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▶ GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT: FEEDBACK POST

Hello everyone! Happy March and spring to you all. We are taking this opportunity to provide another FEEDBACK POST since we anticipate some changes this coming year. Once again, some things to look forward to in our game are the following:

1. Where the Rifts actually are coming from.
2. Where the kaiju are coming from / what a Rift leads to.
3. What the kaiju want from humanity / why they are hostile towards humanity.
4. The reveal of the big catastrophe that made the Earth 1/3rd of a population less.
5. An opportunity to explore the inside of a Rift.
6. An opportunity for monster transformation.

We want to apologize about how things carried out in the previous event without asking for the playerbase's input, but we were focused on getting things set up for the next part of the plot and that was the primary point of the previous event. We are very excited to reveal these things to you all as a playerbase gradually, but we want to clarify some things on our half and also hear you out with any suggestions or feedback you may have. We also want to remind you that you can reach out to us anytime you'd like on the MOD CONTACT page with any general feedback or suggestions. It is easy for us as a mod team to see things just from a mod perspective and we figure it is also easy for a playerbase to not see things from a mod perspective as well, which is why we are creating this post – to encourage clear communication between all of us and hopefully be able to accommodate. We want to remind you all that we are a small mod team and suggestions that require heavy involvement may not fit our work / life / RP schedules, but hopefully we can come to a compromise if that is the case.

To make things easier for us to grasp, here is a form you can fill out. The playerbase is invited to +1 any suggestions or feedback they agree to with their own comments. Please put in your COMMENT HEADER what this feedback pertains to so it is easy to follow along. Thank you!

Player Name: Your name.
Character(s): The characters you play.
Area of Feedback: What area is this feedback mostly about? Is it about the fighting mechanism? The mod team? The setting? The NPCs? The plot? Let us know here.
Things You Like:
Things That Could Improve:
Suggestion on How to Improve:

<b>Player Name:</b> Your name. <b>Character(s):</b> The characters you play. <b>Area of Feedback:</b> What area is this feedback mostly about? Is it about the fighting mechanism? The mod team? The setting? The NPCs? The plot? Let us know here. <b>Things You Like:</b> <b>Things That Could Improve:</b> <b>Suggestion on How to Improve:</b>

This feedback post will be open until March 17th. After March 17th, we will no longer be accepting feedback left specifically on this post. Depending on the feedback we receive, we will be looking to expand the mod team and open up mod applications for 1-2 mods who will primarily help with PLOT & EVENTS. Be on the lookout for that!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Player Name: Jill!
Character(s): Just Silco here
Area of Feedback: fighting mechanism / kaiju events
Things You Like: things that I like are the different monsters you all are coming up with, and the big swings with the setting that yall have been trying!! I am also super jazzed for the plot because I think it's an interesting turn and I'm really intrigued to see where it goes!
Things That Could Improve: the mechanics of the kaiju fights
Suggestion on How to Improve: I have a couple things that I've noticed that makes it super difficult to get really into kaiju fights, and it's a shame bc I feel like some tweaks could make it a lot smoother for a kaiju fighting game!

• one thing I think a lot of us have felt with events, is forcing to split the teams for nearly the entirety of the action portion of the event super limits interactability! I don't think it's bad to send teams off to do things, but in general, I think focusing those on a centralized location so characters can still interact with other teams for an event would be ideal. For example, say characters are going to Vegas, maybe Everlight has to go to Reno for a day or two during the event -- which gives the team focused feel, without actually forcing teams to separate entirely for the whole event! I know in the last one there were tons of characters I wanted to tag but couldn't bc they were in a totally different area, which was a real shame!

• Kaiju rolls happening late in the month -- this one is really crucial, I think. Kaiju rolls happen near the end of the month, it makes it so hard to actually play out anything happening. It can be difficult to play out these kaiju fighting action scenes, so I would almost suggest putting them into the travel log to make sure that when the fight happens, we have the opportunity to play with the results. If it's a miss, that's a writing opportunity as much as a hit, and I think getting to know what they will be will help! It also removes a feeling of "pre-determination" that I think we all felt with the imugi fight this time around. It also gives you guys more flexibility and time with planning the course of how the event will finish up each month!

• Rift Poisoning and Kaiju Effects - I feel like Rift Poisoning is fairly poorly defined, and that's both difficult to play with and an opportunity! I still don't really know all the effects of it personally, but I think maybe it changing with the kaiju is an opportunity to play with what's happening to characters. Especially because the kaiju are weird and could add lots of opportunities for all kinds of things. Mind melds, corruption, weird prophetic dreams, etc etc the possibilities and kind of endless and I think taking the opportunity to give players some weirdness with kaiju is a good opportunity to lay into some of the rp-classics of forcing characters to do things that they normally wouldn't do! Maybe making it more themed to the kaiju would provide opportunities! For example, we had all of those mutations last time around, so maybe letting characters play with that and take on temporary (or maybe NOT temporary!!) mutations! I think this also gives opportunities for those of us who aren't always gonna be doing the stock fighting to do something fun and interactive!

And last one I promise:
• Log focus seems to draw us away from kaiju. Theres just not a lot of play with it. I'd love to see lots more smaller kaiju, ways to interact with the kaiju itself or the fight. The focus really was (particularly with the last log) on travel and the aftermath rather than fighting with the kaiju itself. I think some of that was that it felt difficult to get involved especially with the split teams but also I think it was difficult in general because it felt so restrictive in terms of who fought what and the outcomes feeling pre-determined, even though the rolls weren't. It makes it feel disjointed and like our choices or input doesn't matter! I don't think that's your intention, either! I do think if the kaiju fight is going to happen on the 15th, I would keep the focus on the fight itself, and the aftermath more for later or the next month. I know it's not always feasible, and we wouldn't want the tdm to be just sifting through the base remains, but I do think maybe changing how that is done, or the timing, etc would help with some of these pains.

This turned out long, but all of it is to say that I'm really enjoying the game, and I do want to thank you all for your hard work. I know how hard it is to build a game, along with events that feel in the depth and easy to interact with. It's a super tough job, and we all appreciate you guys for your work!!

Jill beat me to what I was whipping up and said it better so I'll just add on here!

I think there's just a low level of interactivity with the kaiju logs especially, and I think things like just moving when the rolls occur would go a long way in giving more to do with them. Because of how the logs are structured, it's felt to me like our characters are reacting to a story rather than participating in it. Like, even if a character manages to get a KO, that doesn't end up being something that we can use for RP because that information comes out so late after the logs go up.

I'd also just add an additional point that adding things like Rift effects would go a long way for adding some more creative options for what characters can practically do/we can thread out. Like searching for clues doesn't make fulfilling threads when we don't know what we're looking for/can't effect the outcome, and similarly, saving civilians is an activity that occurs on nearly every log and doesn't provide very much to work with. There's just a lot of "thing is happening, react" which (for me) is restrictive and repetitive to thread.

I think if there were more ways for characters to steer the outcomes or progression, it would go a long way! Like when the Imugi first appeared, the fact that we got to choose what to do created good IC conversations and conflict, and I feel like that's been a bit missing since.

to basically everything said above! it did feel like the kaiju log was something we couldn't affect the outcome of, so it was difficult to get involved in the kaiju fighting aspect and such (for me, personally). one thing you guys could consider is (and hopefully this won't add too much work 😭) to move some of the aftermath stuff to the follow-up post instead. it can be a simple ooc post where you just summarize what happened, etc. similar to the network post that was put up a few weeks after the log, but more bullet-points and simple updates.

for example, the part where the imugi blew up the base could've been part of follow-up post, or it could have been rolled into the tdm prompts too if logistics allowed for it. i think that would lessen the feeling of character actions having no impact on the outcome and would maybe open up more opportunities for varied interactions during the downtime periods of the game (rescuing newbies, retrieval missions, etc). it can also build on any investigation findings + kaiju rolls that players would've uncovered during the kaiju log itself.

this is hopefully smth that can just be part of the log planning too, but you can also have options, so like if we all rolled poorly (help), it can be outcome A. or otherwise, it's outcome B. i hope this is making sense... but regardless, i'm super excited for what's to come so thank you so much for all your hard work! i can't wait to see what you guys are cookin' 💜

I'll add another vote to sharing the aftermath in a separate post. It was my first kaiju fight log, so it could be an outlier, but it felt like to matter what characters did in regards to battling or trying to lure it one way, it was a moot point since we already had the decisions made in the same log.

Separating the fight and the aftermath into different logs would be helpful with game feel in a lot of ways imo

For one it gives people who don't usually interact with the first half of the fight more reason to. For another it keeps us guessing how things will play out, and means going into aftermath threads with full context rather than scrambling to add context after the rolls are done

(Big examples being Brasov with the talking to Laios and this most recent fight with the detail of something being Wrong about the Imugi)

I’m not necessarily averse to splitting fight and aftermath up, but I’m worried that I would be too slow to finish fight logs before the aftermath log went up. If they get split, I hope we can check in after a round or two to see if the timing is working.

I do like the idea of a test phase with this instead of just an outright change at first.

Seconding all of this! I'm going to add my own feedback, but combined with making rolls happen earlier, I do have an idea of how to use rift poisoning/kaiju effects. When attacking, people could opt-in for a rift effect if they're willing to have something happen to their character, and a few characters can be rnged to have some side effects or for something else to happen. It doesn't have to be anything big, but I think that could make the rolls feel a little more interactive and give some room for players to have personalized effects.

Absolutely this. It adds another layer of fun to the rng c:

Player Name: Em
Character(s): Shinn Asuka

I’M IGNORING THE STRUCTURE OF THIS FORM TO START WITH THE HIGH-LEVEL THINGS I LIKE A LOT

First, I love the overall setting and approach of the game. It’s active, it’s vibrant, there’s clearly a lot of thought that went into it. I love the amount of action and exploration in the game – there’s usually (always?) an action-oriented prompt in the TDMs, and the travel logs and fight logs both obviously prompt action and exploration. Action and exploration prompts are my favorite part of the game and I hope that they remain a core component.

Second, thank you for the thought and work that goes into keeping the game up and running. The nature of the game – new places, new monsters, etc. – clearly makes it hands-on and time-intensive for the mods. You’re doing something that I wouldn’t want to do and I appreciate it.

Area of Feedback: Travel log activities, characters collecting background info, NPC relations, one stupid nitpicky formatting thing

Things You Like:

1. Travel logs. Like I said above, I love the action and exploration baked into this game, and travel logs are a huge part of this. I know that brainstorming a new setting every two months is a lot more work than a normal SOL game would require and appreciate the time and care that goes into them.

2. History lessons. I really dig the setting and characters spitballing about what might be going on, which is why I am excited by the announcement that we’re getting more lore this year. Please ignore this suggestion if it’s duplicative of what mods have planned.

3. NPCs. Like the worldbuilding, it’s clear that a lot of time and care went into building out the NPCs! This may also be duplicative of things the mods have planned.

4. Stupid nitpicky formatting thing. idk what to say here, I like 99.9 of the formatting I just have two dumb things that might be totally idiosyncratic.

Things That Could Improve: Proactive options in travel log activities and characters collecting background info, NPC relations, stupid nitpicky formatting thing. Described more below.

Suggestion on How to Improve:

1. Travel logs. I feel like (and this could be wrong) travel logs have people ICly and OOCly trying to do something that will be useful, but not knowing what can be done without stepping on the mods’ plans for the subsequent fight log. I also (and this could also be wrong) have the sense from this post and the November mod post that the mod team likes to pre-write things, so setting things out upfront works better for the mod team than responding to questions or threading out investigation attempts in real time. In light of this, I have two related suggestions that I think will actually make things flow easier for both mods and players.

First, please go ahead and be blunt with us about hard boundaries in travel posts. For example, saying “There is absolutely no way to see outside the village. Not powers, not tech, not hurling yourself in a catapult” could have preempted a few questions in the Brasov travel log. Players know from the November mod post that mods are broadly open to players doing whatever makes them happy, so long as it doesn’t break the setting – it’s just not always self-evident what would break the setting.

Second, please consider baking in three or four “areas of investigation” into the initial travel log post that will do something positive in the subsequent fight (on the assumption that characters will investigate them, and LILITH will backfill if not). As an example, the “areas of investigation” for the recent Yamanashi travel log could have been something like:

- Social. Characters who are good talking to people may find out that there’s an abandoned lab on the outskirts of town that did super-magnet experiments intentionally drawing lightning.
- Observational. Characters who are scientifically observant may notice unusual patterns of wind/water/birds/etc. If they cross-reference LILITH’s Korea data, they will confirm that the same patterns were present near Seoul.
- Physical. Characters who investigate the area around Mount Fuji will discover that there’s lots of loose rocks that, like, if you blew them up could do serious damage to a kaiju travelling between Mount Fuji and Tokyo.

ICly, that gives characters a way to confirm that the kaiju of the month is an Imugi and two ways to do something productive against the Imugi (find a place to fight that avoids/directs lightning, mountain traps). There was something similar in Brasov in that investigation let people know that wolfsbane was effective, and I liked that a lot.

Ultimately, I think the additional work of writing these “areas of investigation” could be balanced by reduced questions, while also giving characters additional proactive things to do during the travel logs. I’m not suggesting that people shouldn’t be allowed to do things outside the “areas of investigation” or that people shouldn’t ask questions. (I’m also not sure that “EQ, IQ, people running around in the woods” are breakdowns that would work in every log; that’s just spitballing.) But I do think this would be fun without an inordinate amount of extra mod work.

2. History lessons. It sounds like this could be covered by things that are already planned – if so, please ignore. But, to the extent not already planned for, I suggest dropping trivia crumbs about the world background in non-fight months so that characters feel like they’re being productive by learning things about the world – or just getting fun things to gossip about. I suggest that in off-months mods put up a “Hey, who wants the tidbit(s) of the month),” then people comment, then mods RNG, and the winner gets a tidbit. There would have to be some sort of obligation to ICly share this information in a wide manner within that month (via network or otherwise) and some sort of fairness guardrails like “no tidbits if you got one in the last two months/two in the last six months.” But putting those aside, the winner could get tiny tidbits about the world or the NPCs like:

- Jack, the most social butterfly in LILITH, finally succeeds in getting an invite to staff drinks and finds out that Jun’s dad was killed by kaiju, isn’t it sad.
- Jane, a smart person, notices XYZ inconsistency in historical coverage of the base area and realizes that LILITH was actually founded ten years before the first kaiju attack.
- Jay, an intrepid explorer, finds a time capsule in an abandoned sewer with Shiro’s yearbook that shows he’s a natural redhead and the cool white hair is actually premature graying.

Again, I think that would let characters feel productive. And some of them could just be funny.

3. NPCs. It’s hard to give feedback on this without knowing what the mod team has planned and whether the mod team wants PCs to ICly like/dislike LILITH – if the mod team plans to address this or if the mod team wants PCs to ICly dislike LILITH (which, to be clear, is fine OOCly!), then again, please ignore. But, on the whole, the NPC organization ICly comes across as both antagonistic (e.g., Shiro chewed PCs out for Seoul) and not always on top of things (e.g., because LILITH can’t prevent things like Brasov, can’t provide intel that would prevent things like Seoul and Tokyo base blowing up), which isn’t a combination that makes PCs ICly feel good about them? ICly, a strict-but-competent team can win support and a kind-but-trying-their-best team can win support, but a team that’s both mean and has major lapses is rougher to support.

If the mod team (a) does not have plot planned on this point and (b) wants more characters to ICly like the NPC command structure, then the NPC organization might benefit from something that makes it more ICly sympathetic. Dr. Spim coup, Dr. Spim coup.

4. Formatting nitpick. If I’m the only one with these problems, please ignore me. I read/tag a lot on my phone, and mod posts are loooooooooooooong. Would mods be amenable to putting them behind cuts? Additionally, comments on big mod logs load awkwardly on phones – is there any chance that mods would be amenable to copying a link to “top level comments only” into the bodies of these posts? I’m sorry this is stupid, I was going to put this in the normal feedback post but then the announcement about this post went up.

Anything Else:

- Again, I really like the action and exploration components of this game and hope that they continue to be prominent.

- I actually really liked the February fight log a lot (not trying to downplay anyone else’s experiences). I liked that it upped drama and that it literally hit close to home, particularly because the loss was counterbalanced by optimistic new developments like being able to study a permanent Rift. I’m in favor of more destruction and rough living in the future, so long as there’s a reasonable long-term balance of IC wins and losses to keep the game from being too bleak. Keep the apocalypse rolling, babyyyyy.

- I like recaps at the end of mod posts.

- I really liked that people could drop via permadeath in October and hope that’s a recurring thing once in a while (not necessarily always October).

Thanks again for all the work, effort, and care that goes into the game. I also specifically appreciate that you guys put this post up.

Edited (subject header) 2025-03-12 21:44 (UTC)

Popping in here to say I really like this idea for travel logs. As someone who plays a noncombatant who has skills that can still help out on a mission, grabbing info during the travel log that can debuff the kaiju/mitigate kaiju damage during the fight log would be super helpful.

Maybe if we want to add chance to it, it can be similar to the fight rolls? People contribute under a toplevel for the investigation and if the total contribution rolls is above a certain (hidden) amount, the extra effect goes off?

I like the idea of investigation opportunities that can have an impact as suggested here. Characters being able to share their findings during the Seoul/Busan mission and work together in response to the Brasov clues was great.

Thank you for everything that you do, mod team, as well as inviting the playerbase to provide our feedback! I'm looking forward to the plot plans.

I'm all for being given more on the investigative side, especially since we have quite a few characters who are not combatants.

You covered a lot of what I was already thinking but wrote it way better, hahah

We have a lot of characters who aren't combat focused so investigating focuses and more ways to impact this would be great. Plus a way to follow up?

Like the beginning of Seoul was really cool but we really had no way to use the clues found to impact what came, at least that's how it felt. Plus it wasn't quite clear how to go about following up on things like the mysterious blue powder on the dead LILITH agent (am i the only one that remembers that?)

Having a sort of investigative track that can be advanced through rp and rng rolls would be pretty nice in this regard. The tabletop monster of the week does something along these lines, alongside a progressive increase in the threats activity that provides further clues to the players. Not sure how helpful that is translating to dwrp, but it's a thought.

Just bumping my agreement w/ Em's 4 improvement suggestions!

I'd particularly like to emphasize my agreement w/ and add to her points about the NPCs. There's obviously a lot of love and care put into them! Seok Dang and Dr Spim are big faves of mine. But this sentiment in particular really echoes how I feel:

"the NPC organization ICly comes across as both antagonistic (e.g., Shiro chewed PCs out for Seoul) and not always on top of things (e.g., because LILITH can’t prevent things like Brasov, can’t provide intel that would prevent things like Seoul and Tokyo base blowing up), which isn’t a combination that makes PCs ICly feel good about them? ICly, a strict-but-competent team can win support and a kind-but-trying-their-best team can win support, but a team that’s both mean and has major lapses is rougher to support."

This has been a frequent sticking point for me too, starting w/ Seoul and continuing onward. NPCs being disciplinary, there being less than stellar outcomes to certain plots and player votes, NPCs being stressed and acting harshly due to limited resources and dire circumstances? I'm TOTALLY fine and even enthusiastic about all of these things in a vacuum. But at Syn it has gotten difficult at times to play around all of these things happening in tandem.

Hopefully this doesn't come off as overly harsh, I know modding can be thankless af and I really am grateful for all the work put into this game. I'm also guessing some of these issues might be coming from the logistical standpoint of OOCly needing/wanting log prompts that have a certain flavor or hook; we all love to do unpleasant things to our characters, after all... But having LILITH be the source of them does kind of make them, as an organizational whole, feel a bit incoherent and overly cruel at times. I feel like they might need a bit of retooling, if player characters are expected to continue working with and trusting them.

(Hopefully this all makes sense, I'm happy to clarify with more specific examples if that helps but I know the deadline on feedback is coming up and I'm sloooow at articulating my thoughts lkdmsflksdf)

This is gonna be mostly point form, I hope that's okay!

Player Name: Sipp
Character(s): Hunter
Area of Feedback: Kaiju events
Things You Like:
-Bestiary, I love having a wonderful centralized area for all the kaiju! it's so great. being able to see who the heavy hitters and ko are also a nice touch
-The worldbuilding is fantastic, including all the different kaiju and ways they affect everyone (ie: pricolici has a cult, alitta virens had mind control elements)
-the Syndata becoming public is a wonderful plot beat and I'm all for it
-logs have very creative prompts! I especially like the ones that facilitate cr building (ie: the get along handcuffs, interrogating people together on the black market) and would love to see more of those
-everything with Synder is so entertaining and easy to engage with
-the plot! very intrigued and excited for what's happening next
-the "tldr" summary for logs. I think this is a really great way to help people get a quick rundown of logs when they get long. I also really like your use of formatting (ie: bolding) to make logs easier to parse
-the kidnap plot, especially for the kidnappees. wonderful way to indulge in character torture while also allowing them discussion and agency.
-I kind of loved the shame list post-Korea I'm not going to lie. Any semi or fully comedic way to acknowledge specific characters I think is fun. Maybe in a future TDM there could be a small sub-prompt with characters being encouraged to praise the heavy hitters in a silly way, like do their chores or something.

Before I get into the next section, I do want to say, I might be alone in this, but I did really dig being given a choice in Korea. I meant to give feedback on this when it came up but it slipped my mind (sorry!), so I figured I'd include it here. I think where the Korea choice became difficult is that the consequences were devastating and far-reaching, and one choice (the one we didn't take) came across as the "correct" choice. I think if given a choice, the pros and cons should be about even for both choices, and/or there be a third option for players to come up with their own suggestion. We have a pretty motivated playerbase and we players would probably be happy to work together to collab and submit a third option. In the case of Korea, I think we would have chosen to split our forces, for example, and could have used the network option to discuss proposing this plan.

Things That Could Improve:
-It would be nice to have a little more interactivity with the kaiju logs! I don't want to rehash anything that's already been said, but outside of the rolls and general fighting prompts, it's sometimes hard to figure out what to play out and post. The last log was a good example of this, as outside of reacting, everything felt very pre-determined. I understand that this was to set up the next leg of plot so it's a special case, but I still wanted to bring it up
-The kidnap plot for the non-kidnapnees. Especially newer characters, and/or characters who didn't really have ties to the kidnapped characters. I think it made it very difficult for them to engage in the plot, since there wasn't much for them to do as when we would get information was pre-determined. Part 1 especially, I think Christy's player plot was very creative and I felt a little disappointed that nothing but negative consequences came from it.
-The sidequests are a great compromise between general player plots without overextending mods, but it would be nice if there was some incentive or reward for doing them. Even just a little acknowledgment of successful sidequests in a future log would go a long way
-The streak of loss has been a little rough on characters, I think. Just the stream of the loss in Seoul, LILITH coming down on them hard about it, kidnapping, then the Imugi blowing up her kids/herself/the base up. Nothing wrong with unsuccessful missions or heavy consequences, but it would be nice to feel like we could earn a win to balance it out.

Suggestion on How to Improve: I fully understand these suggestions may not always be feasible but this is what I got!

-I think whenever possible, creative player plots should be rewarded with both positive and negative consequences, it incentivizes an already engaged playerbase to play in your universe. I think in Christy's plot case maybe one or two of the pieces of information kidnapped characters found could have been given to Set and Tezca
-More CR building (especially forced CR building) prompts would be great, even just something like the interrogation of random NPCs or having to pretend to be buyers in a fancy gala. Those were lovely prompts and I would love to see more along that vein, especially in part 1 logs.
-If you guys go ahead with doing more investigative type prompts, I think that bits from the dossier could be discovered by characters before it's released, if that makes sense. Like, characters a-d investigate the mall, they find out that the kaiju's main attack is lightning biting or something. Characters e-h ask random townspeople, they find out the kaiju has been spotted in areas 1 and 2. To make less work for yall, you can have the submissions be open to groups of 3-4 only with no repeats, so players can organize amongst themselves who does what
-Small acknowledgements or rewards for people who thread out and submit sidequests! Again, doesn't have to be anything big, just maybe a bit of flavor on how there is now a sushi roll named after Character A, or a little acknowledgement the crime level (tm) has changed in a future log.
-More prompts that push characters to interact with each other, in either positive or negative way. What I mean is like when there was pvp in the desert because of mind control, or mechanics like memshare (or emotionshare) that really incentivize players go to wild amongst themselves. PVP type scenarios once in a while is a good way to make logs interactive while putting the onus on players to come up with their own material, so ultimately less work for mods

Apologies for how long this got, I hope this was good feedback! I really love this game and you guys are doing great ♥

I'd like to expand on feedback re: the korea choice, specifically the aftermath.

The overall response to it bring players looking to do a rebellion plot I understand as difficult to deal with since there's a plan in place and the game relies on the characters being willing to play ball with LILITH. The issue was in the response we were given.

It makes sense for Korea to demonize and blame the Outsiders yes, but LILITH turning around to punish the characters for a decision LILITH let them make in the first place felt off?

I get that LILITH is supposed to be shady but ultimately good at the end of the day. Extra training and stimulants made sense to a degree, but the way it was framed especially with the statement from the commander felt antagonistic and it wasn't unreasonable for characters to respond in kind to that?

I guess what I'm driving at is I'd like to see more from LILITH that emphasizes their ultimately being the good guys to make it less of a stretch for everyone to not start hating their guts? Just my thoughts, sorry if they're not better organized.

Thanks for putting up with us mod team and for putting up this post. It means a lot that y'all work so hard 🩷

Edited 2025-03-16 20:11 (UTC)

I can't really speak from experience with this, but making LILITH more appealing to the Outsiders to work with would go a long way in getting cooperation. Instead of relying on deterrents alone, finding a way for them to relate or establish common ground with the team they brought here would work a lot better for them.

This, and I also think it would be easier for the mods in the long run, as then you don't have to worry about players feeling like they're being ooc just to stay within the game, and coming up with ways to counter that via deterrence.

I'm kind of just repeating myself by +1-ing this but Kosh conveyed a lot of shit I was thinking a lot more clearly than I managed to LOL

+1 to the Seoul choice, I thought that was a great part to that kaiju fight because it encouraged debate and argument between the characters and pushed CR, both positive and negative. I was also okay with the result ending in total devastation for Seoul and their anger leading to the semi-permanent consequence of being unable to access Seoul.

I think that revealing what would have happened if we made the other choice was not a good idea, especially since it was made apparent that there was a 'right' choice when imo both choices should have had equal consequences. Revealing the 'what-if' leads to people regretting their choice which I think can sour all the deliberation retroactively.

Also, I think LILITH's reaction and them punishing the Outsiders was overboard, because characters could not appropriately react to their poor treatment without breaking the game. This discrepancy is what led to frustration from players and is mainly what I feel went wrong for this whole arc. I'm not sure what plot ideas the mods have for LILITH, but given that we're not allowed to rebel against them, consideration has to be made not to push characters to the point where not allowing them to rebel would be extremely OOC of them.

Seconding everything Sipp said as well

To add my two cents as well about making LILITH more reasonable to outsiders- You could also make LILITH itself divided- I wasn't playing when the Seoul choice happened, but I've heard a lot about it. Something that would've made some players feel more sympathy towards LILITH would be if, while on the books it seemed as if LILITH was punishing the outsiders, there were LILITh members who obviously took problem with this treatment and went out of their way to express the opposite sentiment. Something as simple as there being a note that Dr. Spim kept telling the injured it wasn't their fault- regardless of what LILITH says. Or there being Anonymous messages set out on the network by various LILITH higher ups that disagreed with the punishment decision expression the same sentiment- it wasn't the outsiders fault and they shouldn't feel guilt for something they never intended to happen.

LILITH doesn't have to be perfect, and you can totally have there be NPCs or parts of it that are Radical, harsh, and full of cruelty, but it needs to be balanced with having parts that actually feel like they want our characters to succeed and be treated fairly.

Sipp I think these are all really great suggestions! In particular I know that the player plot during the Kaiju in Transylvania would have been a lot more fun and exciting to interact with if there was some sort of reward for outside of the box thinking! I think trying to play with things and bring other characters in would be nice to feel rewarded — it doesn't always have to be, but I do think that especially because the player characters were stuck in the village just reacting, it was a good opportunity to throw those players a bone and give them some form of agency!

I agree with everything here, but I think promoting player agency and allowing players to have an impact would go a long way to making Kaiju events more interactive!

"The kidnap plot for the non-kidnapnees. Especially newer characters, and/or characters who didn't really have ties to the kidnapped characters. I think it made it very difficult for them to engage in the plot, since there wasn't much for them to do as when we would get information was pre-determined."

I absolutely loved and had a blast with the October plot, I did some of my best threads on those logs. But I did have a SLIGHT issue in that... In part 1, I think non-kidnapped characters were sitting around wondering where the kidnapped people were for like.... IIRC like, a week? ICly? And there seemed to be very little they could do in terms of making progress in searching for their missing comrades.

On the one hand that's fine, because it was obviously a pretty demanding plot as far as mod workload went, so I get it likely wasn't feasible to have a ton of interactivity on the non-kidnapee investigation side of things. But that was also a long time ICly for the other outsiders to basically be stuck twiddling their thumbs. OOCly I think it was good to have that gap in time for threading things out etc, it's just.... If there were just a few more baked in basic investigation options to give the non-kidnapped characters something more to do in that time. That ICly at least made it feel less like they were spinning their wheels with zero progress??

IDK how helpful any of this is since that plot is long over and done with and I assume other optional missions will have very different scenarios behind them, but yeah.

(Oh side note, shout out: I fucking loved that certain kidnapped characters were RNG'd to be able to send out distress signals/clues on a certain date, that was extremely fun.)

Also, this did not effect me personally, but I did notice that uh. Despite the October mission technically being optional, there weren't really any options for things to do back in Tokyo, in case anyone DIDN'T want to participate? Something super basic just to tide people over who may not be interested in the flavor of an optional mission, probably would be good to have for the future!

Player Name: Babs
Character(s): Cagalli
Area of Feedback: Kaiju fight log, mechanic,s, housekeepig
Things You Like: I'll start by saying it's been a few years since I've been in a game proper, and I'm glad I joined this one. The mods seem very open and receptive to suggestions and feedback. I cannot tell you enough how nice that is to see, especially as a newer player.

I'd also like to add that a number of players clearly feel invested in this game and its course, which is promising for new people to see.

Things That Could Improve: Kaiju log, rng mechanics/boosts, housekeeping
Suggestion on How to Improve: Bullet points!

- Just reiterating thoughts on how the aftermath shared in a follow up info post feels like we have a way of affecting the outcome. Maybe consider a few potential endings and go with what fits the narrative at the time.

- My thoughts on the timing of the damage rolls are sort of different from what others shared here: I was under the impression the two catalogued attacks and hits/misses were for more OOC housekeeping in terms of who deals big damage/KOs the kaiju. Characters could hit or miss or what have you multiple times in the log for the sake of prompts or fun. Maybe a little clarity on this would be good. (That said, I am indifferent on the timing of rolls and results.)

- RNG boosts. I really like the idea of what Sipp suggested with boosts or detractors from rift poisoning/effects. Current methods of boosting seem pretty reliant on pre-established cr among players. An idea to level the playing field might be to detract the boost amount from the provider's own damage total. Character A boosts Character B's total by 50 points, and their own is 50 points less. Again, this is just my impression, please chime in if I'm mistaken.

- Last one is just housekeeping, especially in regards to AC rewards. It's mentioned in the post that if it's been over a week to contact. Since that's pretty spread out in terms of deadlines, perhaps you could set a certain day every two weeks or whatever to make sure things are processed. Adhering to a schedule like that could make it easier to keep that on track.

Once again, thanks for all you guys do, I'm having a blast and can't wait to see how more of this game unfolds!

- My thoughts on the timing of the damage rolls are sort of different from what others shared here: I was under the impression the two catalogued attacks and hits/misses were for more OOC housekeeping in terms of who deals big damage/KOs the kaiju. Characters could hit or miss or what have you multiple times in the log for the sake of prompts or fun. Maybe a little clarity on this would be good. (That said, I am indifferent on the timing of rolls and results.)

Agreed -- I thought characters were attacking as many times as we wanted and hitting/missing as many times as we wanted, and just some random two of the attacks were getting "counted," so I've felt completely flexible in writing fight stuff without waiting to get my attack rolls back.

Player Name: sky
Character(s): Dr. Ratio
Area of Feedback: Player-suggested locations

I'm going to eschew the form because most of the feedback provided already covers all the topics I wanted to give feedback about.

Instead I want to posit an idea/question publicly, which with how Kyoto is looking to shape up, I think we're heading towards it anyway, but

I think there's some ambiguity in what characters are involved in, and having something more concrete would help players direct their characters' interactions with others better. I realize we already have a locations page that includes player submitted locations, but I feel like that doesn't allow for a higher level of interactivity because once they're listed... that's it. It doesn't feel like there's a way to add more to these locations in a visible way, like say if a new character wanted to join, or players wanted to renovate and expand the location, etc. Also, because nothing is written down, players don't know which characters to look for other than the original submitter if they want to interact with a specific location that is player run.

In some other games I've been in previously, players would create organizational pages on their own journals for places they run, ie. a bar, a clinic, a book shop, etc. Perhaps when a player submits a location, they can include a link to an organizational page on their journal when the location is approved if they intend for the location to be something they want to expand on?

Alternatively, a space could be made on the locations page for players to flesh out these locations a bit better and allow for people to note if their character is working there.

I wanted to ask if mods are open to players doing this, and if players think having this option open would be a good idea, or if they have other ideas on how to handle this that won't add to the mods' workload.

Edited 2025-03-16 20:49 (UTC)

I'll be honest, I often forget the locations suggestion are a thing?

It feels to me at least that all interactivity for businesses and such players have suggested basically boil down to nebulous usage in threads whenever required. A more concrete way for the player base to contribute and engage with it would be nice, and one that puts the onus on thr players suggestion the buisness feels like it both gives more agency and means once less thing the mod team has to do themselves?

I like this! It adds more reasons to interact with other characters as well as more meaning to having occupations outside of LILITH. I think that adds some nice creative avenues, to have player run businesses and such more accessible!

I think some sort of player round up would be really nice. I think a page where we could maybe have "top" comments to edit in what the current areas of investigation/action are would be great! Like we know the crime plot is happening, but having a consolidated place with pins or something for the group to come in (ESPECIALLY when we have newbies) would be a great way to help know who to reach out to if a character is interested!

I know that I am always hesitant to add ooc posts in especially for something like this, so making a low-maintenance mod page for it might be a great compromise and then the mods don't have to do too much maintenance for it!

I think a Google Doc linked in a mod page but publicly editable would be a good way to do this without requiring significant additional mod work.

I think this would definitely be useful, and it does make for more to engage with actively.

Hi hi! I want to say I do like the increasing plot and drama of the game! I like a good mystery and it is very cool to see that come to light! I also, while the base being destroyed is hard for the characters, I do like how it brings them more together having to share rooms and the like! Team bonding :)

I just wanted to bring up that I would have really appreciated more specific TWs on the last kaiju event post? I understand what happened to the imugi babies was a surprise, but for me, it was...a very unpleasant one. It's both violent baby animal death, which I already struggle with, but they were essentially pets to many? Even if the characters weren';t meant to get attached...they were named by them. Many helped raise them. So some heads up on like "pet death" or something would have been really appreciated, I think. I know they weren't PETS per se, but that's kinda what it felt like anyway.

Again, I generally get why it happened that way, but some warning on that specifically would have helped it go over a little better I think. I know y'all are doing your best and cannot be expected to catch everything. I understand, and I appreciate all your efforts thus far to make this game fun and enjoyable and safe for all. This was a big plot point, however, so I figured I'd point it out.

Thank you for your time!!

Edited (forgot. proper header) 2025-03-16 21:05 (UTC)

Honestly? The hatchlings didn't sit good with me either.

I get that it's a very effective call to action to have done, but things with them seemed to be going in a positive direction and to suddenly have that happen didn't feel great. (And kind of ties into Sipp's point of, we are getting one loss/bad feeling event after another)

Its a Kaiju fight game, animals/monsters are going to get hurt and killed. But like Brie said with how the hatchlings were built up they were essentially pets? And pet death should at least have a cw, it hits a lot of us pretty hard even in fiction

Semi-related: filling the base with feral cats from the previous tdm and then blowing it up whilst not explicitly making a point that they were evacuated with the people kiiiind of hit me this way too? I don't know about anyone else, but it didn't feel great on my end.

Just adding to agreement to this bc this bothered me a fair amount as well. I know arguably this might be kind of a weird ask when essentially this is a game about.... Killing very big animals...? But the baby Imugi were kind of in a weird category of their own that I would've appreciated a cw on so I could have at least braced myself a bit before reading.

This is. Also to a lesser degree something I wanted to bring up on the last TDM. If parasitism like that comes up again with bugs or otherwise, could that be notified in the tws as well please? That's a more personal thing that got me by surprise. The bugs were properly marked, so I was somewhat prepared, but bugs don't always use parasitism as an attack method, yknow?

Thank youuuu okay now I'm done!

So, I'm new here and thus don't have a ton of feedback to give, since I haven't experienced much of the game. However, no content warning for potential pet death, including not mentioning if the feral cats are okay, would also have left me unsettled. Like the others, I understand this is a game about killing kaiju, but there a difference between kaiju-as-enemies and semi or fully sentient beings that were regarded as companions or pets. I'm certain you wanted it to be a surprise or twist, but I really feel those kinds of things should still be warned for. The website "Does the dog die?" exists for a reason; not to spoil plots but to warn potential viewers what they may be getting into!

hello mods! i love this game and the setting, so my feedback pertains to player plots and setting engagement

basically i think it would be REAL NEAT if the mods were more open to players having an impact on the wider world or at least be allowed to futz around it for a little bit -- i'm not particularly interested in making the mods change their plans for the setting in wildly different ways, but allowing and encouraging players to have something for their characters to do during downtime that they've come up on their own rather than handed to them in downtime logs would be nice! i know silco has his crime stuff, but i'd love to see more characters being able to get their hands into the world setting more!

like allowing characters to work with lilith on researching kaiju -- you wouldn't have to give them any information or anything special, just "they are doing this" in the background would be nice. or if, after a month or two of people engaging with that idea, letting them find out specific things to share with characters would help encourage inter-character communication and trust in lilith, too. you can make people build up to bigger plot involvement with time/showing that the players are active enough to warrant it and so on.

i think one of the things i feel is missing is being able to feel like my character exists in this world beyond just at the beck and call of lilith, so anything that allows them to feel like they have a stake in this situation would be great!

sorry if this is all over the place!

Same. I really want to get my characters involved with things and have stuff going on with the main plot outside of fights but I'm never quite sure how to go about it.

Something like this would be really nice.

I agree! The setting is fascinating but it's a bit difficult to get that detailing in, on how the player plots outside of kaiju work. I know Dan Heng would 100% be down to help research kaiju stuff, but I have. No Idea how to really get him doing that. He'd like to look into rifts too, since what brought them all here is interesting to him. But just being able to establish somewhere that he IS doing something like that would be helpful??

I'm not used to DW games, granted, but you have great points here for sure.

Agreeing with this. I appreciate that some ongoing player-led projects have been permitted, and it would feel rewarding if characters will have the chance to get involved in the research side of things, too, especially with the upcoming lore focus.

Thank you all for all of your helpful feedback! We as a mod team are working together in a document and once our timezones align where we can discuss what and how we are going to change things. A FOLLOW UP POST will be posted closer to April implementing how we are going to restructure the game.

We ask for a lot of patience with us as we restructure, but I can say as the head mod we will be taking a lot of your suggestions, mostly the kaiju fights and how they can be smoother and how players can more involved in the setting. We are looking at giving the rifts more effects and how we can add more investigation into the setting (even if we may not be able to do it every single mission.) We are also looking at the NPCS and LILITH and how our original vision for them has not meshed well with characters in the setting... and character businesses / locations.. along with some other suggestions.

... also we are going to be more careful and observant about our trigger warnings and sorry that some of them have gotten overlooked in the most recent posts.

Thank you for your help also and being kind in the feedback. It shows that you all are a playerbase we can work with. :) If you'd like to share anything else, you can reach out on the MOD CONTACT page.

Edited 2025-03-17 00:14 (UTC)

I just wanted to say thank you so much for all your hard work! And thank you for giving us this opportunity to give feedback, I hope it wasn't too overwhelming ♥

Sometimes we just need some fresh perspective and hearing what everyone had to say has given us an idea of what needs to be tweaked, so no problem. Great job, everyone.

Likewise, I felt a lot of +1 to what was said above, but I'm not really one to voice up since I'm kinda shy. That said, BIG THANK YOU to all your help and work into this game! I've had so much fun here and I very much enjoy my time in the community, from the things that give me a big goofy smile on my face to the ones that make my pull my hair out.

I'll try to buck up the guts to be more interactive on the next feedback loop. Still, y'all are awesome for taking the time and making the effort each month to bring us joy and listen to/answer our questions.

I've been in a lot of games and Synflux has some of the top mods and world building I've seen. Thanks so much for a wonderful year and here's to another fantastic one!

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