ximiliugh | Mid-month updates (October)

● ● ● MID-MONTH UPDATES

Greetings Orbers! As we hit mid-October and our second mission is now over, we'd like to address a few things regarding the past few months, as well as the months ahead. We know the following will be a lot to go through but we promise to be as brief as possible.

· APPS & CO

First thing's first, we want to remind everyone of the upcoming events in our calendar — namely, our TDM happening on October 22 (the same day RESERVES open!) as well as our APPS opening on October 27.

You may have noticed that there is no close date for our apps this time, and our TDM on the calendar is marked as "October + November". As we hit the last months of the year, we will be doing things a little differently with our apps.

First, there will be no new TDM for November — instead, this one TDM covers both months. This is because at the end of October, we will be shifting to rolling apps for November. This means that we will process the apps we have slots for by the end of October, and after that, everyone else will be left to an app queue. We will come back to this app queue by the end of November, and process all apps in the queue at the time. This means you can submit your app to the queue at any time in November. After November, the queue will be cleared.

After that, apps will be closed for December and January, opening again in February.

As of the time of this post there are around 11 character slots available, so now would be a good time for anyone interested in apping someone into the game to start familiarizing themselves with our rules and FAQ. Of course, current players are more than welcome to app in a second. We'd also suggest prospective players to take a gander at our first mission files to get a general idea of what they can expect out of the game's mechanics — with the caveat, of course, that not every mission will be 100% the same.

· ac + hiatus recap

Speaking of familiarising yourself with things, we highly recommend both prospective players and current players to double-check our AC and hiatus rules.

Over the past few months, we have clarified some things that were previously unclear or required further elaboration, and hopefully these items have been addressed. Here is a brief recap of the important points:

• Remember that hiatuses cannot be retroactively declared, meaning that the start date of your hiatus can only be the day you are posting it or later.

• For AC, all threads count: log, network, TDM and IC inboxes.

• A player who consistently submits only castmate or inbox threads for AC will be asked for alternate proofs.

· tdms

Going forward, there will be a slight change to our TDMs. From now on, they will all include two recurring prompts, meaning the arrival and the general around-the-station parts — with the caveat that the station part may change accordingly to reflect areas available in the game at the time. The third part, the simulation, will continue to switch up for now, but long-time Orbers may eventually see some familiar prompts there too. This is quite simply to reduce the mods' workload, as we are always writing the previous mission conclusion, the TDM and the upcoming mission file and log at the same time.

· second mission feedback

Speaking of the missions, we mods always love to hear your thoughts. While we are already looking ahead to our third mission, we also want to ensure that we are listening to our players and making any necessary adjustments to make the following missions as rewarding an experience for as many of you as possible. Our goal with Ximilia has always been to emphasize character development, with the missions as a vehicle for your individual characters' journeys.

To help streamline the feedback for the second mission, we've provided this little form but feel free to create your own or adjust this to suit your needs.

Of course, if there's something you would like to say that you don't feel comfortable sharing openly, our screened mod contact page is always available. Our aim is to collect your feedback and be sure to refine future missions with your thoughts in mind.

When it comes to feedback we received before, we hope we have already addressed at least some of it with the search request cheat sheet, but one question that came up was whether we would be allowing mission suggestions from players. Right now, we do not, but that may change at some point in the future — and of course we are always happy to listen to your ideas, especially about specific player plots.

· ABOUT THE THIRD MISSION

Onto the part that will surely interest most of you: our third mission will be our first-ever one-month mission, so it will last the month of November, and contain one event log.

The mission file and the personal goals will be posted in early November after apps have been processed. For this particular mission, you can expect the following:

• The mission will include information-gathering and ICly exchanging information with others. The mission takes place in one specific location, instead of a larger city.

• Much like in the first mission, the characters will have to focus on finding the orb... but the location they're in might hinder them in that search.

• There will be a chance for one NPC thread in the log. This will be randomised.

• Using the clues they find, as well as the NPC thread, characters will have to figure out exactly where the orb is, and how to get there. What they find and where they choose to search will affect the entire conclusion of the mission.

• There will be a game-wide info-changing post (either IC or mod-provided, depending) where characters can exchange information and decide where to search for the orb.

We also want to give everyone a heads-up that in December, there will be no mission — instead, characters will spend the entire month on the station. However, that doesn't mean nothing exciting is happening then, as the team will finally meet someone they've only seen glimpses of so far, not to mention that the door that's been closed to them might finally open...

Hope you're excited for what's to come!