystery in the bag. Trying to offer any help wouldn't have amounted to anything.

Which, in the end, it didn't.

 

Third Event Round

Spoiler

As I main a Medical character, anyone who's participated or seen or heard about the event would know that this meant I was already completely occupied with helping the injured over any possible chance of investigating whatever there was to investigate. The only possible chance I had was finding out the corridor leading to the airlock to the satellite outpost right at the start out of sheer, dumb luck. But once the Medical calls started, I was pretty much confined into the small medical clinic for the remainder 2 hours. Which was just the logical and safest place to be, in contrast to a dark Casino with several turrets which were activated at strange points, at least one active shooter who could see in the dark, and possibly vented rooms from the general shooting. Plus, the FIB had been called and various Security characters were handling it. Venturing out for investigation at any point outside of the first injury was a no-go.

Especially due to the fact there was apparently no discrimination to who would get targeted or not. It wasn't just Tajara being murdered on the casino, but humans, skrell, vaurca, and unathi regardless if they were trying to hunt the Bayonet Hand down, or just really unlucky at being caught off-guard and alone.

In fact, out of the 8 confirmed Aurora Crew deaths, at least 4 of them were just by being caught off-guard. This is from what I managed to gather post-round, as I was unable to check much of anything, even less interact or hear about the plot, because of the sheer number of injuries.

 

Conclusion Explanation

When I thought more about the event as a whole after the third event round and also watching someone's recorded perspective so I could get the details of who was injured or someone's name that had died, I realized I had significantly more enjoyment out of the third event and possible week and Discord Server interactions as an observer over as someone who actively tried to partake in them.

In fact, as I watched the video, I finally managed to greatly enjoy the Event related aspects which had me interested in the first place. The investigation, the mystery, the characters involved and orchestrating them and their motives. Details that just came as natural developments for a Security character performing the investigation on the murder which had revealed the plot of a Terrorism Attack. I finally had the enjoyment for the thing I was actually interested in the whole event, acquired through simply observing someone else play through it. And I've only seen their perspective in the Third and Final Round for the arc. I can barely imagine the sheer joy I'd have gotten if I had seen it from the start.

Did I personally have a negative experience with the event as a whole or any specific points? No. Did I personally have a positive experience with it, considering I tried to get into it and didn't manage to keep up? It was certainly better than nothing, yet not as better than I could have had if I simply stuck to the sidelines and watched other people tackle it. I mean, from an outside perspective it was just a Tajara Murder Investigation Event that somehow turned into a Tajara Casino Shootout by the end. Or as a Total Outside Perspective, a simple Casino visit that suddenly turned into a Tajara Serial Killer Thriller with a near Terrorism Bombing Attack.

Maybe it was just me unable to get into the event. Maybe I just didn't know how to do it right and missed all the opportunities to get further into it. Maybe the character I had just wasn't proper for it.

After all, I had a Medical character. Maybe I would've felt as much fun if I had gone into it with a Security one.

[Triogenix]

I suck at giving feedback so I'm just going to blab my thoughts, what I think went right and what I think can be worked on.(also obligatory I don't have all the information)(also whenever I say yourself I'm referring to Alb)

Things that went right:

I think the biggest thing that went right was the amount of player freedom within the events, but still having it so that there will be a somewhat set ending, for example in the third event, the FIB was going to show up to kill the bayonet hand if the crew couldn't manage no matter what, and the bayonet hand was going to die. I think it was the perfect amount of railroading, allowing players to influence outcomes but not in such a way they could wildly change something.

Second best was probably the mini events run on extended, I really like having mini events so it's not like everything only goes wrong and things happen when there is 50 people on station. It also allows those who might not be able to make events still get something canon.

Third was probably the canon deaths, while there were some issues I believe with who died (most of them were people just at the casino and extremely few, if any, were active participates in investigating or disrupting the bayonet hand previous) however, I still like the fact that people had consequences, seen or otherwise for actions. It also allows much more character growth for those who were friends with the dead, or who even saw them.

Fourth and most minor, I liked how in the finale event, everyone was a visitor, so there was no competing over job slots, and no-one who had been following it thus far was unable to participate in the finale because someone else was in the slot their character occupies.

What can be improved upon:

This was  the hardest feedback for me to write, as I don't know if it's just my perspective skewing my views, or if it is the players own decision and willingness to take risks that allowed it, or if I'm just plain wrong, but for me, it felt very difficult to get into the conspiracy aspect of the event. It felt to me to be very metaclique-y and like people did not want those not a part of the "group" whether that be in security or those friendly with yourself to get involved. What it resulted in was that 6-8 people got a deep level of involvement while everyone else essentially just skimmed the surface and got all the information OOC'ly, or had it all in the last event due to having ties with the aforementioned 6-8 people. While I do not truly believe there was any preference given or metacliques at all, it was and is my gut reaction thinking about it from an outside perspective. I can't say if anyone else felt the same, but I think it can improved upon, so that it might be possible for more people, with more diverse jobs and more diverse departments, to get involved with the RP surrounding the conspiracy. I think the best way to go about this is to essentially give people a run down in the lore discord, probably in the Tajara channel specifically given it was a Tajara event, about how they might get involved in the conspiracy, who to reach out to if they wish to be involved deeply, and the risks their characters would assume by doing so. This would also allow a greater section of characters to influence the events, rather then a 1-2 similar jobs. The draw back to this obviously is that there is not only more work for yourself and your staff to do, but it will by definition spoil some bits and pieces of what might occur within the event. It would also possibly make character actions more railroaded as they are aware of the risks and may make decisions based off the foresight of those risks. However I personally think it is worth it, in order to give a deeper experience to those who may be more nervous then others about  participating heavily in events outside of volunteered. I also acknowledge that myself saying it is worth it means nothing, as I will unlikely be getting the extra workload for a job that is done for free.

The other area of improvement I think is part of the finale. I think the  firefights that occurred, between what yourself as the Bayonet hand and the crew, could have been handled better. I think it was a lot less the creepy horrifying "I don't know if I'll die next, I can't see, there's no radio" and more the "holy shit there are bullets flying past my head" scary, which I did not personally like. While I do enjoy canon death, and was rooting for you in D-chat, looking back on it I think the better way would have had it be extremely sudden, unseen, and seemingly random, rather then what felt to me like a firefight throughout the casino. While I understand that was not the point of the conspiracy theory, and that the bayonet hand was not super natural and just a terrorist, I think it still would have been worth it, instead of seeing him just bounce around and get into fights with security and lone wanderers. Perhaps including the radio from the first event, or completely blacking out everything and having people just disappear into the dark only to be found dead. However, I acknowledge this would be extremely difficult to pull off, near impossible one might say, and I believe the way it was handled is fine, just not the best it could perhaps be. This also may have been influenced by myself observing and volunteering, rather then being crew. It seems many people here had the opposite, and felt more hunted then anything else as crew. Nevertheless, I thought to include this paragraph

I apologize if  it seems I just wished to accuse people or wrong-doing or make passive aggressive statements, I just wished to get my own personal feelings down, and preferably have them changed due to other feedback given by players and event organizers. I still did enjoy the arc a lot, despite the improvement part being significantly longer then what went right, but I think that's just because I wanted to try my best not to sound insulting or mean-spirited, which would have shut off a lot of conversation around it, negating the entire point of me making this post. Thank you Alberyk in particular and the lore team in general for the effort you put in to the event and everything parallel to it, and I hope to see something like this happen next year as well.

[Alberyk]

9 hours ago, Triogenix said:

This was  the hardest feedback for me to write, as I don't know if it's just my perspective skewing my views, or if it is the players own decision and willingness to take risks that allowed it, or if I'm just plain wrong, but for me, it felt very difficult to get into the conspiracy aspect of the event. It felt to me to be very metaclique-y and like people did not want those not a part of the "group" whether that be in security or those friendly with yourself to get involved

I tried to get as much people involved by:

-making an announcement telling people if they wanted to join they could just send me a message

-doing a couple of events to try to recruit people. Like with the radio channels and other by asking directly at the common channel as an event character.

-telling and urging people to involve others as well