The Far Shore Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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takamagahara2019-04-14 07:08 pm
godsoffortune) wrote in takamagahara2019-04-14 07:08 pm
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State of the Game: Player Suggestions Response
Preface: A blanket request from the mods to all players
As Suggestions, Plot Questions and other significant input need to be read and discussed by all mods before a response can be given, we ask that longer comments be organized with bullet points or split into single-idea comments to keep these thoughts easier to address. This will make it significantly easier for the team to read, consider and discuss each point and better serve the players by spending more time discussing useful suggestions and feedback and putting them into action where appropriate. Longer comments without a clear outline are much more difficult to parse and risk important points being overlooked, as well as dramatically increase the amount of time it takes for the team to read and discuss said suggestions and concerns and address them appropriately.
We appreciate those players who are taking care to use kind words to express their concerns to the mod team. At present, the mod team is doing its very best to dramatically revamp the game and share many of the concerns that have been raised by players. With the addition of new mods who are still getting their bearings - as well as learning and creating new rules to help the game run more smoothly for everyone - we appreciate your patience as we take steps to make the game more fun, accessible and hospitable to everyone involved.
Response to: Player Suggestions from the State of the Game post.
Prayers and Missions
- Make Prayers & Missions separate pages and link them on the Navigation Page / Sidebar - meant to simplify the ease of searching for particular prayer chains or missions.
- Both pages will not have tabs.
- Brief "Info" section explaining how Prayer threads are initiated: They come from the Near Shore and a God's followers (which are NPCs the mods don't run). These are prompts for those who don't wish to write up prayers of their own; they will be left vague and open-ended on purpose for players to adjust them to their circumstances or group accordingly.
- Clean out Prayers and Missions - streamline and remove entries that are no longer available or relevant
- Reorganize the remaining prayers and missions into an organized flow.
- Shift to a Claim system for Prayers - we will explain more about this on the Prayer page when we change over to it, but a few big ideas are as follows:
- The Claim System will mean that non-custom Prayers are automatically approved, so players can begin threading immediately. See the next bullet for Custom Prayers explanation.
- Mods will only need to reply when a completed Prayer link is provided to give rewards (or if there are concerns such as requirements not being fulfilled).
- The Claim System will mean that non-custom Prayers are automatically approved, so players can begin threading immediately. See the next bullet for Custom Prayers explanation.
- Include an option for Custom Prayers, the only kind which will still require Mod Approval before starting the thread/log. This could include:
- a player submitting something entirely of their own creation
- tweaking an existing prayer prompt slightly to better fit a situation/setting.
- a player submitting something entirely of their own creation
- All prayers will have minimum follower counts removed to allow for a broader involvement from all our players.
- New prayer page gets a top level comment for new prayer suggestions (on a permanent basis) and also a top level for general "Questions?"
- Remove Prayer Suggestions page
- Indicate on the new Prayer Page which prayers require the Rend spell in order to be completed (indicating the need for a god-shinki pair). Potentially through color-coding or a symbol or simply a requirement of "Use the Rend spell to destroy the ayakashi". This will help differentiate which prayers will require a bonded team and which can be completed by any combination of CR.
- We have added a clarification to the Gods' Abilities section to explain the word "Rend" needing to appear in a comment's text for the spell to be activated.
- We are already planning on combining God 101 and Shinki 101, also addressed in the Setting section below.
- We have added a clarification to the Gods' Abilities section to explain the word "Rend" needing to appear in a comment's text for the spell to be activated.
- Missions Page will have two sections after "Info": Slice of Life Missions (ex: shinki spell training, god's holy day) and Plot Missions (NPCs, event follow-ups, etc.)
- Brief "Info" section explaining how SOL Mission threads are initiated: No special IC trigger at the beginning or the end
- SOL Missions are also on the Claim System:
- The Claim System will mean that SOL Missions are automatically approved, so players can begin threading immediately.
- Mods will only need to reply when a completed Mission link is provided to give rewards (or if there are concerns such as requirements not being fulfilled).
- SOL Missions will continue to require minimum follower/exp counts due to the nature of these Missions and the rewards given out by them.
- The Claim System will mean that SOL Missions are automatically approved, so players can begin threading immediately.
- Brief "Info" section explaining how Plot Mission threads are initiated: Missions are prompted by an NPC reaching out, or the character(s) reaching out to an NPC / the plot mod(s).
- Plot Missions require mod acknowledgment before starting the thread/log (often because these are of a custom nature).
- Plot Missions and their minimum follower/exp requirements will get further review after we've finished retooling prayers/missions and proceeded to the next plot arc
- For the remainder of the cultist arc, we will continue to use the existing follower/exp minimum requirements for plot-related missions. However:
- Remember that only one character needs to qualify for minimum follower/exp counts in order for all participants to go on the mission.
- Please see M27 (A mission for reputation), M30 (A mission of suspicion), M32 (A mission of curiosity), M35 (A mission for cartography), or M36 (A mission of whispers) for examples of plot-followup Missions where the follower/exp count minimums are not very high.
- Remember that only one character needs to qualify for minimum follower/exp counts in order for all participants to go on the mission.
General Plot Concerns
- After cultist plot is wrapped, update the Premise page
- Monthly announcements will resume later this month, to include the Event Announcement for the following month and any prayer/mission additions
- More accessible metaplot information distribution and involvement is being looked at and discussed by the mod team as we move into a new plot arc and ways to make sure metaplot remains open to anyone who wants to participate in it.
- One such method will be a new Game Timeline, specifically focusing on cultist plot aspects and interactions with the major NPCs. When a new arc begins, a second matching page will be created. Each month, the Monthly Announcement will highlight any additions to the Game Timeline. The timeline will link to threads that are also tagged:
- !cultist arc
- !cultist arc: char discussions
- !cultist arc: events
- !cultist arc: npcs
- !cultist arc
Setting
- Combine Shinki 101 and God 101 into Noragami 101
- All FAQ information will be assessed. If it applies to The Far Shore as a DWRP game, it will remain on FAQ. If it applies to the Noragami Setting of the game, it will be moved to Noragami 101. This will give us a chance to assess and address the amount of information to make it more accessible and less overwhelming for all our players.
- Combine God Info and Shinki Info to one page with links to both Spreadsheet breakdowns + the God/Shinki pairing list, explaining that all 3 spreadsheets are just slices of similar information depending on what you're looking for
- Only require 1 comment for updates to god/shinki pairings on this new page
- Move FAQ to new page, with link to old one
- When answering FAQ questions going forward, if they are 1:1 answers from anywhere in the Game Info, we will screen the comment thread afterwards (to reduce comment clutter), leaving the only visible comment threads as those which are too specific to be included in the FAQ
God/Shinki Pairing
- Add to the FAQ's Application section: "Why you may want to play a Shinki" and "Why you may want to play a God" with a few bullet points for each
- On the Application page itself, in the App's explanation where we go over each section, the God/Shinki selection and Why? will get a link back to that new portion of the FAQ.
- List God Characters who need Shinki the most, to supplement the IDEA in the next comment below.
Note: Anything to address benefits for Noras weighed against the Heavens' disdain for Nora in the first place will be tabled until the World Mod has a chance to get on her feet and will be revisited at a later point.
We will begin to assign all of these items to mods as needed to get these changes implemented. We will give a progress update at the Monthly Announcement, since some items could be resolved/changed faster than others.
Once again, thank you for helping us make the game more enjoyable for the players,
- The Far Shore Mods
IDEA: Feedback encouraged
If we do that, we have a follow-up Suggestion based on the above concerns:
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1. Shinki from popular canons or who have connections with players will immediately get chosen. Shinki from obscure canons, from players entirely new to the game, or generally lacking in IC response will languish for a month. This would strongly discourage new players, who have a good chance of going a month without access to the fundamental premise of the game.
2. Gods who are inherently popular or already have numerous shinki will attract more shinki, because they will have more people speaking on their behalf. Their other shinki are very likely to encourage new people they meet to join their temple. Conversely, gods who have nothing but soulless shinki will only have themselves to recruit for them, and unpopular or abrasive gods (coughZettacough) will never attract a shinki ICly. The end result is that some gods will be effectively locked out of an IC shinki pairing, gods with many shinki will get more shinki, and players will be discourage from apping gods when they know they won't have any realistic chance about getting assigned a shinki.
Speaking personally? This idea would kneecap one of my prime reasons for apping Zetta into the game: getting a shinki whose bond to him would force him to moderate his behavior and grow as a character. And when I first apped Dust in... if I'd had to play out waiting for an entire OOC month to engage in something critical to the game, there's a very good chance I wouldn't have stayed. It's especially punishing to characters who are eager to engage ayakashi, because if they don't find a god, they are literally worse than useless for the entire period they have to wait for a random assignment.
I understand the motivation behind the suggestion and appreciate the goal of building stronger IC bonds to limit cases where a randomly-assigned shinki/god pair simply don't interact (because that's poison too), but that situation can occur even with voluntary matchmaking (as I can attest). I strongly believe this is a rich-get-richer proposal, where some characters will accrue far more CR and others will be utterly frozen out. To that end, I strongly oppose.
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That said, if someone wants to be randomized a god/shinki right away, I think it should be something they can opt into. But I don't think the idea of letting new characters forge CR and potentially make their own IC connections is inherently flawed; in fact, I'd hope it would encourage new characters to tag out more, in hopes of finding CR that could lead to forming an IC partnership. (Which is another thing...obscure and unpleasant characters may have it more uphill than popular or friendly characters, but anyone can tag out to other people. No one's limited to just scattering breadcrumbs and hoping for a bite. Provided new characters tag out, I feel like they shouldn't have to sit idle even if their own top-levels get no responses - and I play one very minor character and one character who's a garbage fire of triggering content and terrible social skills, the latter of which rarely gets any responses to his top-levels. But I rarely get totally frozen out when I tag around with him.)
Still, I agree that the new policy shouldn't be "you have to wait a month before your character can be randomized"; it should be "you have a month to find an IC partnership if you'd care to look, or you can be randomly assigned". If it's intended to be the former(I'm not sure if it is or not), I respectfully request that it be changed to the latter.
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As for "obscure and unpleasant characters are unavoidably handicapped", I disagree that it can't be ameliorated on the basis that random assignments DID ameliorate it. Which is one of the reasons I apped a character who would otherwise never voluntarily look for the CR I want him to get from a shinki. That was a selling point for the game, and I think it remains so -- making it necessary by nature for characters to team up and interact with each other is a great way to branch out. Honestly, I've really felt the loss of having a shinki character with Zetta over the past few months, and I'm really not comfortable with being told I will, basically, never get one again. That straight up isn't what I signed up for in this game.
And that still doesn't address the rich-get-richer nature of the new 'only choose your pairing', especially if people can coordinate ahead of time with the host god's player to
have them encourage this or that pairing. This will make the game more insular and freeze out more people, rather than encouraging greater CR and greater connections among players.
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I also didn't say that nothing game-related can ameliorate the drawbacks that come with playing obscure/unpleasant characters; I said I didn't think games can ever completely negate that handicap. They can certainly lessen it, but they can't totally level the playing field either, so I think it's important for players who play those types of characters - myself very much included - recognize that they may need to put more effort into those characters no matter what policies and mechanics a game has in place.
And, finally, I said that I think players should be given a choice whether to go immediately into the randomization pool or to wait. I think it's perfectly possible that you're correct about players not wanting to wait a month, so if randomization remains an opt-in option as I've suggested, you're not going to be robbed of all chances for your gods to be assigned shinki at random. Only players who want to try to cultivate pairings naturally - which might be quite a minority - will not go into the randomization pool. And the mods haven't said, anywhere, that players CAN'T request immediate randomization if they'd prefer - and since they've always taken player wishes into consideration when assigning gods, I don't think assuming that players can't do that if they so choose is logical. (But I do want it confirmed, mind, and I'll be as concerned as you are if I hear that players can't request that and have to abide by this new system whether they like it or not. But it doesn't really sound like how the mods have operated up until now.)
Also, per mod request on making suggestions more visible in lengthy comments:
TL;DR: Mods, are players able to opt into being immediately randomized a god/shinki assignment if they so choose? If that isn't planned, can that be made an option?</b?
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That said, we could make immediate RNG available for players who specifically opt-in to that. We could add a field to make sure that shinki applicants understand their options.
One of the goals was to remove the stress of RNG for those applicants who didn't want to go that route, but may not necessarily have a god in mind at the time of their application.
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I personally think the new option may help cut down on one of the other issues brought up, in shinki/god pairs with no chemistry being made...or even with randomized shinki/god pairs that pair an active player up with a largely inactive one. Two players that develop CR enough to form a pair can at least be assumed to be active and relatively invested.
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We already prioritize gods without any PC shinki at all when using RNG. However, we also factor in the amount of time that gods have been without a PC shinki, then account for those whose only shinki are nora. We must also account for other standard player preferences.
Gods with at least one dedicated shinki almost never enter the randomization pool at this stage of the game.
+1
Aside from this issue, there is already an option for players to choose their partners on the application as well as an opportunity to put down the type of partner you are looking for. We have CR memes where players have an opportunity to disclose what type of CR they are looking for. Short of making participation in it mandatory to push everyone to plot in a universal game space and setting up a workshop post alongside the TDM for prospective players to discuss/plot future partnerships, there's not much more that can be done to "fix" god-shinki partnerships in game from a moderating perspective, realistically speaking.
To put it frankly, you can't force chemistry or dynamics between players and their characters. In my experience, that winds up breeding OOC resentment and makes RPing with an enforced partner feel more like a chore than a hobby done for fun. Those who are fine with that kind of structure might be pleased but those that dislike that may wind up dropping instead. Either way, there's a loss.
So my two cents here is that we keep the system that we have, especially with all the other tasks that the mod team is undertaking to improve the game. Those that have partners or plans in mind can share them via the opportunities the mods have already provided for us.
Additionally, I'd like to propose an OOC workshop post go up alongside the TDM and be linked to it. This will provide a universal space for prospective and current players to communicate and plot out partnerships among themselves outside of Plurk, CR meme, and the OOC Intro.
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+1
I'd be okay with the "sorting" suggestion where mods pick the pairs based on player preferences, but I think the current system works fine as well and would probably require less work for the mods.
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Honestly though I feel that the temple rotation and getting the PC gods/shinki a bit more involved in the training/assigning of pairs could be a really good way for people to get CR. It lets the PC gods feel like the NPCs actually trust them, it could encourage more CR when a god goes "hey I'm in charge of training/they want me to suggest pairings, what do you want this month/if you're unpaired come tell me what you're looking for in a partner and I'll see if I can find someone", and it gives folks a chance to see who their character might work with and who they probably won't (and allows for players to do the same). The changes to the prayers so we know which prayers will require a god-shinki pairing could also be used to help pair folks up, since so long as you don't need to Rend you could suggest the god take this new arrival shinki with them to see how they'll work!
tldr: I think this is a really cool idea and I can see a lot of potential in it.
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--Having a PC make recommendations, though not binding, does limit the options they give the newcomer to characters that PC has CR with. Plus, it relies on the PC in question to be making their suggestions in good faith - which is no guarantee given some of the characters in game.
--What if the god or shinki finds nobody they like? That gives their first month of play an undercurrent of "find a partner". While this does offer them something to do right off the bat, it also means they have to wait a month to be fully "settled", as it were.
--Related: where are unnamed shinki living in the interim OOC month? At the Shinki Sanctuary, with permission from the players involved in that setting piece? Somewhere they're under the care of the old gods?
Therefore, instead of waiting an OOC month: why not make god-shinki pairing more like "sortings" done in Harry Potter or monster games? Include a section either in the app or on the intro log where players (or characters, if you'd rather do it IC) can state what kind of partner they'd most prefer to be matched with/what personality type is best for them/what kind of relationship they're looking for with a god or shinki. Then have a section where the player can state whether they want what their character wants, or the opposite (since that can be fun too). Players already in-game can submit their preferences for future matchups somewhere, too, as a retcon.
A partner can then be assigned based on these preferences, with an effort made to prioritize getting shinkiless gods a shinki and vice versa. If the questions are included as part of the app, the character receives their partner in their app, like the current setup. If the questions are included on the intro log, then the character has some "adrift" time but also a chance to meet others they might then want to specifically partner with. I lean towards the former because it's less clunky, but the latter does give everyone a chance to say, ICly, "I want ___ person".
Sorting characters is harder than RNG on the mods, so I apologize for that. But it seems like an way to hit a balance between "getting everyone a partner fast" and "forming partnerships that are guaranteed to have some sort of chemistry".
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For those who don't have a concrete idea, we could have a couple of questions that prospective players can answer--they could even specify if they want a partner that fits or conflicts with their answers.
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We do, however, often have players stating general preferences in the 'Anything Else' section of the application already. Requests such as 'I would like my character to be paired with someone older/younger than them', 'They would work best with someone difficult/easy to get along with', and 'Don't pair them up with someone nice/mean', are things we sometimes see in addition to straightforward pairing requests ('[Character X] would like to be with [Character Y]') and are always taken into consideration above a strictly random pairing.
If we do not switch to a system where partners are made in-game, it is likely we would instead refine the language in the application itself, the application explanation, or both, to emphasize the fact that requests of any nature are honored to the best of our ability in tandem with our current RNG process.
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Mostly because ICly making a pairing is going to take time to write (especially when the game is slower paced, as this one is designed to be). So unless you hash it out OOC (which automatically puts players who don't know lots of people or are less assertive at a disadvantage) you are going to be in that awful 'something is happening/could be happening with my character but I don't know the specifics and I don't know if they end up with this person, where they are living etc' which is likely to effect your ability to tag out and make other connections with characters. At least if you end up with a less active god you've can still assume your character is at that temple and can get on with things.
As well as less assertive players there are less assertive characters to take into consideration. There are gods who may not want a shinki for whatever reason (but whose players very much would like them to have that interaction and responsibility and for it to lead to character growth) or are just not the type of people to offer off the bat. There are also shinki who wouldn't seek out a god for whatever reason (again, who's players would like them to have that interaction)
I just think that it's likely to lead to a situation where characters (and players) wander about lost for the time (not all of them, sure) and end up getting randomly assigned anyways.
I'm not sure on an alternative though. I don't think the idea of encouraging more IC choice is fundamentally wrong, I just think it would slow down characters introduction to the game (as while you are still unsure on who they are with etc you are less likely to tag out in other things) Unless there was an option for you to be OOC randomised (so you opt in on your app) even if not ICly per se as that would at least be a starting point for someone new who knows no one to spring board off.
It's very early so apologies if I make no sense.
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I think that the RNG option should be left available for players that would find that appealing. As a player that prefers to play out finding a partner, I like having this as an available option as well. As one of the players that founded the Shinki Sanctuary in game, I'd be fine with unassigned shinki staying there though I can't speak for James, the other player involved there. The co-founding character I have there is in limbo with her re-app pending after the 4th wall event but I'd be willing to try to help out with IC networking through there if any folks wanted to take that path with their character.
I also think that native OC shinki sound like they could be a fun option to play around with. Personally, I'd love to see them in game and think they could really add a lot to the game's worldbuilding as well as potentially add to the pool of available shinki.
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That said, I do still have some concerns about the continued use of minimum follower/exp requirements in missions. Even if it's something that will be reviewed again in the future, I believe there's more than enough evidence in the present to show that it causes more harm than help, especially after hearing more accounts from other players about their own experiences with the mission system.
Requiring a minimum follower/exp count only serves to prevent newer or slower players from participating in the plot. As I stated in the August 2017 State of the Game, at that time I had been playing Add in the game for 15 months of passing AC without any strikes or hiatuses and only accrued a total of 17k followers, about 1.1k followers per month. Currently I've been in the game for 35 months and have 30k followers, bringing my average down to only around 850 followers a month, though this is with a couple hiatuses and a considerable dry period in between. For the purposes of this example I'll bump my average up to 1k a month assuming I'm being more consistent in my activity. That said, this means that to hit the 10k minimum that most of the plot missions have I'd need to be in the game for about 10 months of average activity. It also means I'd need to wait at least 1~5 months to be able to apply for even the "low requirement" plot missions. For someone with double my tagging pace that's still going to be 2~3 months to hit the upper end of that "low requirement". This is a minimum requirement to engage with the plot in a meaningful way.
And again, relying on older/faster players to take other characters along on their missions isn't a fair solution for either player. It puts those high-follower/exp characters in a position where they have a large amount of control over who can or can't engage with the plot through missions. These players shouldn't be made to feel like they have to tag out beyond their own comfort levels for the sake of opening up the plot, nor should low-follower/exp count players feel like they need to have CR with specific other characters to get their foot in the door. It's an awkward situation for everyone.
What is actually gained from gatekeeping missions with follower/exp counts that makes it a feature worth keeping in? I haven't seen anything brought up yet in defence of the requirements. No one I've seen or spoken to on Plurk, Discord, the game's HMDs or any of the State of the Game posts (be it from this year or 2017) has said anything about wanting to keep the minimum requirements in place or what positive impact they may or may not have on the mission system/plot. Everyone I've spoken to has either had nothing to say on the subject or opposes the minimum requirements. If there's anyone who does have something positive to say about them I'd certainly love to hear it, but it baffles me that no one has said anything in defence of the follower/exp requirements and yet they're still only maybe going to be removed in a few months from now.
With the cultist arc set to wrap up soon, why continue to gate players out of these missions when this is THE time for people to be wrapping up those loose plot threads? The whole point of the recent event log was to share information not just between characters but with the main NPCs and give players an opportunity to get interested and engaged with the plot. All of that is meaningless if the same groups of players are still the only ones with direct access to these missions. Even on an IC level, after giving out all this information why would the Heavens suddenly go back to being picky about who they ask to do missions? The meeting log is basically one big open request to investigate the cult. Is Suijin going to turn around afterwards all "sorry, you're not popular enough with the mortals to help us, why don't you ask that other god if they want to help us instead and then you can tag along?" It's actually the perfect opportunity to open plot missions up to everyone.
Sorry that this is a lot of words again and a lot of it is me repeating myself, but this is the second time I've brought up the mission prereqs in a State of the Game and I'd rather not have to bring it up a third time whenever the next SotG swings around. I really just want to stress how much of an issue I feel these prerequisites are. I'd like to see a direct answer about what will be done about the follower/exp requirements, not what may or may not be done a few months from now, or at the very least why the mods feel the requirements are worth keeping in vs simply removing them.
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- Worldbuilding - TFS is set in Japan and the Heavens are run by gods who are native to Japan. Considering that hierarchy and meritocracy has played a large part of its history, it makes sense that the native Japanese gods' society would follow similar lines. The PC gods and shinki come into the Heavens as foreigners; it makes sense that ICly, they would have to gather influence and prove their capabilities to the old gods first to be entrusted with important tasks or sensitive info. The follower/exp requirements reflect this path of advancement. It doesn't make sense for the Heavens to give characters that haven't established themselves yet in their eyes important tasks to perform unless it's a dire emergency and they're desperate for help which seems to be a recurring theme during events. Even the meeting with Suijin comes across as the Heavens making an exception, not the adoption of a new rule they intend for all to follow, to me. It's pretty well established in game that changes happen very slowly in Heaven. It's been a recurring conflict within the setting. I think that friction between the old guard and the newcomers is good for keeping the setting from stagnating.
- OOC Incentives - Worldbuilding aside, I like having pre-requisites in place because for me, they function as in-game goals and participation incentives. They give me concrete goals and direction to aim for and spark long-term planning very quickly. I greatly enjoy having those in place, even if I am a slow tagger. I also don't see them as gatekeeping at all. I see it as a system intended to push myself and others in game to engage with, plot, and collaborate with other players that meet requirements I don't. Considering that RP is a social hobby and form of collaborative writing, it makes sense to me to have this system that pushes players to reach out and communicate in order to do what they want to do.
Putting all of that aside, I do think that the mission pre-requisites need to be tweaked. As you said, it does take a very long time to meet the qualifications. They are very steep, more so than seems to be a reasonable expectation for a slower, relaxed game like this. I also think that there should be training missions that don't have any pre-requisites at all that give newer characters opportunities to improve their influence and worth to the Heavens. It could be argued though that prayers and activity rewards already function in this way, though.
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Training missions is kinda what I had in mind for how missions might be reorganized, so I 100% agree with you on that one. What I envisioned is something like this: the first "tier" of plot missions would be completely open to anyone, and would be stuff like investigating event occurrences or other things that are mostly common/public knowledge. Stuff that wouldn't really require the Heavens to give out much additional info, basically. The next tier of missions above that would require previous mission experience, like x number of missions completed to show the Heavens that they're trustworthy. This makes it so you only need to engage with the plot to unlock further opportunities, without any arbitrary follower/exp requirements to limit your options. It'd be kinda like mission chains, except you wouldn't have to do a specific mission to go to the next tier, any mission experience would be fine.
Another idea I had was a sort of "reputation/prestige" system based on a combination of mission experience and followers/exp counts, so that characters could either have previous mission experience OR a high follower/exp count to apply for more difficult missions. Something like +1 prestige for every tier 1 mission completed, and also +1 prestige for every 1000 followers/100 exp, or w/e. But it'd probably get a bit unwieldy to add even more numbers for everyone to keep track of, so simplifying it to just "complete x number of missions to unlock this mission" is probably much easier.
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Looking at the last tag count sheet, as of right now, all but 3 gods and 1 shinki in game have access to the 1000F/100XP and all but 9 gods and 3 shinki have yet to reach the 2500F/250XP. These all seem to be newer character who are still settling into the game. Participating in an event that would have started your character ON a plot chain or doing some of the prayers that lead into plot (many of which don't require a god-shinki pairing and could be done with anyone in your CR circle) also reward anywhere from 100-500F/10-50XP each, so combined with what you're already tagging already, it wouldn't take as long as you're assuming if your character is IC following some breadcrumbs you as a player are picking out for them to pursue, or that they might get dragged along for the ride with their CR on.
The SOL Missions, on the other hand, DO have some of the higher Follower and XP requirements, but that's because many of them have to do with "a god of standing" being requested to do something to help out or further establish the Heavens or their own temples or their holy day or whatnot. These seem to be meant more to be goals to be work *towards* as personal character arcs to flesh out your character's role as a god - they aren't blocking you from interacting with the plot, they are additional bells and whistles similar to the regains and rewards you can earn as you play.
Considering this whole system is about to be overhauled, tweaked and refined as listed above to take out some of the older missions no longer relevant, some of this may end up being moot, since it's not yet known what's going to be kept going forward. But I just wanted to compare that to engage with the plot in a meaningful way requires a lot less footwork than you might think and the overwhelming majority of the game already qualifies for a foot in the door.
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That realization threw a wrench in (and forced us to sadly abandon) a plan, where our characters were supposed to go through the chain together with combined "holy day" on 1st August for both of them.
So I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I understand your stance of that this is how it is designed, and you are absolutely free to keep this way - it's your (general "your" of mods) game. Just wanted to give a perspective from player side, how it can be a source of "unfun" experiences, rather than "fun" In the end nothing is going to work for everyone.
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I apparently had nothing better to do tonight, so I went ahead and looked over the past 6 months' OOC intros and drops. I may have missed a couple people if they skipped the OOC intro for whatever reason, so if anyone wants to add a +1 to any of these tallies let me know, but these are the numbers I got:
November 2018: +11 characters
5 were played by returning or current players
6 were played by new players to the game
6 out of 11 of these characters have since dropped
of the 5 remaining characters, 2 were new when they apped
December 2018: +7 characters
4 new
3 returning/current
5 out of 7 have dropped
of the 2 remaining, 1 was new
January 2019: +5 characters
3 new
2 returning/current
4 out of 5 have dropped
of the 1 remaining, 0 were new
February 2019: +0 characters
March 2019: +2 characters
1 new(?)
1 returning/current
April 2019: +4 characters
0 new
4 returning/current
In summary: over the past six months of apps we've gained 29 new characters to the game. Of those 29 characters, 15 of them have already dropped or idled out of the game. Only 4 of the remaining 14 new characters were actually "new" players vs players that were either taking on an extra character or who had played in the game previously.
Let's take this one step further and look at the total drops posted for each month, not just the drops of new characters (this is including AC sweeps which are usually posted the month after, so technically you could probably nudge the numbers around a bit, but it all adds up the same so w/e).
November 2018: 18 drops
December 2018: 17 drops
January 2019: 10 drops
February 2019: 18 drops
March 2019: 6 drops
April 2019: 6 drops (so far)
So, yes, while you're technically right that the majority of the game's characters can meet the follower/exp requirements for most missions, it's not because followers/exp are any easier to gain.
Out of the 14 characters that are still in the game from the past six months' app cycles, only 5 are over 1000 followers/100 EXP.EDIT: Correction, most of the characters I'm talking about are over the 1000/100, aside from those that joined in March/April since they aren't on the tag count sheet. That said, this makes sense since the remainder would've been in the game for 1~6 months already. If we look at their average follower/exp gain the same as I calculated mine, we've got 8 characters that've been around for 2~6 months and have been updated on the tag count sheet, with 5 at or below my own 1k followers/100 exp monthly average and 3 with some higher averages ranging from about 1.5k~4k (all of them are gods, coincidentally).
(On a related note, while the god/shinki info pages are being worked on it's worth noting that we have everyone's follower/exp counts listed on no less than three different spreadsheets and none of the information is consistent, so maybe something should be done to either make sure those pages are kept up to date or rearrange everything so that any piece of information only has to be listed in one location.)
Anyway, the reason we don't have more characters in this lower bracket is because TFS is bleeding players. That's bad.
It's also notable that we only retained 4 "new" players in those past six months. It's easier to engage in the mission system if you're already established in the game and have CR with other characters, of course. Does this mean all the other new players dropped because they felt excluded from the plot? Maybe, maybe not, but I'm sure at least a few of them felt that way.
This kinda went off on it's own tangent, but this isn't just about making the mission system easier to use. It's about making the game more friendly towards new players—that's what all of this has been about. Because if TFS can't retain players, if it can't fix its issues and begin drawing in new blood, it will die out. And if the main method of interacting with the plot is specifically denying new players from engaging, that's not going to make anyone feel more welcomed. I certainly hope the other changes planned in this post will be able to make players feel more comfortable with the game's setting and mechanics, but lots of people will app into games for the plot and that's why this is such a big deal to me.
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So we'll definitely look into adding this somewhere conveniently available, along with a static link to the Monthly Tag Counts.