How's The Game?

[phantasmods]

How's The Game?

Well, hello there, PhanRift! Welcome to our very first How's the Game post!

How's The Game is an open forum for discussion about the current state of the game and where it may go, heading forwards. For mods, this is a place for us to make you guys aware of any changes to the game that are on the table and to hear your thoughts on them. For players, this is a chance for you guys to give us feedback on how the game is going!

Please keep in mind that this is not a HMD meme and this post should not be used as a forum for critiquing specific players or characters. We trust you guys to keep things civil but please be aware that any out of hand conduct will be frozen.

The mods will have a list of toplevels below, covering topics we want to raise with you guys, but the rest of the post is a total free for all!

Comments

MOD FEEDBACK

[phantasmods]

Your current modteam consists of headmod Nai and helpermod Claire!

Do you have any feedback for the mod team specifically? Anything you'd like to let us know? Do you just want to tell us how beautiful and amazing we are? Feel free to tell us right here!

If you're at all uncomfortable with hitting us up on a public post like this, don't forget that we have a contact post right here with screened comments that you can use to speak with us!

[founderinglight]

This is my excuse to love on Claire publicly because she is a SAINT and I would go bananas without her, she's way more organized than me and good at code and I would be very scream at own ass w/o her

[seafoamgreen]

I just want to say that I appreciate you guys and the work you put into this game, thank you. :D

[caduceusoncall]

Hey you're both beautiful and all the work you do behind the scenes, all the player interactions you have, all the love and thought you've put into this game - it doesn't go unnoticed. I really appreciate everything you guys do!!

LOOT DROP REVISIONS

[phantasmods]

So as you guys might've seen on both Plurk and Discord, we are currently in the process of revising the loot drop system!

While things won't change very much on the player facing side of things, behind the scenes, this new system will take a huge amount of pressure off Nai and ensure that dungeon loot can be dished out much more quickly and efficiently than before! The only caveat is that players will no longer be recieving wholly unique items from loot drops, but will be recieving their items from an extensive pool (in the double digits!) of pre-written loot drops, with the additional chance of recieving unique artifacts and character specific loot drops.

We're hoping to roll out this new loot system with the next event. Before it goes live, we'd like to hear some feedback! Do you guys have any questions or concerns about this new system? Or do you have any suggestions for loot you'd like to see? We'd love to hear it!

[dragonmouth]

This is pretty similar to how gacha prizes/regain rolls are already done in murdergames, so I honestly don't have any problem with this.

[caduceusoncall]

This sounds reasonable, tbh. Anything to make it easier for y'all is okay with me, as a rule.

AC REVISIONS

[phantasmods]

Since the beginning, PhanRift has always been a game all about having fun and getting involved at your own pace. Our activity system is set up so that, rather than punishing inactivity, we want to encourage players to take part and be active!

This has worked spectacularly well for the most part, but with an increasing and diversifying playerbase, we're finding that the AC system as stands does not completely suit the needs of the game. PhanRift started off at a rather slow pace, but the current level of activity is approaching more of a medium pace and we'd like to make sure that the systems in place are keeping up with the players.

While we don't intend to make any big changes to the current comment minimum or to the points system, the mods are currently discussing ways of rectifying potential instances of squatting or idling without upsetting the balance of the game. We have no hard plans in place yet and we'll be letting you guys know in advance once we do, so don't fret!

This is just a heads up that these discussions are happening and to ask if you guys have any feedback on the AC system as stands. Let us have it!

[blackestwitch]

I don't have any concerns with the low AC threshold? Like, summer months are good for RP, but when things pick up irl it's cool not to have to stress about making AC. It's one of the pros of the game imo.

If any changes are going to be made, I'd prefer something like a check-in for characters with low comment counts. (As an example, 5 comments meets AC, but between 5 and 20 gets asked for a check-in. Something like that?) That'd keep AC less stressful but should at least ensure people are still intending to play.

[dragonmouth]

+1 to this, basically.

[caduceusoncall]

+1

[matchmakes]

+1

[phantasmods]

Any changes that would be made would be based upon looking over multiple months of activity, not any individual month.

CHARACTER CAP INCREASE

[phantasmods]

As stands, the current character cap in PhanRift is two characters per player. After some discussion between the mods we are proposing that we bump this cap up to three per player! This change will go into effect in the following app round (that is to say, the dungeon after the current one) if players are agreeable to it.

Let us know what you have to say!

[foolishjustice]

I've been seeing a lot of people with ideas for if thirds open up. With the population of the game at this point, I honestly don't see a problem with it. Character caps are good for small games to avoid ending up with too much of the cast played by the same handful of people, but I don't think that's something we have to worry about anymore.

[blackestwitch]

+1 to this basically

[promittere]

+1, yeah

[caduceusoncall]

+1, definitely

[dragonmouth]

+1

[matchmakes]

+1

[phantasmods]

The initial limit of two was really more directed at keeping mods from getting overwhelmed; especially as the game continues to grow in terms of number of players (not characters), that's a major consideration we have. More characters in the game represents more work for the mods - this is true at any level, but doubly so when you bring in attention at the individual level (such as tallying points, handing out loot, and so forth). It also applies to NPC interactions.

So that was honestly the main consideration in having a character cap in the first place, rather than "too many characters played by the same handful of people." Truth be told, that never entered into it, and it was entirely a cap of "this is where Nai feels okay with the workload without feeling like he's going to careen off the edge of a cliff, screaming."