Feedback Thread: Crescent Expanse - Warp Lane 7 Miniarc

[kermit]

Here's the feedback thread for the regional, Crescent Expanse mini-arc set in a pirate-infested Warp Lane 7.

I'd love to hear, and it will be useful for future lore doings when I'm gone, what everyone thought of various aspects of the arc, including:

• The ingame events, of course.
• The forum thread minigame.
• Other 'atmosphere setting' doings (leading up to or during the arc), be it done via relay, PR, or similar.

All I'll say here prior to receiving and unprompted by any feedback yet is:

• Being a mini-arc, this arc was low production, using (where and as best as possible) existing assets or lightly edited assets only. The goal was to see how doable a 'let's work with what 1 person can do using only we have' kinda arc would be. It'd be interesting to hear whether it succeeded, felt too rough around the edges at times (most egregiously with engineering event objectives, I imagine), and how it compared to higher production, major arcs.
• I think this is the first arc that's occured since the event intensity was revised to include an 'Extreme' intensity. Were any Highs too extreme; were any Extremes not extreme enough? Event scale here for anyone uncertain on wtf the difference is.

All that said, thanks to everyone who took part, as a player, volunteer, or helping hand at any point. I hope everyone had at least one event they found memorable <3

Edited Sunday at 03:45 by kermit

[FlamingLily]

The vibes were immaculate, the scarcity plot of the arc was some of the best weaving of an event arc into non-event rounds that I've seen in my entire history here, and I really really really enjoyed that.

The forum minigame was fun but I think if I had to suggest a better way of doing it, use a discord poll or something as opposed to a forum thread. That way there's more engagement and you don't have to break the writer's block to actually participate.

I did kind of kneecap myself by playing a service role for most of the events, so this might skew my opinion here, and I also think maybe I'm not used to the newer event classification system, but - the finale event is the first one that, to me, actually felt high intensity. A lot of the other ones felt really low risk, tbh.

[hazelmouse]

This last event in particular was absolutely wonderful to play! I think the highlight for me throughout the arc generally was the integration of the scarcity PR, it did a better job of communicating the current state of the ship via mechanics than anything in any preceding arc I've played. I think the changes made would've been a little annoying in any other scenario but the one in which they were implemented - having drinks removed from the bar arbitrarily would just be frustrating, but it's immensely atmospheric when there's a genuine in-universe reason for it you can roleplay with.

I didn't really participate in the forum minigame as I wasn't actively playing any bridge or command characters at the time, but I thought it was cute. I do suspect that the participating players may have gotten a little fatigued by it after the first few posts, but someone who consistently posted on the thread could give better input there.

I think the intensity for almost all the high or extreme events was a little lowballed to my expectations and there is room to make them a little more lethal or dangerous within the existing categories of intensity. I don't believe deaths are a good metric for gauging intensity, but to eyeball it, we had one extreme-intensity event in which nobody died or was meaningfully injured, and another in which one person died. I think either we can afford to loosen up the escalation rules for volunteers, or to amp up the lethality of their weapons and gear.

I did appreciate how restrained the volunteers were; it gives a lot of security playing a well-established character in an event when you know that, unless you're a combatant, you're not really likely to be targeted unless you do something stupid. Picking up a gun serving as an 'opt-in' to being fair game for volunteers is a pleasant dynamic which gives the crew a lot of agency in the level of the threat to their characters.

Edited Sunday at 04:19 by hazelmouse

[ASmallCuteCat]

For a mini-event, everything felt well-planned and it didn't come off as low-production at all.

I think the intensity warning was fine. There's often an assumption amongst role-playing communities that character permadeath is desirable or even necessary for "good storytelling", and I vehemently disagree with that notion. Risk of character injury/death is good. Your characters being afraid for their wellbeing is good. One or two character deaths is more impactful on the survivors than "welcome to grimdark hellzone, rocks fall everyone dies" fragfests.

I did notice that, especially in earlier events, there was intense competition for roles (especially for Security) and I think when it comes to high-pop rounds on ship, some way to alleviate that would be helpful. There isn't much to do as off-duty, and I can imagine that wanting to play but losing the roll would be incredibly frustrating for anyone whose luck fell short. I know that for Moghes, there was "<department> Personnel" instead, which allowed for much greater participation, but I don't know if that would work as well on the Horizon since the workplaces are designed for the number of slots allowed.

[Fyni]

This mini arc I feel was one of the best arcs the Horizon has ever been used in - though this comes with the proviso that I've only been in those of the last three years. Why? Constant involvement. The scarcity, while not part of the what was asked for feedback, helped bring decisions made in event rounds into the normal round to round. Antags using Malebranche related gimmicks too. The forum thread for decisions. All of these things made what happened in the arc somewhat at the decision of the players - and I think the only reason why it wasn't more so it because people are used to playing arcs where there isn't things like that to engage with.

Really, many of the event arcs I have played through, in particular New Blade, Old Wounds, often felt like a story which was happening "off ship", seperate from the Horizon and the decisions made by command the the lower crew. However, I acknoledge large lore arcs are often restricted in this way to have a desired outcome, characters and settings.

Really, the tragic conclusion I can draw is we really need more similiar mini arcs, involving the Horizon engaging with less spur shattering lore developments, taking elements of this arc and refining them.

---

As for the events themselves, I felt there was a bit too much safety, especially in the extreme intensity and both may have been well enough as heavy. However I realize it's easier to underbake and disappoint then overbake and cause too many casulties. However, I'd love to see more immediate (but avoidable) risk in the future for extreme intensity.

[Shimmer]

I participated both as a volunteer and a player in every single event of the chain, and have given my thoughts on the entire thing in private to a few people that I feel I should coalesce here.

To start I'll say that this is, by far and above, without any question in my mind - the BEST event I had the pleasure of playing and being a part of. This is the most fun I've had on Aurora over the past few years, and I can't really succinctly put all the reasons into one paragraph so allow me to yap a little.

The theme of the event chain was on point and is precisely the type of shit the Horizon should be involved in. In my opinion sci-fi settings, Aurora, work best when they're treated as less of a chess-board for political stories and instead as a space-opera. The focus for WL7 was the Horizon, the Horizon was central to the story, everything we did the focus was in of its entirety deeply involved with the Horizon first foremost and above all else. That makes us, as the ship, feel so much more involved and like we actually matter to the arc, instead of being a gear in a system. The scarcity, the expeditions, all the resources the Horizon pulled together and the ways it had to make do felt like something straight out of Star Wars or Star Trek, it was telling a story for the characters, not for the setting. That's really really good and I hope follow-up event chains strive for this.

Complete with feeling central, it also felt involving. There was so much opportunity for canonicity and shit characters can actually talk about. There were plenty of avenues for characters to be involved with the scarcity, involved with the expeditions themselves, in small little ways but enough to leave a mark. And that's really really cool, because what Aurora lacks right now for reasons the explanation of which doesn't belong in this thread is canonicty and character continuity. Every character that participated in the event to some capacity now has a story to tell, an angle to develop from, and just experiences fond or otherwise to share with other participants. It's great.

The opportunity for the Horizon to actually make use of its resources and technical know-how to order items, prepare the Intrepid, build mechs and rigsuits and weapons was INCREDIBLE fun. I adore logistics. Playing as Vera I felt genuinely excited to pack up medical supplies, set up the Intrepid's medical bay, make requests for items that are needed for it to operate at the best capacity you can manage. It felt deeply involved, it felt like my character had a significant affect on her department that has reaching influences on other characters. It felt competent, it had a good flow to it.

Of course not everything is a positive and its prudent to point out the parts that weren't.

I echo that some of the intensity was a little low-balled, and I will explain from my perspective to whoever reads this why it felt a little easier than intended. I'll use the hivebot expedition as an example; the threat level was made in mind with the base equipment and weapons the Horizon usually bears to arm. Were the Horizon's crew not to heavily HEAVILY invest into their equipment and cleverly use the mechanics and options at their disposal, we would have put up a MUCH sturdier fight. However, what the Horizon brought to bear was 5 fucking mechs against an encounter that at most expected 2 of them. Combined with armored rigsuits for security, and better weapons, even the Hivebot Sentry didn't stand much of a chance.

I believe in cases where the Horizon brings up the heat to these levels we should have a 'break glass in the case of competence' mobs and options to match the threat level, sturdier enemies, more obstacles, more resistance and push-back appropriate to how well the Horizon prepared so it doesn't feel like a roll-over.

In the last event that I participated in I only have two thoughts - We should've put on a little more pressure as the Malebranche and hit more vital areas when the Horizon was presenting us a back profile (something you really oughtn't do), and have held back a little less given there was a full BC complement who knew a thing or two about overmap combat. While I understand the point was to not swiss cheese the Horizon, certain maneuvers and postures do need to be punished a little so it feels a lot more tense. You present your engines to a ship pointing guns at you, you should be hit in the engines, that kind of deal.

The ERT being involved with the assault on the Malebranche could've used a little more choreography and better equipment for the pirates if they were going up against both a Horizon security complement AND the ERTs themselves, at least a few of the latter should've been killed to give the Malebranche a more threatening presence, because with both forces combined they steamrolled us quite easily. 

Lasty - I will echo the job slot thing. I believe with events like that we really should be using event department slots instead of the limited amount of slots we have access to, OR, have those department event slots function as an auxiliary to those who got the regular slots. Instead of off-duty they function as extra hands, where command can equip them and put them where they see fit, because involving off-duties is a gray zone in terms of how much they're allowed to participate as a whole let alone in the department they belong to.

[dessysalta]

TL;DR This was an amazing arc.

So, I unfortunately wasn't there during the finale (sad) but I was for a couple of the events along the way; even outside of the events themselves it felt very oppressive, in a good way. The change in atmosphere from "we're terrifying corporates" to "we're fish in a barrel and there's a bear down the block" was so good, and from the radio signals to little hints from staff to even just the way the ship's crew played it, it felt real. I loved the hell out of it, personally.

On a command level, it was a lot of fun. I know IC suggestions were more supposed to be a few sentences here and there (at least I assume so), but getting to write a whole bunch on the forums and see other people do so in turn was awesome. It was cool as fuck seeing people let out their more traditional writing styles for this event, in combination with stuff experienced in-game. (Shout out to Ksshzue "PUT ME IN A POD AND FIRE ME AT THEM!" Hiza LMAO)

The events themselves were really good; I don't think the arc felt super high budget but I don't think it felt low budget as described, either. It was a departure from the massive custom maps we usually get for events, but honestly I don't think that was a negative at all. It was nice to see stuff goin' on and the staff made it so much more worthwhile with the inclusion of little features and hints (which yes, I'm touching upon again because it was so cool to see people chime in with "hey, this radio station is telling us to go here, let's check it out!"). It goes to show that we don't need a ton of custom things to make a really good arc that leaves so many characters changed before, during, and after it.

Onto the nitpicks: I really don't have much to say other than to echo the slot problem. When I showed up for the first event, it definitely felt like there was too much competition for all the slots and as a result I got just a little bit sidelined (though command remedied the issue by putting me in an auxiliary role, which was a new and fun experience). Though, this is more of a long-standing issue and not so much one applicable to only this event.

All in all, I loved it. From making my characters scared and giving them new motivations, to being enveloped in the little touches and atmosphere set both by staff and the players, it was just good. More like this, please.

EDIT: Oh, and the amount of off-ships and antagonists that were inspired as a result was fucking awesome.

Edited Sunday at 18:39 by dessysalta
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