[Chance]

Uhm. I'm pretty sure Spires was averaging about 30 or fewer players daily during peak times after E3's announcement. I quit like four days after the announcement and those are the numbers I remember. I can only imagine how much lower it dipped during the month-long wait.

no, it was 100+ several weeks into it, and there's a screenshot of that on the forums when someone made a similar claim of low pop. you're probably thinking of the last few days

though nobody's claiming that such an announcement doesn't hurt the motivation of existing characters regardless, & that's the main downside. it's a bummer to be enjoying yourself and then hear something like that, and watch as others aren't as active because of it

[rea]

rest in peace cinderfall once spires was announced during e1

[Method T]

I made my favorite character in all of E1 after the Spires announcement was made. Honestly, the game was still very active at the time, and everything felt like it was thriving.

It was only after we started getting within the 1-2 weeks from Spires release that players started becoming inactive, especially if they had died at the time. I witnessed the rise and fall of Cinderfall firsthand as the #1 battlecuck of Alanai's little good boy village. I had even made it a point to become highly risk-taking on said character because there was a time limit to garner my 'Achievements' to be locked into E1's history. Issue was, further progress for me at that point required events, which we had no time to do.

If anything, I'd just keep in mind that per what Tattles recommends, arcs/episodes would take place 10-20 years away from the existing timeline. In doing so, generations could still exist, continuity wouldn't become an issue, and if anything, it would only mean that old 30-40 age characters would likely be retired or killed off.
------

I'm still of the mindset that just having an ongoing World Arc present in the form of a world event chain or just things going on in general, is usually the best way to continue to stir up player interest when IC politics and drama have run their course. The response to the Mimic Meteor and to the Barsburg events has shown that quite well.

And remember, for the people playing, the best way to continue to grow interest in the community, is to leave a mark on the world that doesn't affect just you, but everyone.

I.e: In E1, Seraphiel began the long lineage of Melyms by conquering Valmasia, displaying himself as a noble king, despite literally raising two artificial Kaors. He was the first to become the 'King of Valmasia', unless we count Ro'tro.
More recently, in E3, Nebula just brought down a meteor and brought Mimics to Esshar, scarring the land and also giving many players a new way to RP on their next character.

[Lloyd Durages]

This is a fine idea.

Every time we go to push for an arc change, then I could see it working out, where we all reconvene with a poll to gauge if players think it's time for it or not.

[GrayHood]

I did not like an idea of timeskip when it happened.

My character got Holy tome two or three weeks before the timeskip. I had a lot of new ideas how to use it, it opened new RP possibilities. But I was not able to complete them, because timeskip has been announced...

That's why I don't support idea of arcs. Don't break the flow of history, let it complete naturally.

[Peep 'Puff' Topia]

episodic eternia appeals to the players that would never have made it in E1 and are the same ones that made e2 and 3 so miserable

i don't find it shocking that e1 lasted for 7 years and, as the community shifted during e2, managed to very brutally begin to erode at the game's lifespan

[rea]

anyway I do not like this at all and think that Eternias charm comes from the fact that there are not wipes and would like to point out that every person in favour of multiple wipes forever are all people with origins in naruto games where this is the norm

[Laemor]

As much as the idea seems nice. Applying is hard enough... imagine the pressure of wanting a hidden thats exalted. But times limited with these arcs... Game requires too much time to grow. To wipe at rates like that. And sure you can say. But it don't take that long...

It does for some.

Besides that though? New game... new arcs, don't change the community itself. Things like four op leaders or w.e. roaming. Will still happen. Maybe not to that degree, but it's the players that decide how they wanna spend their time. For better or worst.

Shame cause.... in E1, it was sorta like an unspoken rule. That once you were op? You didn't generally abuse that strength on weaker people.. and more often than not? It was frowned upon by admins.

Now a days? People just get away with so much shit. Ooc and icly.

[Food]

This 'episodic' approach will come at the expense of those who favour personal, inter-character stories over grandiose and 'flavour of the week' world presence stories.

I feel as though this is mostly a means to stimulate short-term activity than actually making the game more pleasant for the playerbase.

I don't understand this notion of characters overstaying their welcome. Characters in this game are more than just narrative tools to drive whatever flashy story is going on at the time. They're a shit ton of time dedicated by people who seek to live an experience that offers an escape from their (probably) crappy IRL grind (there are other reasons, just citing a pretty common one). Let people enjoy their characters rather than stamping them as permanent NPC's/Background characters to these 'arcs'. I can guarantee you that, to them, their personal stories are far more interesting than whatever world-scale story the administration and ambitious players have in store. I really don't think they should be deprived of that because a few people are bored and think this game should consistently be having explosions and plot-twists everywhere.

As for antagonists not being able to contend with the rest of the world, here are some basic suggestions:

1. Bullrushing and being completely combat-oriented should be a great Darwinian method to weed out the bad antagonist wannabes. If you want to cause trouble with little resources at your disposal, you either need to be a little more than a verb-centric turd, or serve as a henchman to a character with a higher charisma stat.

2. Don't introduce very obviously evil factions out of the blue. There is literally no reason for them to not be instantly eradicated (you can only use the 'muh story' card so much until it becomes silly). I think the progressive introduction of demons under the stewardship of high RPL witches was a good approach to ushering a new threat without plot-buffing them. They were dependent on the witches for their collective survival, unlike pre-TS where they could probably overtake Moonfall if they really wanted to.

I suppose I'm a bit sour over this because I lost a pretty damn good character pre-TS before they could reach their prime. It was annoying and very much impacted my motivation after the TS. Needless to say, I do not think this episode idea is a good one.

Tl;dr

Let me enjoy my character. I find my adventures more interesting than pre-planned world plots I'm forced to react to. To hell with losing my character (or 10-20 years of their life, fuck off I'm not eating those age nerfs early) because people are bored and probably just need Adderall.

[ShadeMaid]

Disclaimer: self-absorbed post

All I have done while rping are 'personal plots,' or just be slow, but I can't even do those when I made this chara for the Osrona that burned in a war. The place was... empty or afk. A lot of places were. My options were to make a new Nysea character, stare at scenelocked scenes with demons, or pray that 1 or 2 people I rped previous logged on at night again. And in the end my own personal plots were sparked from the kindling that was the main plot's direction or various events, so I can't call it unimportant.

I have had to contend with playing through a character on an empty town or location three times I can name, and it was arduous enough that it wasn't worth it; I had to call quits when I knew there was nothing after enough experience. I may be part of the problem by not putting in more effort, but I already lost if I'm having no fun. It wasn't worth it when you are not rping on an rp game, clicking repeatedly while multitasking to see if anyone was around, cranking up eternia's volume to make sure you can hear the /ping. Then you have actually nothing to build off of. It does not appeal to me dming to ask for scenes either for reasons that are not scheduling, or making with your discord friends which I think is a flat-out requirement now.

My support for episodes came from a place where I imagined myself not starting too late each time and only being lost. Oh how I was very lost. It was the game's need for an overhaul. Episodes are a band-aid on a large wound.

also never played naruto rp. and definitely hope I would not have made people's eternia experience miserable.