legionooc | Endgame Discussion

ENDGAME DISCUSSION
Hey there, Legionnaires! Korel here.

After some crit and discussion with a few players the mod team sat down and had a talk about the pacing of the rest of the game and endgame. Alongside having to consider certain things that people felt they were missing out on, we also had to consider some natural hurdles certain conceits of the game have caused the game to hit. We also had to consider the mod team's time and energy, especially with various RL things in the way, like escalating school responsibilities, new jobs, the upcoming retail season crush, and, in my case, having to move in the middle of Alaska winter to a new place and potentially going fulltime at my job, which would entail a lot of responsibilities like even being on call sometimes for surgeries.

Right now the mods are feeling a little burnt out. This mod burnout is no one's fault; you've been an amazing playerbase to mod. But the kind of sustained attention and energy a game requires is just a lot to juggle over a long period of time, especially given some of the RL situations of the mods. At this point in the game, so close to endgame, it just doesn't make sense to try to pull new mods on, either, and Legion being based on a specific canon has always made that a tough prospect.

For this reason, we've decided to move endgame up a little bit, to try to give the game a satisfying ending and move it along to the post-endgame sandbox before it loses momentum and before the mods get too burnt out. We apologize for those that recently apped or thought they'd have more time. We do plan to give you a set time to set up stuff if you want to backtag pre-endgame stuff and endgame itself should have some fun things to play out. The game will also definitely still have its post-game sandbox set up for anyone that keeps wanting to play. It's just we feel we should get to that a little sooner since it'll be self-sustaining and not reliant on the mods for people to have fun.

We have a timeline in mind for the next few months that we'd like to put forth for your consideration and while moving endgame up sooner isn't a choice that's open for discussion because part of it is based on trying to wrap things while the mods still have the time and energy, a lot of the things that happen during the leadup and endgame itself are flexible and open for discussion.

The following is not set in stone and is just a proposal. Please tell us what you think:

ENDGAME PLOTS AND EVENTS

END OF NOVEMBER
Media Hijinks: We'll solicit volunteers for the last Legionnaire Legacies while the current plots are still ongoing. Then at the end of the month, after the current plots wrap, the last Legion Watch and last IC Anon Meme would go up.

EARLY DECEMBER
Mod Plots: The last proposed plot round of "Blood Sport," "Information Redacted," and "All Your Base" would be canceled.

The Week of Ten Thousand Backtags: The mods would designate a week for anyone to set up pre-endgame threads they want to do before endgame starts, while the current status quo is still in place. This way people can at least have setups to anything they want that they can potentially backtag if needed. There will also be an accompanying OOC CR meme geared specifically towards endgame for players to work out final plans with their current CR or plans for their last chances to have CR they haven't had a chance to have yet.

Legionnaire Legacies: The last Legionnaire Legacies are posted.

Lights Out: After a vicious attack by Penitant on Legion World, the team will have several choices on what to do that will decide the fate of Legion World itself and the place the team is at as it faces endgame. This will be decided by IC discussion and an IC vote. Legion World will no longer exist in its current state.

Bad End Meme: Immediately after the fall of Legion World, There would be a "bad end" meme where players can play out a scenario of the team losing in the last battle. In-game, the Time Trapper would show this as a vision to the Legionnaires so they see the stakes of losing firsthand. After the attack on/fall of Legion World, we hope that this will remind the Legion why they're fighting, and to not give up.

MID TO LATE DECEMBER
Adjustment Phase: The team will have to deal with one of several possible consequences of the choice they made. Since all the choices have consequences, they'll have to rally and adjust to the new status quo to be their launching point for endgame. This will be very loose and event-like, and while it'll be a significant change, it'll be relatively non-intensive in terms of the level of activity needed, to make things easy for everyone over the holidays.

EARLY JANUARY

The Second Week of Ten Thousand Backtags: The mods will give people warning if they want to set up their very last threads before endgame itself. ICly characters will know they're heading into their final battle very soon and will have a chance to mentally ready themselves or talk to their friends for what they know could potentially be the last time.

MID JANUARY
Endgame Phase 1: Endgame phase 1 starts. The game universe basically all goes to hell as Chronoblivion starts his final assault. Mass hysteria. Dogs and cats living together. There will be some last disaster relief style threads to try to save lives as the Legionnaire prepare for the final fight, ones that may decide the fates of UPgov officials and entire planets. The Legion will also have to try to find the crystal dimension and recover the missing Legionnaires for help but even if they do, they'll be too out of practice to do more than act as minion-bashing duty to cover the PCs' backs.

Endgame Phase 2: The team will have to face the twisted mayfly dimensions in Chronoblivion's outer shell, that warp reality around them to throw past enemies at them and make them confront situations that harp on their greatest fears and traumas. A last chance for wrapping up CR or having some last CR with those you haven't had a chance to yet. There will be a plot workshop where the mods will help players come up with entertaining mindbendy scenarios, if they're having trouble making up their own.

LATE JANUARY/EARLY FEBRUARY

Endgame Phase 3: The final stand against Chronoblivion Itself, in the nightmarish innermost chamber of Its dimensional armor. The team must figure out how to use what Metron's throne gave them against It.

MID-FEBRUARY
Post-Endgame Wrap-up: Everyone deals with the aftermath. The start of the post-game sandbox.

SOME NOTES

Like it says in some of the writeups, some of these plots will be variable based on the mood of the playerbase at the time. For instance, the throne plot can potentially turn into a memory share event but if people want to skip it and move on to parts they want more, the memshare part can be cut.

For some of these parts, we'll be checking in with the players to see if they want the plot part to be brisk and easy or harder and more involved, so that the plots go at a pace people want at that specific time. The current timeline listed is the longest amount of time we predict things might take, but it can potentially run faster, based on player need and attention spans.

PLAYER PLOTS

Player plots can still be run all the way up to the Legion World disaster in "Lights Out." After that, some new player plots can be potentially run but definitely under an entirely different status quo.

At any point, if you'd like help making up a player plot up or would like to incorporate threads of the mod plot into things contact the mods and we'll help you out.

During endgame phase 1 and beyond, player plots will be paused until the post-endgame sandbox.

FORMER PLAYERS

While apps for new players will be permanently closed as of "Lights Out" and onward, the mods will put the word out that older players of dropped characters that want to return for endgame are allowed to rejoin. Anyone that wants to app back in can do so at any time, naturally, but if they only want to rejoin for the meaty parts of endgame, the Time Trapper will bring back dropped Legionnaires en masse for the last endgame phases, giving players that dropped a chance to jump back in during phase 2 and 3, or during just phase 3 alone, based on preference.

Current players may also bring back dropped characters for endgame. Before endgame stages 1-3, however, a player's total number of characters cannot exceed the game's max of 4 character slots. After endgame phases 1-3 start they can bring as many old characters as they want and exceed the 4 slot limit.

Anyone who has ever played at the game (barring players that were banned, natch) are allowed to join in the post-game sandbox. They don't need to participate in endgame itself to do so.

FEEDBACK

Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below, and feel free to ask any questions. When we're sure of a gameplan, we'll update the game calendar and do a new State of the Plot post specifically with endgame in mind.

We really really need almost everyone to weigh in, even if it's just "I'm okay with this!" Endgame would be a very tough thing to run while flying blind and while we'll be checking in with the playerbase as we go, right now in the planning stage is the easiest time to add, remove, rearrange, or change parts of the upcoming plots.

We'd also like to ask everyone to comment in this OOC post rather than discussing it on plurk, so everyone can see and participate.

We'll give this until 11/23 11:59 PM EST for everyone to respond and then update the plot calendar and do a new state of the plot post.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This all sounds good to me!

This seems like a solid plan.

+1 for throne memshare

Works for me!

I'm alright with all this! Though I was wondering what exactly memshare means?

Oh sorry, that's shorthand for memory share. It's kind of a stock RP plot, to have something where characters see each other's memories or the dangers of the plot take place in their minds and their memories. It's a popular event so we've had memory share elements in several plots throughout the game.

This would give a chance for one last plot with it in it.

Edited 2017-11-20 02:45 (UTC)