State of the Queue 2018

[Haschel Cedricson]

I also think people (me) are out off by modding because it feels like an unknown. Basic game design - fine, but it's hard to know how much...technical skill is needed to create a survivor forum that works - things like graphics all the way down to 'can I confidently change permissions at a tribe swap'.

I am probably 90-95% done with a guide that walks moderators through this process!

[Bellaphant]

I think also it's the need to be 'new'. I'd play, mechanic wise, psv again tomorrow. Hell, I could prolly even mod it. But that prolly isn't exciting for anyone.

[Chevre]

I don't know if players are looking for new twists, tbh. I know i'm the same way as Bella: it's not the crazy twists that get my gribblies fiddlin', it's just the play of the game.

I do think mods just take their opportunity to mod and are like "here's my super cool twist that's going to CHANGE the GAME" with mixed success, which is totally their prerogative, but I don't need hot new twistos twists.

[BROseidon]

IMO it's good to have a diversity of games in terms of mechanical complexity. Last year the pendulum definitely swung towards mechanics-heavy, and now I can sort of feel it swinging back in response to games like MLS and Civ.

[BROseidon]

Like having games that test new shit is good, but it's a problem when every single game is like that (which we saw last year for sure)

[Haschel Cedricson]

Agreed. I suspect Civ would have been better-received if it hadn't come directly off the heels of MLS and One World being back-to-back with no simpler games in-between.

[hiplop]

neds was by far the most standard game ina long time and thats pre weird >_>

[Cheery Dog]

I think also it's the need to be 'new'. I'd play, mechanic wise, psv again tomorrow. Hell, I could prolly even mod it. But that prolly isn't exciting for anyone.

/In

[xRECKONERx]

I've been wondering if open setups would be a bad thing to have? Rerun old setups, etc. Zor's puttin that idea to the test.

[xofelf]

Would they also include the same challenges? I think it's an interesting idea either way.

[JaydragonKing]

Well I've just joined, so playing any setup, old or not, would be new to someone like me. I saw in post 0 here that you got a bunch of new people here as well, and they didn't experience some of the older stuff.

Consider them like season 2 of that particular game, with a minor few tweaks to make it slightly better.

[zoraster]

I definitely designed my setup to reduce my workload, both in the design phase and while it's running. I have a lot of other reasons that it is the way it is, but ultimately that's the reason I went with this one rather than one of my other ideas. I don't want to go much more into detail about it because I don't want to affect the game (even if it is open), but I don't think it's a secret that this game required less time and effort to design and will take less to keep up-to-date.

Once I'm done running this, I'll definitely comment on "pain points" as I see them.

[Cheery Dog]

So with these stats in mind and the fact we have a new LSG mod, we would like to ask you the community a few questions about some things we will be trying to improve upon in the next few months.
1) What type of information do you expect to know about a Large Social Game before you dedicate months of your life to playing it?
2) How do you feel about the balance of Survivor games to Non-Survivor games?
3) If you haven't modded a Survivor game, what barriers are stopping you from doing so? If you have, what is stopping you from modding again?

I think what we've been given for all the large social games I've played has been fine, yes MLS was still surprising with how it worked, but I feel like it was still fine.
I didn't play Nexus as the only other one I remember that could maybe have had better warnings, but then that again would have changed the game.
I'm happy with just knowing that's it's a 'survivor' twists don't need revealed unless they're actually game changing.
Like Doctor Who told us exactly what would happen with it's twists, it was still a unique twist, and still surprising when we actually got to it - it doesn't really matter what the twists are, if they're unique, we'll have a case of people complaining because they didn't actually read the stuff.
It's also with MedEvac and One World, I would have struggled with medevac had I played it, even knowing the no-pms. One World probably would have been the same, even though I'd seen medevac before it. But that's probably more a timezone issue (which is the mods knew when making those casting choices)

I'm not fussed what the balance is, I believe us a community are more social when it comes to Survivor games, but I also enjoy the Non-Survivor games that have happened, and expect to do so in the future. We don't need to be forcing anybody to mod a particular style of game.

I think the main barrier for me is currently what I believe the time commitment is for modding a game, and that with timezones means it's nigh on impossible to make myself believe I will actually have the free time to go ahead with modding.
I have been led to believe that my internet connection may now be more stable, and will be trying to get Logical Journey running if my internet connection survives the next heatwave.

[Vijarada]

Nexus we were well warned that it was very twisty. and there was no "game changing mechanic" in that game so I think that was enough

[BROseidon]

Eh dead players getting to vote out living players was pretty game-changing at a fundamental level.

Although it did give us Rend Blackhand which was lulz.

[xRECKONERx]

So were the warnings for Nexus not enough? Interesting.

[BROseidon]

I think the warnings were enough from a plausible deniability standpoint, but that we were not transparent about the specific nature of the "dead players in pre-merge may be able to vote you out."

Even an oblique reference to "how you treat people matters" would have done the trick, IMO

[BROseidon]

Like some knowledge of that twist would have probably very changed how people played the game

[D3f3nd3r]

I can’t play games anymore without assuming there will be returnees after Civ.

[zoraster]

I think a crucial difference between the show and forum games is that the show is for the audience and our games are for the players. Twists can be fun for both players and audience members, but there are a lot of mechanics that are more fun for mods/spectators than they are for players. Unannounced returning players is a big one that's awesome to watch because it throws a wrench into everyone's plans, but it's not much fun to play (correct me if i'm wrong, players!) because it feels like chaos thrown in for chaos' sake without any real purpose.

[xRECKONERx]

i think it's fine to play if you know ahead of time?
and it's even fine as a big surprise every few years, i guess. idk, the threat of it possibly happening is enough to keep people on edge

[zoraster]

it's totally fine if you know ahead of time.

[Cephrir]

if you're going to do it, i prefer the redemption island mechanic to other methods. everyone knows it's happening and when someone is fully eliminated.

[JaydragonKing]

Someone coming back as a voted fan favorite seems reasonable though. Or they won a "Phoenix Challenge" that was given by the producers/moderators. And I would very much see that as a test to your skills to try to eliminate the same guy twice who's had a chance to get some dirt on all of you.

The guy comes back with the advantage of information he didn't have before but with the disadvantage of certain people gunning for their elimination again.

[zoraster]

It's fine to have a return mechanic. I think it's bad design not to tell people it's going to happen.