Applications/Character Cap: I think the real strength of this game is the tight plot and its opportunity for the players to have lots of interaction with it and to affect things on a personal level. If a bigger game would mean losing some of that personalization, I think a character cap could work in the game's interest.
If we're capping applications per round, though, it might be good to go back to a once a month app cycle instead of once every two months. Only letting ten characters in every other month seems a little overboard. As far as character cap, I think 4 is fine - that's already lower than most other games. I don't see lowering it to 3 as necessary at this point.
Overall, though, I don't think we've been in the 'apps every other month' mode for long enough to really see the effect that's having on the growth of the game yet. It might be a good idea to wait things out a bit and see what happens with that.
Events: The events that I think have been very successful have been the ones in the style of the Doppelganger and Memory events, where we're given information by the mods and then can largely run things for ourselves. This is in contrast to the dungeon crawl style of the Imperial Research Facility rescue plot, which I felt got bogged down very quickly and had problems progressing at a decent pace due to the fact that nothing could progress without mod input.
A good compromise for events like that would be one where we have the information of what is in an area ahead of time so we can run it for ourselves, with the mods only needing to be involved at key important points. Pretty much exactly how the Stiltzkin's Castle expeditions are going to be handled. That will let players set their own pace, and since the resolution will be known ahead of time, it won't slow anything down with people not being able to tag anything that happened chronologically afterward due to not knowing how things turned out.
Features: The Doppelganger system is neat, but I don't see it getting a lot of use except to create a bit of roleplaying tension for players wanting to give their characters something to worry about. Which is fine, honestly - it doesn't need to be much more than that.
The Monster Arena hasn't been seeing any use beyond completing the quest for the Dancer Job, which seems like it's been taking a lot longer than it really should. I'm not sure how likely it is to be used once it's open - I think letting Blue Mages learn their abilities there might help with that a little. As it stands, there's not much incentive to work with it.
I'm obviously a fan of the Guilds system since it's opened the door for Levy to found a new chapter of Fairy Tail. I think it also gives characters a lot to do in terms of organizing themselves and creating dedicated groups to adventure and complete quests with.
Endgame: I can't say a whole lot here, because obviously I'm not privy to what you guys have planned in terms of plot between now and then. I'd like to see the game continue for at least another year because I really enjoy it, but I know that's going to depend on character actions and the timeline you've set.
One thing I would like to see happen, though, is characters being able to find out ways to slow down the progress of the Calamity or to study the phenomenon. The problem is, it's impossible to get down to where it's happening and the one NPC we have access to who knows about crystals - Jessie - stonewalls us at every opportunity when she's asked about it. Maybe there are other avenues that I haven't thought of yet, but if so, they haven't been made obvious enough to start tugging on that plot thread.
Native OCs: I don't really see myself using this option, but it doesn't hurt having it around just for the sake of some potential variety if people wanted to do it. It seems like it comes with a lot of limitations that might prevent people from giving it any real consideration, but understandable ones giving the game setting.
Game-Wide HMD: These tend to make me nervous, but as long as they're anon-disabled, not mandatory, and locked to members of the game communities, I don't really see the harm. Otherwise I can see the potential for abuse or grudgewanking.
no subject
If we're capping applications per round, though, it might be good to go back to a once a month app cycle instead of once every two months. Only letting ten characters in every other month seems a little overboard. As far as character cap, I think 4 is fine - that's already lower than most other games. I don't see lowering it to 3 as necessary at this point.
Overall, though, I don't think we've been in the 'apps every other month' mode for long enough to really see the effect that's having on the growth of the game yet. It might be a good idea to wait things out a bit and see what happens with that.
Events: The events that I think have been very successful have been the ones in the style of the Doppelganger and Memory events, where we're given information by the mods and then can largely run things for ourselves. This is in contrast to the dungeon crawl style of the Imperial Research Facility rescue plot, which I felt got bogged down very quickly and had problems progressing at a decent pace due to the fact that nothing could progress without mod input.
A good compromise for events like that would be one where we have the information of what is in an area ahead of time so we can run it for ourselves, with the mods only needing to be involved at key important points. Pretty much exactly how the Stiltzkin's Castle expeditions are going to be handled. That will let players set their own pace, and since the resolution will be known ahead of time, it won't slow anything down with people not being able to tag anything that happened chronologically afterward due to not knowing how things turned out.
Features: The Doppelganger system is neat, but I don't see it getting a lot of use except to create a bit of roleplaying tension for players wanting to give their characters something to worry about. Which is fine, honestly - it doesn't need to be much more than that.
The Monster Arena hasn't been seeing any use beyond completing the quest for the Dancer Job, which seems like it's been taking a lot longer than it really should. I'm not sure how likely it is to be used once it's open - I think letting Blue Mages learn their abilities there might help with that a little. As it stands, there's not much incentive to work with it.
I'm obviously a fan of the Guilds system since it's opened the door for Levy to found a new chapter of Fairy Tail. I think it also gives characters a lot to do in terms of organizing themselves and creating dedicated groups to adventure and complete quests with.
Endgame: I can't say a whole lot here, because obviously I'm not privy to what you guys have planned in terms of plot between now and then. I'd like to see the game continue for at least another year because I really enjoy it, but I know that's going to depend on character actions and the timeline you've set.
One thing I would like to see happen, though, is characters being able to find out ways to slow down the progress of the Calamity or to study the phenomenon. The problem is, it's impossible to get down to where it's happening and the one NPC we have access to who knows about crystals - Jessie - stonewalls us at every opportunity when she's asked about it. Maybe there are other avenues that I haven't thought of yet, but if so, they haven't been made obvious enough to start tugging on that plot thread.
Native OCs: I don't really see myself using this option, but it doesn't hurt having it around just for the sake of some potential variety if people wanted to do it. It seems like it comes with a lot of limitations that might prevent people from giving it any real consideration, but understandable ones giving the game setting.
Game-Wide HMD: These tend to make me nervous, but as long as they're anon-disabled, not mandatory, and locked to members of the game communities, I don't really see the harm. Otherwise I can see the potential for abuse or grudgewanking.