theearth: (Default)
Save the Earth Mods ([personal profile] theearth) wrote2017-12-08 04:25 pm

Let's look into a reboot!

Hello and welcome to the interest check and feedback round for a reboot of "Save the Earth", tentatively named "Save our Earth".

What is this?
Save the Earth was a plot-driven DWRP game with elements of (reverse) memloss and AU. In a world that seemed to be just like ours, everyday people developed the ability to access a network connecting them with others who started going through the same experience at the same time: They started regaining memories, abilities, physical and mental traits, and even items from earlier lives that they lived in other worlds than their own. And soon they were pulled into trouble in the city, the country, and finally the world that turned out to be less and less mundane the further the game progressed.

Save our Earth would be a classical reboot: The metaplot and background meta would be revised, all characters would start fresh and the game would tell a different story with some of the same elements (partly because the development of the plot would, again, be reliant on player actions). There would also be a number of changes to the rules.

What would stay the same would be the underlying game mechanics (characters would start out as distinct from their preincarnations and slowly regain and more and more of their preincarnations' lives through so-called "echoes") and the base setting (Earth starts out as the very Earth that we know in the very year the game starts, with roughly the same developments continuing on in the background; only the addition of the city in which the game is centred and some supernatural events would set it apart) as well as the essence of game-play (for example that characters would be embedded in their social contexts and NPC their non-numbered social contacts).

Who are you?
Kira-mod, one of the people in the last and final batch of mods of StE.

When would this happen?
The current tentative launch date is mid-June 2018.

Okay, what do you need feedback on?
Please comment to this post (I'd say or on plurk, but I fear I'll lose your feedback there), answering the following questions (a hand-dandy textbox is provided below).
- Interest! Would you be interested in playing in an all new, rebooted StE? If yes or maybe, why? (I'd love to know what interests people about the game/premise!)
- LOCATION. How important would it be for you that the city that serves as the central location of the game would be situated in America? (The alternative location that I'm considering the most strongly right now would be a fictional city on the southeastern coast of England, somewhere between Brighton and Dover.)
- I'd like to hear any input towards things that you would love to see again from StE's original run, things that you would love to not see again, things that you think might be a cool addition...


Would you need help?
Yes! I'm not totally alone here, but the game would need:
- app mods! Task: Judging and processing apps.
- echo mods! Task: Processing echoes (there will be some minor modifications, but the basic process will remain the same).
claudiometer: Warehouse pyramid-and-stars logo on a computer (all systems go)

[personal profile] claudiometer 2017-12-10 06:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Interest: Potentially yes! Reincarnation-AU games are a part of my jam that I haven't really been able to screw around with since my brief run in the original StE. It'll heavily depend on what AC looks like, though, since I'm modding/playing three characters in a very intense game already.
Location: Location can be wherever.
Anything else: A less intense AC than I recall from my original time (I was around in the 'four threads with different characters' phase, can't recall if there was a comment count on those or not) would be deeply appreciated, for the reasons cited above. Also, while I would play a different character this time and would be less likely to run into this problem, a way to balance the fact that minor characters/LCWs get fewer opportunities for echo chains than major characters/those with castmates, simply through that lack of opportunity to compare notes with others, would be GREAT - in the end, that was the primary reason I left StE.
perfectpawn: (hopeful)

[personal profile] perfectpawn 2017-12-10 07:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Seconding easy AC. I always like games with a less stressful ac and I think games like that have the potential to attract more players.
claudiometer: ye olde side-eye smirk (Default)

[personal profile] claudiometer 2017-12-10 09:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmm. That... may be steep AC-wise, but I have a few months to figure it out. Either way, I do appreciate that you can't dip much lower without losing the kind of momentum you need for the game to be sustainable.

Those all sound like things that would help with the echo problem! Another game I apped into had a points system for regains - you got a certain amount on apping, more for participating in plot events, etc., and there was a set amount to spend on specific types of regains (so you could blow the lot on a bunch of memories, or save up for a shiny item/ability). Not sure if adapting that would be practical or you'd rather stick with what you know, but I thought I'd throw the idea out there, just in case.

(Plotting posts as well as plurks already sounds like a big help. I have plurk now but didn't in my StE run, and I know I missed a lot of plotting by virtue of that lack.)
perfectpawn: (confident)

[personal profile] perfectpawn 2017-12-10 07:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Interest:Yes!! Mostly because I love playing with the whole identity crisis aspect of games like this. And I have a weakness for the crazy au families that can be set up in this kind of setting.
Location: I don't think the location matters much. More importantly, put various location types nearby. (Like a beach, forest or nature type area, amusement park, etc.) This will give a lot of options for the players.
Anything else: Make memory echoes easier to get. Echoes that grant skills or powers or other advantages should require approval, but I feel like simple memory echoes are better left up to the players. That way threads don't get held up while players wait to see if their characters remember that time they had coffee.
perfectpawn: (precious cinnamon roll)

[personal profile] perfectpawn 2017-12-10 08:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks for the response!

That is pretty much what I had in mind too- reporting the memories but being able to carry on with the roleplay immediately. It'll help keep threads moving.

And yeah, a hard limit on the number of echoes would help out with long term planning.
whereabout: "what a way to kill a party" (Default)

[personal profile] whereabout 2017-12-10 09:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Interest: Definitely interested! A for-sure answer will obviously depend on how things look for me when it comes around. I love a good identity crisis.
Location: No preferences re: location.
Anything else: The first two respondents here both had good points about echo acquisition that I agree with (even things out for LCWs, loosen up the process for memory-only echoes). A hard cap on echoes per month that's known from the beginning sounds like a great idea, too, since it'll help everyone figure out how to pace things.
whatsina_name: (Phillip [Uhhhh])

[personal profile] whatsina_name 2017-12-10 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Interest: Yes, somewhat depending on size and speed the game winds up being- while STE I was in college, now I'm in graduate school... the amount of time I'm able to spend is quite different. XD
Location: The proposed location sounds good!
Anything else: I... might be able to help with echo mod stuff, since I did that before?? But again it depends on what my time winds up looking like.
stepfordsynthezoid: (Default)

[personal profile] stepfordsynthezoid 2017-12-10 11:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Interest: Lots of interest: I spent a good few years in StE and they were some of my favorite RP memories
Location: hmmm pretty important? One location makes it a lot easier for characters to meet and I recall struggling to work with CR that had left Locke City. On the other hand, I also like the open-world aspect a lot.
Anything else: I really think StE at its best had a fun-filled, wacky tone to it that it kind of lost in the second season. I think I'd really prefer the game to maintain that level of fun combined with drama in the face of alien invaders
hazardlight: (another link in the chain getting rusty)

[personal profile] hazardlight 2017-12-11 01:12 am (UTC)(link)
Interest: I've always kind of regretted not apping to the original StE, so I'd definitely be interested in a reboot.
Location: I don't have strong feelings one way or the other on location.
Anything else: Like I said, I wasn't along for the ride last time, so I don't have any particular insights on what worked/didn't work. So... yay, fresh blood, I guess.
visionaryblend: (Whoops caught)

[personal profile] visionaryblend 2017-12-11 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
Interest: Possibly. I did want to join in the original run at some point.
Location: Either way
Anything else: So lets address the giant squid at the table. The player-mod relationship issues that happened at the end last time. How are you going to alleviate them?

Put in a specific note/rule in the FAQ/Rule page that more than one player plot can happen in a day, so everyone needs to just deal.

Note that Mods the do need to take accountability for their mistakes but we will not be put on trial like last time.

And so on, just wondering.

Also it would be nice to know who is currently helping you right now.
hippogrypha: (just the weight of circumstances)

[personal profile] hippogrypha 2017-12-11 02:59 am (UTC)(link)
Interest: Yes, probably; StE was a great time and I ended up meeting a lot of long-time friends there, so if I can find time for it again (or the pace is somewhat slower), I'd be extremely interested in taking my new interests and AUing them.

Location: I don't think location is especially important as long as there are enough varied locales within the setting to keep things interesting. I don't know if opening up several different hub cities again would be a good idea, but I did drop out shortly after season one, so I'm not sure how well that played out in practice.

Anything else: I haven't been in a game with AC for a while, so I don't know what the current vibe of things is with that and what it will be/change into around the time SoE is scheduled to launch. My concern is that 20 threads across three threads per month might be a little high depending on initial interest and pace of the game, but that's obviously something that can be fine-tuned once there's more data.
hootheart: (Default)

[personal profile] hootheart 2017-12-11 03:55 am (UTC)(link)
Interest: Yeah, I'd definitely be interested! I wasn't around for the original game, but I enjoy reading the various threads that came out of it, and the characters were really fun!
Location: Actually I'd kind of be interested in setting the game somewhere in Asia, although that's just personal preference and hometown bias for me. And I guess it's probably easier to have reference for locations in England and stuff.
Anything else: Will two-character apps still be allowed? Also similarly, will OCs be allowed? Mainly because I have an adoptive father/daughter fandom OC pair that I'd kind of want to bring in. (This journal is for the daughter character, and I can AU them into non-fandom OCs as well.)
hootheart: (Default)

[personal profile] hootheart 2017-12-11 02:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, that's cool to know! I was actually thinking Taiwan specifically, since it's small but also pretty diverse. But I realize that's a big pipe dream in this case.

And that's awesome! I can't wait to bring Tiera and Jann to this game.
namednothing: (78)

[personal profile] namednothing 2017-12-11 05:02 am (UTC)(link)
Interest:

Maybe! But I'm not sure what my situation is going to be when it opens, annnd I am kind of making it by the skin of my teeth in my current game. Granted, I find the AC in that game to be a little tougher than those in past games I've been in.

Location:

I think England is a fair choice for the game and here's my reasoning - it would be easier to find ways to situate a reincarnated character into that society for the larger portion of the players.

For example, while it is possible to set the game in places like India or China, our frame of references are limited to that society and would both have to come up with *reasons* for many of the characters to be there, and having to check wiki for information they might need pretty frequently for the majority of players.

While there are exceptions to this, mostly characters from anime/manga, or other Japanese mediums, it would still be easier on the OOC frame of reference to most players. Such as knowing things like "is there maternity leave in this country?" or "what kind of food is readily available and what does it taste like?" or "how big are apartments in the city?" or "are port-o-potties a thing there?"

As the last game went, locations opened up later, which would allow for more cultures and societies to be explored.

Anything else:

Being that I was previously a mod this is probably going to be REALLY weird to say, but I found the plot hard to follow and not particularly interesting in places. (I'm talking even from early on in my stay in the game, when previous mods were running it.) I never did understand the things with the aliens or any of that.

When the plot would happen, I feel like for the opening OOC post or something, we were bombarded with a LOT of information, and then because players were not always up for participating in the plot - I'm sure you remember how hard it was to get players to *DO* anything - it would go extremely slowly after.

My recommendations would be to A) Not rely so heavily on "milestones" in the plot being entirely player triggered. This kept the game really slow there for a while. and B) to have plot information come in smaller chunks with both an active AND passive role it being possible (IC-ly) (In the last game, if your character was not a fighter or investigator, sometimes there tended to be not a lot to hook you into participating.)

The things I personally enjoyed about the game was the memory exploration, and connections with other cast mates who were learning about each other all over again.

Also, I would be willing to serve as a bouncing board and idea-man, but I don't think I could take the responsibility of truly modding again.
prismaticdestruction: (Default)

[personal profile] prismaticdestruction 2017-12-11 05:30 am (UTC)(link)
Interest: OMG YES. I was in the orginal and would love to see it come back. If anything I can work with things a bit more easily now and keep CR going
Location: I'm cool with any location atm. o7
Anything else: Twenty comments might be interesting but not impossible.
itwasfeyt: (Default)

[personal profile] itwasfeyt 2017-12-11 11:13 am (UTC)(link)
Interest: A hearty amount of interest! I was in Save the Earth for a long while, and even joined Raise the earth when it was running. It was some of the best time I've had while RPing and I'd be happy to come back to it with a fresh coat of paint.
Location: I do like the proposed location, since it would be interesting to set everything in a location that isn't the Americas. And although I did feel that Save The Earth was becoming a bit too spread out by the end, I did like the open-world, but I also enjoy the more closed-in setting of Locke city. So I think that's rather important.
Anything else: Starting AC out with like 20 comments spread across two-to-three threads might be a good idea, see how that goes?

and since someone else on here brought it up, I do like the idea of memory regains basically being instant-approved, with the more personal regains like items and such requiring more. it's an excellent way to get the ball rolling for characters that need those things to develop.
spaghettimonster: (simonsoys_human_sparkle)

[personal profile] spaghettimonster 2017-12-11 10:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Interest: Yes! I was interested in the original StE but things kept interfering (my games at the time were too active, life interfered with rping, or rumors of drama discouraged me). My current game had a memloss/recovery AU event for a few months recently, and it reminded me how much I like the idea. I know vaguely of Recolle, but hear that it's a very fast game - hopefully being in a small reboot from the start would work better for me.
Location: Not highly important, but I know it would help if there's some detailed information on the created setting available, with some advice on where we could do more research (besides asking mods/players with hometown knowledge)
Anything else: Big plot posts where players can make top level prompts are love and life. Much easier than games that depend on player-created posts all the time.
espigeonage: (Default)

[personal profile] espigeonage 2017-12-13 02:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Interest: Sure! Not with Julien though, much as I love him. I'm playing him somewhere else anyway.
Location: Doesn't really matter. I mean I don't know a thing about living in England but that's what an immigrant is for.
Anything else: I hope the metaplot really is different and has fresh aspects. One of the draws of StE was the OOC mystery of what's going on being slowly revealed.
licorice: (キラキラ)

[personal profile] licorice 2017-12-14 09:26 am (UTC)(link)
Interest: It'll depend on the speed of the game (I'd love it to be medium-paced!), but I'm definitely interested. I wasn't around during the original StE so this would be a new (and exciting!) game for me personally!
Location: I'd prefer it if it's not set in the Americas -- Recolle with a similar premise is set in the US and I think it would be nice to have a different kind of setting/location. England definitely sounds lovely and echoing what others have said, varied details of the location would be most important!
Anything else: 20 comments across at least 3 threads sounds reasonable, and I would also love it if it were backtag-friendly. Also, do you have an idea of how much canon background necessary for a character to be appable?
Edited 2017-12-14 09:41 (UTC)
hailingjavelin: Komi-san wa Komyushou desu (sunflower)

[personal profile] hailingjavelin 2017-12-14 11:35 am (UTC)(link)
Interest: Potentially, yes! I was interested in joining the old StE though it never happened.
Location: England would be preferable. Partly because as somebody who has never been to America but has been to England and loved it, and partly because I'm in Recolle which is set in America.
Anything else: Since I wasn't in the original StE I can't really comment on anything else.
mood2wiingiing: (Default)

[personal profile] mood2wiingiing 2017-12-14 08:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Interest: As someone who was in STE for a while I am 100% interested! I'm already super excited even just thinking about it coming back.
Location: Although I have a preference for America since I'm American and don't have to look up stuff about culture, how things like schooling are different, etc, I would be fine with somewhere else! If you do decide to still go with the US though I would like to suggest starting with a western state this time, just for a bit of a difference (since it's such a big country and all). But honestly going with a different country to start could make it fun and fresh so it's not a repeat of generic American high school simulator.
Anything else: I can't think of much that I haven't already seen brought up (specifically memory echoes being simpler, since those were more immediately relevant to threads and waiting for them to process slowed tags down).
helborn: (Default)

[personal profile] helborn 2017-12-14 09:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Interest: Yes, yes! I've heard very good things about StE, didn't have real time for it during the original run (life messes, etc.).
Location: No real opinion, other than the fact that American would be easier since... I am in America and know how things work, but it can be worked around. I love research anyway.
Anything else: As someone who wasn't in the original StE I can't comment too much about changes. Who I bring will depend largely on what's going on with my life when it opens - some characters are more high energy than others.
iamnotgod: Many lines curving off into the distance and entangling, shaded in colors from yellow to purple (Default)

[personal profile] iamnotgod 2017-12-15 12:28 am (UTC)(link)
Interest: Yes! I am not certain how much time I'll be able to spare - at least when school starts again August 2018. Dang college. =P
But I am interested in this type of setting, at least when it comes to this character.

Location: I have no complaints about the setting, and no real preference, but I'd definitely be on the lookout for resources on writing things accurately. |D I am one sheltered American, here.

Anything else: ... You don't happen to know of Robert J. Sawyer's Wake Watch Wonder Trilogy, do you? Because if I happened to bring in the main (non-human) character from that, things might get weird.

I can bring in a different character (my Nita Callahan account actually has icons, for one), but I was most curious about applying this setting's mechanics to Webmind.
iamnotgod: Many lines curving off into the distance and entangling, shaded in colors from yellow to purple (Default)

[personal profile] iamnotgod 2017-12-31 02:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you! That's much appreciated - and thanks for getting back to me, too.

As for Webmind, well, per canon he's an "artificial" intelligence based on the infrastructure of the World Wide Web (actually more a spontaneous digital intelligence as he gained awareness on his own... more or less. Not an intentional creation of humanity!)

As I'm familiar with the exploits of Transformers characters in this setting, I'm more than okay with sticking him in a human form... it's just getting him back to normal that's the problem.
iamnotgod: Many lines curving off into the distance and entangling, shaded in colors from yellow to purple (Default)

Not related, but I love those icons!

[personal profile] iamnotgod 2017-12-31 04:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Great! o/

(And no, returning to "normal" after the physical transformation wouldn't be an option for him, so I'd probably save that until the end.)

I was mostly just concerned about the plotting end of things - I have no shortage of ideas for what his echoes could be, though! (Even if they're mostly mental/memory related - also a bit about reaction speed/speed of thought.)
monkeyblue: (Default)

[personal profile] monkeyblue 2017-12-15 03:01 am (UTC)(link)
Interest: Probably! I was in StE for a while and still remember playing Kili/Killian with so much fondness, though atm my game plate is a bit full. But memory games are super fun and frankly? Recolle scares the crap out of me and is a bit too whacky-seeming for my tastes.

Location: ....eh. On the one hand, not being in America would be very cool and different. On the other, I worry there'd be a lot of questions to be answered or other mod-intensive work as (and this may just be my circle of RPers, I will admit) I think DWRP is still very heavily American. I know the one time I tried to look up British schooling for a character I was completely baffled by how that worked, not to mention things like pop culture, snacks, politics, etc. I completely understand the desire to set it somewhere where the mods have home field advantage and it would be super cool to not have it be American, I'm just a bit worried there's going to be so much information and research to wade through for any semblance of accuracy when playing someone who possibly has lived in this city/country/region for 13+ years that it'll turn a lot of players off. (And like, obviously this hasn't stopped people from playing in AUish games set in other countries before but A, in my experience most of those games were like X-Men or otherwise Obviously Fantasy From the Start so who cared; and B, this is all just my first reaction to "we're looking at the game being set in Actual Real Life England, a country you don't know much about and the media you consume has not prepared you for at all whatsoever" and it is entirely possible that when there's information up about the setting none of this will be relevant.)

Unrelated to the location of the city, I'm also a little I guess baffled on one thing because while the one-city-for-shenanigans idea makes sense and when StE opened up other cities the game got messy fast, I don't like the idea of being trapped in the city if you want to retain your memories. Sure, it made for convenient hiatus excuses but it was also extremely limiting. Having one city be the epicenter/where the first and majority of echoes have to be gotten and Shenanigan Magnet like New York City or Tokyo makes total sense, but it would be nice for characters to be able to safely go to the next town over without dealing with psychic whiplash.

Anything else: StE's plot got convoluted and frankly absurd towards the end of my time there. It was just nonsensical to the point of being unfun. I'm not sure what prompted that, but at some point I just checked out of what was going on because it was just too much and made no sense. If this reboot happens, I really hope you guys take this into consideration.

Also echoes allowing people to regain buildings and places like them were just too much. Cool! But just impractical.