Some thoughts. Applications System, Investment, and Time

[Chance]

Most applications are handled within a week.

Are we sure about this? Nearly all of my applications have been over a week in length before I got a response, positive or negative. Maybe I'm the outlier ofc, but for example I'm still waiting on apps from several weeks ago. I know a few others who are likely waiting on apps from well over a week ago. Item apps I know are slow af atm as well.

Some might be a day, a few days, a week, a few weeks. It's really going to depend. Odds are if it's 'in flux' a decision hasn't been reached because it's not an easy yes/no and the staff want to see what plotlines your character pursue. You saw this with Olivia and Tristinia in particular I'm sure, where when you did reach some big milestones, there was sometimes a payoff. I hope that makes sense.

[Lammy]

its still 30 years, if you are getting it 25 years in unstead of 30, ahelp to get it changed, all tht

Did that. Was told it was 25...

huh so that is truly strange...

[Detective100]

the austerity around sig approvals and item stat allocation is mainly coming from a place of trying to curtail run-away and ridiculous items/sigs which may not have have a beneficial impact on story-telling.

There is an issue with that statement, given that per your own claim there had been an inflation of item stats.
Those so called 'item inflated' still exist, and once a group has amassed enough of them? If you try being stringent now about items, you end up doing the reverse by impacting the story in favor of the group that has collected prior strong items.

[DragonDarklyDreaming]

Yeah I'm not saying 'yo wtf why aren't people approving my shit???' All my disapprovals have made sense, and my approvals were welcome and generally took good story beats. But the timing often is rather awkward, with it being several in-game years after those beats for myself and others. As is being discussed, when you have 25 years to play a character before they start declining, taking 2 years or the like to have development rewarded can be extremely rough.

[Nubius Maximus]

*wobbles into the discussion*

Back in my day, we used to by without an application being answered even up to a month, only to be told you've been denied or approved after you've been ganked by a Dimmie SlowBuild™ Character and killed two weeks ago!

You kids have it good now...

*old man crip walks out.*

[Chance]

I think the real conversation to have is whether or not forum applications (for signatures) should exist in the first place. The wait time will always be there, and occasional feelings of discontent if there's a denial (which there are a lot of). 

There have been periods of fantastic staff activity and commitment, where they were on top of things, but that can't be expected constantly. There is no simple solution to this as both managing and maintaining the process requires daily commitment from an entire team, who are volunteers, on top of everything else we have to do to run the game itself. 

The changes Meranthe made, with mastery tokens, the various classes you can invest into, and generally being able to learn a lot of stuff solely via in-game interactions, was a big improvement. The form has also been a vehicles for dozens of approvals, typically when a request is eye catching or deserved, saving a bit of time people would've spent on forum apps. The applications sub-forum (specifically for abilities) is a net negative experience IMO, and alternatives should be considered to make more people feel cool and snowflake without having to go through an out-of-game experience.

Moving signatures back to the form only, and involving all staff in that process would likely be a healthy change from all angles.

[SilkiyTea]

I only find enjoyment in fluff applications that have minimal to no mechanical benefit beyond the fluff. I've never apped for anything big and world changing, but I'm sure if I worked on that kind of project I'd like it too.

I hate ability applications.
I hate signature applications.

I have mixed feelings on weapon applications, I honestly like the 'artificer clicks on a thing to add these stats to it' resource mechanic tbqh. But some weapons are made with a LOT of love, care, and interesting/intricate fluff.

The more automation for things that are just a mechanical boon, the better.

I'll always be of the mindset that it's more interesting to read an archived application about someone making something that's designed to rattle the world, or a unique creation that has genuine passion thrown into it.

I just don't like applications that's ultimate goal is to achieve a mechanical power boost in the form of a signature or a hidden. I don't find training arcs particularly fun to RP out.

The Google Form is imo one of the best additions to the game. I apply for something, I don't need to do a training arc, I can explain how my character would be capable of it, and why I think they should have it. If I don't get a reply within a week, than I take it as a denial and that I haven't done enough to drive other peoples stories forward or don't have enough influence in the world to have earned it.

[Milly]

Encourage more people to have mentor with their respective skills or signatures. That would encourage a lot of things moving away FROM the forums and in game.
But the issue there is whether or not those people *can be trusted*. So maybe add a separate log admins can look into.

I know that when mentor is used, the mentoring person types in the relevant information regarding the learning process/scene, so maybe let admins have access to it to ensure nothing is being abused unfairly.

[Sailor Ryu]

I feel like mentor was meant to be something that was in fact supposed to alleviate the stress of apps and encourage actual roleplay rather than trynna get stuff via the forums but not enough people actually go for it overall, yeah.

Edit: spelling

[Carbon]

Having Signatures become teachable with perhaps a limit to 1/2 people per generation may be a neat addition, this is how skills are learned in all the DB games on byond and it actually works great imo. This forces player interaction to a degree, then once somebody has the sig they can then apply to learn mentor for it after x amount of time.

Also - I believe we should revisit Mal's suggestion of moving the application process to the Discord rather than the forums. It adds a direct communication channel to the Admins and makes it a little more intuitive to use, I guess. Admins can also just vote with a simple thumbs up / thumbs down and players can actually see how their stuff is being 'graded' so to speak.

Also also, I don't think I've spoken to a single person that has had their app approved/denied within a week. The wait time for the last batch of apps was 2+ weeks in some cases.