Feedback Re: Invasions

[G 3 M 1 N 1]

I haven't been here too long, but in the short time i have been here I've thought the invasion system on Chaos was really weird. Making a single, crazily chaotic thread that anyone can pour into sounds like absolute madness to me. ​

Is there a reason we don't use brackets?​

For Example:​

Sign up thread: Faction A has 22 members who want to fight, Faction B has 15.​

Faction A gets 15 people from its 22 chosen at random (to keep numbers even and to prevent the same old people winning every round) to fight Faction A's 15.​

They/ Staff/ Faction Staff start five 3 vs 3 threads, each with an objective, perhaps also chosen at random (for fun) which all get linked back into the OOC thread so staff have a hub which allows the threads to be easier to monitor, and so everything is nice and accessible from one place.​

Each thread gets judged in exactly the same manner as they do already. with each thread won or lost counting as a point, side with the most points wins. Ie, Faction A won 3 of the 5 threads, therefore they win. The more threads you have going, the larger the hedge you have against loss or chances you have to win! So it becomes a little like a tournament, but with only one bracket. ​

It just seems it would be far more organized, and fair to the writers who are attempting to make a coherent story. And I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in thinking that Invasions because of the number of people involved are insanely fast moving and very daunting. Especially for something so important to a major factions life.​

It would be a tiny bit of extra work for staff, sure, Mostly in the thread set up, but it would also be more organized, and with each thread having a single objective rather than a larger thread with multiple, the extra effort is only really in splitting them up. And with that, i think the individual judging would become a lot easier. I suppose people could go inactive in the individual threads, sure, but thats a problem on the factions end, not the sites or staffs, besides, they'd go inactive anyways in the big threads which still has mostly the same result. It just seems like it would be a lot more accessable to members, especially newer ones. But at this point I'm sure I'm beating a dead horse, and all this has likely been said before. But if not, I hope it would be considered.​

Love you all​

Thank you for any and all consideration. ​

-Gem <3

 

[Zori Kapshan]

Raise your hand if you ever had a dueling partner abandon you in an Invasion

 

[G 3 M 1 N 1]

Raise your hand if you ever had a dueling partner abandon you in an Invasion

Raises hand.

It was a skirmish, but close enough.

If you have people who couldn't join due to number imbalance, use them as reserves, i dunno. But dueling partners leaving isn't unique to smaller threads, people break up into pairs and groups in the big threads anyways. Which i do mention, and people vanishing in that context is no different really. As per current judging rules, winning duels doesn't matter, so two people facing down 3 because 1 of their teammates left sounds like a fun as heck story to me... no reason why they still couldn't win through tension, storytelling, teamwork etc.

 

[Caedyn Arenais]

G 3 M 1 N 1

Invasion threads can be exhausting, fast-paced and at times difficult to follow if you're taking part in an objective/scene with numerous other players.

They're very much a "main-event" sort of thread for the Map-Game. Those big war-time scenarios that we see in the movies and books depicting massive armies clashing against one another is a huge appeal to military types and PvP'ers. As far as Faction to Faction interaction goes on the competitive scene, I'm not sure you could get more blatant than that.

As far as being player-friendly or giving writers an easier time, I guess that could be put down to the factions involved to help mediate. I understand where you're coming from, especially as I find myself struggling to keep up thanks to time-zones and whatnot, but maybe instead of altering Invasions themselves, it would be an idea to suggest an additional type of thread that could affect the map-game in similar ways. Although how these would differ from skirmishes, I'm not sure.

 

[Mellifluous Magenta]

I think to bounce off the point I think Zori Kapshan is inferring at, in practice, abandonments happen a lot in invasions. However, if we were to make multiple “bracket” threads for a single invasion, it would also make it a lot more difficult for abandoned writers to link up with other people to interact with. I know in the case of the last invasion I did, I had planned out a duel with a partner, but since they were unable to do more than a couple posts I kind of had to “move past” them narratively in order to create a story with the writers that were posting more actively. If this solution, or something like it was implemented, I likely would have had a harder time of doing that, as I would have had to jump over to a new thread.

 

[G 3 M 1 N 1]

Caedyn Arenais, I really like the idea of other more player friendly ways to interact with the map game. Alternates and the like, that have some more limited nature without needing to be the pile ons of the big invasions.

Mellifluous Magenta I hear you, which i think would be the case if the threads were 1 on 1, is why my example said 3 on 3, even if all your opponents drop off the face of the earth you still have your other 2 faction peeps to be writing with to complete your objective, it may be less fun, but you're writing cool story. I think it would be either a rarity to have that many people fall off the face of the earth, or, no rarer than it happening anywhere else. Heck, if the threads were three 4 on 4s, regardless of how many people showed up, it would mean there would always be a reserve list in case people dropped. If someone had to tap out, just call in a replacement. Have them be a limit on maximum active people in the thread. That way, if faced with your problem and you lose 2, the rule just lets others, who aren't in the invasion yet, just hop on in to fill the missing slots.

The faction would be incentivized to do it, because without the slots filled, they may lose a thread, which could lose the invasion

Although, counterpoint, how many people have the issue where, either because of time-zones, or just the mad dash of it all, but you go to sleep because you wake up to another 30-40 additional posts in the invasion. Which, as you're given points for interacting with you're pressured to react to, but the thread has moved on without you, leaving you far behind.

 

[Kitter Bitters]

I think if you had multiple bracket threads it would be difficult for the judges to keep track of. In one big thread it’s easier for them to read the entire story and get a sense of what’s going on.

Invasions aren’t perfect but we can’t expect the staff to give up even more time to read more threads and then they have to cross analyze them to see what events line up where.

One thing that does help is objectives. Each invasion has at least 3 and then you can kind follow that as a bracket of sorts.

 

[Alina Tremiru]

Invasions can be some of the best threads in the world, so long as people are willing to work together to make a great story.

Issue is most people fall into the 'us vs them' mentality and it just leads to salt, trash talking, taking advantage of the fact some people can't post as fast and technically they only have to wait 24 hours, etc. When faction staff can work together to make the writing fun for all writers, the fast paced craziness is less exhausting and way more exhilarating.

 

[Jacen Nimdok]

Agree that big Invasion threads are very chaotic and stressful, but I think that’s the main appeal. It’s exciting and fast-paced and exhilarating. Part of the reason why I only participate in them occasionally is because too much of a fun but stressful thing isn’t healthy. But I do like your idea, and I would like to see some more bracket-based tournament threads in addition to Invasions to spice things up.