Mid-Month Announcement: April

[simpathis]

— MID-MONTHLY MOD ANNOUNCEMENT: APRIL —


Another delay, this time so it would coincide with the Flower Festival finale. We hope everyone enjoyed it despite the notification issues! As a reminder, you are always welcome to backtag.


» CALENDAR

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Here are the dates you should know for the rest of the month. The main calendar spreadsheet can be found here.

• 4/17: Test Drive + Enable Me Meme.
  
• 4/24: Activity Check starts; Reservations open.
  
• 4/20: PLAYER PLOT: Kylo Ren.
  
• 4/30: Activity Check ends.
  
• 5/01: Applications Open.

Keeping it light for the remainder of the month. May will be fun.


» EMOTION TRACKER UPDATE

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As always, it's kind of early to tell where the Emotion Tracker is going. Crystal still broken.

As a reminder, this is just a "mid-month" check to give everyone an idea of where the Emotion Tracker stands. If you haven't had a chance to submit your threads, don't worry! You can still submit and have it count for the final tally at the end of the month.

Here is a screenshot of the stats:


Well it's safe to say you guys slammed this month's ET out of the park. Everyone looks great! ...Except for Peromei. We all know who to blame for that. Fortunately it's not so drastic that she'll go nuts about it, but we're once again seeing a constant swing back and forth, back and forth...


» EMOTION TRACKER CHANGE

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We would like to inform everyone that while we've let players have free rein in terms of how many points to put for their threads, we are going to put a cap of 10 points positive OR negative per Arehtei per thread. That means that for any single thread, an Arehtei should be receiving no more than 20 points (10 positive, 10 negative). Realistically they should be much less than that.

To help players both new and old get a better idea of how to figure out the number of points for any given thread, we would like everyone to consider it like a rating system:

• 1 point would be for a small but significant moment. Like a heart flutter or a bit of embarrassment.
  
• 10 points should only occur if something extremely dire or substantial happens. If it's 10 points, then walls should be breaking, the ground shaking, things exploding everywhere—basically, the really big "oh shit" moments or, for the positive side, "I'M SO HAPPY I COULD DIE" moments.

Everything else will likely fall in-between. We would recommend the highs to average more in the 5's or 6's.


» FLOWER FESTIVAL FINALE

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Congratulations everyone! We reached the 65 flowers and so the finale was written accordingly. And what did everyone see? Well, it's a bit of a read, so here's a nice outlined breakdown for you.

• Giant crystal reacted.
  
• "Unknown pod" released petals and pollen.
  
• The city transformed into something different. Simpathis's symbol is everywhere.
  
• Everyone starts feeling either sympathetic, empathetic, or apathetic toward everything around them.
  
• Native Empatheians are hit the hardest and their crystals start reacting. Characters do not share this experience.
  
• A strange voice in the wind speaks of a "sister city" called "Areta."
  
• The city of Verens itself seems sad.
  
• More intense feels until it all returns back to normal.

So what does this all mean? It means everyone just got a glimpse of the past. And what can you do with it?

There is indeed information about Areta available, and no, there is no puzzle. But finding the information is going to be a little difficult and perhaps not as thorough as those who research will like. However, what can be found will shed some more light on what happened and perhaps give clues as to what everyone should do from here. All one needs to do is ask questions on what characters will be looking for and we will prepare the information. The only reason why we're not dumping a document link here is because we would like characters to disperse the information rather than us releasing everything.

We've had a few questions about the sympathy/empathy/apathy effects, so here are some clarifications!

• Limited time only. Except for apathy which has already existed prior to the event, the following effects for sympathy and empathy are for this event only. After the day is over, the effects are no longer in play. Apathy will also return to its former, more subdued state.
  
  
• Empathy. Empathy is when you not only understand the feelings of another person, but you also feel them as if they were your own. This is usually aided if you've had a similar experience so it affects you more personally. But there are those who just naturally get caught up in the emotions and feel that personal connection even if they were not directly affected initially. Because of empathy's nature, the emotion effects it brings is actually an increased influence of those around them. So if someone is happy and already showing emotional effects, a person being empathetic with them will increase it. For example, from a small little spark to a technicolor burst of rainbow colors.
  
  
• Sympathy. Sympathy is when you understand the feelings or situation of another person, but you don't necessarily feel anything personally about it. Sure, you might feel bad or happy for them, but that's as far as your own personal feelings on the matter go. So in this case, similar to empathy, those sympathetic to emotions will increase the effects, but at a much smaller scale. To continue the example from before, a little spark might become two little sparks with maybe one color added to the mix.
  
  
• Apathy. As everyone should be aware, apathy is the complete lack of understanding or feeling emotions. Most people are aware of the current effects (muted colors, slight deterioration of objects, small holes appearing). This time, these effects are amplified to be a bit more noticeable. In addition, they are going to dampen the emotional effects of others. Going back to the spark, it's possible that the spark could completely fizzle out and disappear.

Hope this helps people! Keep in mind that the -pathy family incorporates all emotions, so you do have all potential emotional effects available. In addition, no one is forced to feel any of this, but they can be influenced to either do so or be influenced by others.


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And that's about it. Probably one of our shortest mod posts, to date, but then again, the Festival probably ate up most of it. Just wait until May and beyond.

If you have any questions, concerns, or want things clarified, please comment here.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[simpathis]

General.

[allweather]

inquiry regarding the x10 upper limit!

IF a thread is very long and a character has, say, x2 of an emotion multiple times, should we specify that in the tracker? like, if they feel friendship x2 four times, should that be reported as "four x2s" so that it's differentiated from a singular x8 level feeling?

i hope this makes sense...... too many numbers

[simpathis]

In that case, we'd suggest that instead of looking at the number of instances, you should look at the thread as a whole and kind of gauge it that way. So using your example, if they are feeling multiple instances of friendship, the overall feeling could maybe be x5 or x6.

[allweather]

cool, thanks

ARETA

[simpathis]

So what questions should we be ensuring are covered in the info? Dump them here!

[shepherds_pie]

talk history to me

No but things Sorey'll be looking for:

1. The relations between Areta and Verens? (of course)
2. The history, however scant, of Areta itself?
3. The culture of Areta?
4. The economy?
5. The religion?
6. The technology?
7. Was their language different from Verens'?
8. Are there ties between the Arehtei and Areta?
9. Are there old songs/poems/whatnot about Areta or originating from Areta? Sorey'll be taking a critical look at these, understanding that they're most likely romanticizing events.
10. Are there legends about or associated with Areta?

...he wants to know everything, I'm sorry. He's super nosy.

[eyeswideopen]

+1 to this. This is all the stuff Komaeda will be looking for as well.

[strategisch]

If Sorey would take charge of this particular research effort (it's kind of straight up his alley) Armin would be glad to help. Or just, someone taking over in general would make this way more efficient? Easier to keep track of and such.

[shepherds_pie]

Sure! He'd be happy to do that! And it makes sense that there should be a more efficient way to handle it, haha...

[strategisch]

Okay, cool! As long as the mods are okay with it, this is a good plan. If Sorey made some kind of post, it would attract attention, and get things mobilized.

I'm pretty curious what this is all about, haha.

[shepherds_pie]

I can ping them on their Plurk about it! He'll def make a general "call to arms" post once I hear back. uwu

omg same tbh!

[lamb_of_gold]

Also +1-ing all this. I'd also like to add in looking in to military history if that's not covered in something else.

[shepherds_pie]

oh, that's a good one, I didn't think about that!

[lamb_of_gold]

I MEAN it might be rolled into legends etc. but there was one HELL of a war on this planet so there should be *something*.


Also if there ends up being an IC call-to-arms, I'm so in.

[shepherds_pie]

Legends of heroes, maybe, but that wouldn't cover military history entirely, I don't think. ;o;

Awesome! I'll at least set up an OOC post to see who'll be in and how info will be distributed. And I'll ask if people would like an IC post for general discussion/organization, but final plans being made OOCly.

[lamb_of_gold]

Can i grab you on plurk so as not to miss anything?

[shepherds_pie]

Feel free! I'm redknightdistrict!

[simpathis]

Just a heads up that I've sent Ryuuto the information! She has been appointed as information dispenser.

Treat her kindly.

[x_ed]

Hi info dispenser here's another kid looking into all this stuff.