Hello Everyone,
Genesis Station has had 5 good episodes now, I hope you have enjoyed it up to this point, I know I have. Due to the 50th anniversary of Dr. Who today, there is no episode of Genesis Station. We will continue next week with episode 6 and air episode 7 the week after. As you might have already guessed from episode descriptions, the season was originally planned for 7 episodes which means we will have a season break in between. Due to the holidays, this season break is a bit longer then usual, 1 month to be precise. I hope you will all enjoy the rest of the current season and of course hope to see you back after the holidays for the continuations of the events on Genesis Station, which will take an interesting turn as we near the weeks end, where it all began, but this time, it's different...
Below is a roster of upcoming dates for Genesis Station. Dates marked with an * are subject to change due to events in RL or possibly postponed episodes. If no episode will be postponed, these will be the dates the episodes will air, but as you all know how it goes, sometimes things happen which are out of our control and things get pushed back. I hope this won't happen though, so jot down these dates on your calender:
-Season 1 Episode 6: 30th November 2013
-Season 1 Episode 7: 7th December 2013
-Season break from 14th December until the 4th of January
-Season 2 Episode 1: 18-01-2014
-Season 2 Episode 2: 25-01-2014
-Season 2 Episode 3: 07-02-2014
-Season 2 Episode 4: 15-02-2014
-Season 2 Episode 5: 22-02-2014
-Season 2 Episode 6: 01-03-2014
-Season 2 Episode 7: 08-03-2014
-Season Break, length yet to be determined
Hey guys, season 1 has concluded and season 2 will started the new year. I've recapped all episodes of season 1 here: http://www.last-outpost.net/forum/index.php/board,316.0.html
I would really appreciate your feedback on the season. Also, I would like to start developing your personal characters a bit more in the new season. Please think a bit about your character, where he/she came from, where you want to go, what your personality is etc. etc. I will contact all of you about this and having a look at how to weave this into the SRP starting next season.
I also hoped you liked the references to ancient mythology, they will continue to be the backbone of the series and will be linked to important events of the story, see if you can figure out what they are linked to!
So, what else has next season in store for us? Time will tell, but here's 3 teasers for you:
-"This station is so much better then ours in so many ways!"
-"Deputy Director? What is this nonsense!"
-"Calypso has done this before, but now we are her captives."
All right guys, I'll go first. I encourage everybody that participated this season to also share their thoughts here so we can help Maarten make the next season even more enjoyable.
Maarten, I've really enjoyed the story thus far and I look forward to participating in season 2. You know I've got tons of love for you, so I'm going to keep this post restricted to constructive criticism, since that is infinitely more helpful than praise.
The map is too large and hinders interaction between characters. If I want to see somebody besides Archibald, I have to spend a good two or three minutes walking to the mess hall. Iowa was much smaller and everyone felt closer together but this new map is gigantic and I might go the entire RP without seeing anybody. I know you have a map change in mind that will hopefully solve these problems, but as it stands the maps we've used so far just feel cold and dead without dozens of RPers.
I feel like the story of the SRP can sometimes seem very narrow. We have a space station and the Omega13 device but we don't really know much else about the universe and sometimes it feels like there's little to work off of in interactions between characters. Since you know the plot, Maarten, it seems like there's only action where your character is. This is not entirely your fault; a lot of people choose to go AFK for long periods of time when they are not the focus of the scene, and some people don't know how to improvise. I think the second season would be much more enjoyable if you explicitly gave people some subplots either per episode or over the span of several so that they have something to do besides twiddling their thumbs and waiting for P'Trell to come by.
I think you've been trying to experiment by giving people more room to develop their own stories. This works in certain instances, but it appears that this is not one of them. Without plot direction, I see most people during the RP just stand around and do nothing. We have rules against plotjacking and even stricter ones against plotjacking during an SRP and nobody wants to break them.
So to sum up
- Choose a cozier map that provides more places for characters to interact
- Add more story elements
- Reduce P'Trell's importance to the overall flow of the story
- Give players explicit guidance to help create subplots
Quote from: Telex Ferra on December 17, 2013, 02:13:19 PM
If I want to see somebody besides Archibald
What am I not interesting enough for you?! :(
Anyway my criticism would be rather similar, I find myself doing similar things each episode and this makes it harder to feel involved in the plot, at times it felt like, at times nothing at all had progressed for my character (a bit of an exaggeration). Yeah that's really it I guess.
Thanks for the feedback guys. Alot of things I also noticed myself. I'll go over the points Telex described here and try to explain what I have planned for them for season 2.
- Choose a cozier map that provides more places for characters to interact:
I really felt Iowa could fill this place. Unfortunately, due to map issues we couldn't keep using this map. Since Modas/Vanderbilt is used in AF and I didn't want to use the same map, I searched for another one. It was really hard finding a good starbase map that even had all the basic areas we needed. Don't worry though, I've got something in store which we will see right off the bat in season 2 if all goes well. Stay tuned for the trailer!
- Add more story elements:
This is a really good tip Telex. I've noticed members being inactive during times. Now I have a few RPG-X vets like yourself and Andromeda in the RP so they do help things move along a bit. People are encouraged to do their own thing (one side-plot for example was the investigation of the sun in seaosn 1 for the science dept.). For season 2, I will keep this in mind and try to write in some more plot elements for people to work on. I've done this before on Dauntless and there is one tactic I've used there that I havn't used in Genesis yet untill the very last episode which I will try to reintrocude during season 2 which could certianly help get the story along and get everyone involved!
- Reduce P'Trell's importance to the overall flow of the story:
Again, relates to the point above. Without spoiling too much, I can already say that the story for Season 2 already accomodates this. There will be a couple of changed to the RP story wise at the start of the first episode of season 2, so stay tuned for more on this which you will also get a hint of in the trailer!
- Give players explicit guidance to help create subplots
This is also relating to point nr 2 somewhat. As i mentioned before, I will introduce a section during the roleplay which will accomodate this. I didn't realise that I really forgot to do this particular thing during this season, so thanks for pointing it out!
I have an update on this everyone. Since the map is not yet done (you know what map im talking about) I can't be certain when we can start again. This is not all bad as it gives us the opportunity to take some more time writing season 2. Now I realize that this means the RP is not running for quite a few weeks. I'm going to see if this issue can be solved and keep you guys up to date on this.
Quote from: Archibald on December 17, 2013, 03:35:38 PM
Quote from: Telex Ferra on December 17, 2013, 02:13:19 PM
If I want to see somebody besides Archibald
What am I not interesting enough for you?! :(
Anyway my criticism would be rather similar, I find myself doing similar things each episode and this makes it harder to feel involved in the plot, at times it felt like, at times nothing at all had progressed for my character (a bit of an exaggeration). Yeah that's really it I guess.
Quote from: Archibald on December 17, 2013, 03:35:38 PM
Quote from: Telex Ferra on December 17, 2013, 02:13:19 PM
If I want to see somebody besides Archibald
What am I not interesting enough for you?! :(
Anyway my criticism would be rather similar, I find myself doing similar things each episode and this makes it harder to feel involved in the plot, at times it felt like, at times nothing at all had progressed for my character (a bit of an exaggeration). Yeah that's really it I guess.
There's only so much Archibald one can stand
+1 Telex's feedback.
As a member of ENG I felt there wasn't a lot for me to do, and having a huge map with nobody in it means I don't do as much as I'd like or want to. Apart from fixing stuff which gets old real fast.
Roster updated. We launch off again next week. Stay tuned to the forum for Episode Information!
Ye may want to post a wee bit of episode information. Tis the 18th.
updated.