Season Emerald Enlightenment Feedback Thread

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Welcome everyone! Gonna keep it short and sweet since I am really tired and its late!

Please post your feedback for Season Emerald Enlightenment Below! I have a few specific things I want feedback on so if you have a stance on the following please tell me how you felt about it!

Requested Feedback Sections:
Super Short Documents: Sticky notes and the like, were these kind of things interesting? Did they add to the feeling of the facility or were they just excess examinations?

Super Detail Documents: The images I uploaded with files generated in word or other software to appear as life like reports and cards. Were these cool to look at and interesting to examine? Or are these just more filler and fluff than actual hard text context?

Shifting Map: Earthquakes kinda fell off in the end as they were slightly pointless. I felt these were more of an annoyance to you all than an actual consideration. So please tell me whether these were yay or nay or whatever middle ground you have.

Pregame Bus ride: I like these pregame plot sessions for talking. Are these cool you think or just awkward?


Everything else is also fair game. I don't really care about the puppets since most people never used them and they were simply a COOL factor, but if you have ideas for improving the system(or actually getting people to murder) please feedback away!

[John Dark Souls]

『Well, I have some little time before I have to go and be all super busy again, so might as well provide some feedback on stuff~ First from the things I liked and loved and then with more meh stuff』

『First things first: The Map』
『I liked the map. As simple as that. The map was kinda big with 90 threads and all, but in the end it did provide just the correct feeling and atmosphere of a research facility in the mine. Be it the looooong tunnel of descent in the beginning or the facility itself. It was properly designed with all the researcher needs for living in there long time. Even the oh so dreaded restrooms that had a total of nothing but tunnels though reluctant, are necessary evil to make it make it more realistic. And weirdly enough, though still very big I still ended up stumbling on other players quite often so it wasn't particularly hard to find people if I planned to murder too. + it had unique and awesome geometric shape which I like as a plus too.』

『The pre-game ride thing:』
『It was a pretty fun ride RP-wise, though I did kinda miss most of it though I can brag about starting that super weird word chain game that also made it last quite a bit. xD I don't mind seeing more of those if they make sense setting-wise.』

『Now about plot and docs.』
『I loved all the small docs and notes and details that were scattered around the facility further recreating the live in the mines of researchers here. It really did allow you to feel that people were here and they were working, etc. About detailed docs. I loved those newspaper clips, those plan documents, that business card in the end. It just further increased the immersion and was nice bonus that was quite likely a bit of a pain to make. And all the other significant plot documents were nice too. But otherwise... I still don't quite get how we were supposed to win via mystery...』

『Side Stories AKA Elliot Chase』
『This is basically what I was busy with most of the game and what I also don't regret a thing about doing. Elliot was... How should I say it... The moment I read the first journal page, 2 things struck me: 1.Elliot op, 2.GOTTA FIND THEM ALL! I love all these small side objectives in the games and I myself end up putting quite a lot of those in my games (most never get found though) And seeing how I in the end only survived because I kept chasing after these notes this makes it all the more awesome.』

『Riddles』
『There were a few riddles in the game, some very easy like the Kitchen Elliot Note one and some that were quite difficult like the Library one. I liked them all. I generally just like riddles and make lots of them too, but I found these very nice addition to the game. They were easy to find, but kinda challenging to solve. I did get quite confused because of overthinking about most of them though. Still was great fun and I still feel very accomplished about solving the Library one though my ability was used, a hint was given and then a bit of Ravan's help borrowed as I was solving the anagram in the end.』

『And now about the more meh stuff.』

『Earthquakes』
『These were just kinda meh. I understand their need to add to the tension in the air and feeling of impending danger of what not and they did manage to accomplish that. But each time a new quarter was given and while I was a bit behind on my examinations I ended hoping no plot/Elliot-involved room was obstructed or destroyed. But then since none did in the end, it could be that Eclipse avoided destroying those which in that case makes these pretty harmless.』

『Puppets』
『The whole idea of using puppets was pretty cool, but in the end, no fights occurred and almost no situations where puppets would be used happened. I guess it is kinda my fault for choosing a Hero and a boring puppet in that, but I did just kinda keep the puppet with me during whole of the game in order to gain no preemptive strike defense. Which still is kinda great knowing no Saku will suddenly out of nowhere KO me and steal my treasures. :/ But still, blame not mechanic or it's maker but people who poorly used it, and thats what I will do, I will blame everyone for being boring and not attacking me and myself for choosing to be a Hero(and I even practiced RP lines for if somebody attacked me in my head and developed battle strategies too T_T)』

『Traitor vs Regular balance』
『This, is probably the only field from the game which I am a bit concerned about. Because I kinda see no way at all how regulars are supposed to defeat traitors. Traitors are a team with clear specific goals and more information to achieve it. Regulars are just normal players who should be oblivious to traitors and their goals. The only way regulars would win without accidentally killing traitors or being super paranoid about everyone and monitoring them would be to win via mystery solving. But mystery win is kinda really mysterious and I'm not quite sure how you would go about it but I am fairly certain it should be impossible without Emerald Quarters being opened. But when Emerald Quarters open, the emerald green light for traitor finish line lights up. All they have to do is go through few rooms, take the statue and put the beacon on it signaling the final 30 minutes of the game. So unless traitor team gets a double traitor, or traitor team decides to win via mystery or there is a real op Jack the Ripper around, I really feel like regulars just don't stand a chance. Well, luckily for some, there was a really op Hero around who still found a way to survive and saved some, but still, it was traitor victory.』

『Well, that is all that comes off top of my head. If there was anything more that I forgot, it was likely just unimportant to me enough to even mention it in feedback... Probably...』

『Anyhow, all in all, I loved the game. It was a pretty fun ride. Though I must add that there was a certain, nah, considerable lack of action for most of the game. But it more than made up with that to me with all the other stuff like riddles and Elliot. My only regret in the game is not being able to just look and find that Elliot note in the Experimental Chamber, the only thing I needed for the achievement ;_; Otherwise, I'm glad I was able to have this much fun even though I was considerably busy with irl stuff and ff14 in the background. (short'ish hosting sessions kinda helped with that)』

[King V]

Requested sections first.

Super Short Documents - These felt kind of... useless. While they added to the atmosphere, it was a little annoying pm'ing an examination, then after a few minutes only getting a few short messages as a reply. I like how they were handled, placed in obvious locations and such, and if they had been extremely hidden like the long documents I think they would have made the game a lot more annoying. Overall it was fine, didn't really pay much attention to them after the first few times.

Super Detailed Documents: These were amazing. Props for the newspaper and MAKE logo. The only concern I have for these are that they add a ton of work for season development and make seasons come out slower (more work for me), but otherwise 10/10 on these.

Earthquakes: I felt like these were a somewhat mediocre. At first I thought earthquakes would turn the entire map upside-down, like completely change the layout, and I was a little disappointed when I found out it usually only affected 1 room. I think there would have to be a very specific map setup where earthquakes could work and not simply annoy the players, and this map wasn't really cut out for that.

Pregame Bus Ride: Pregames are always nice, the bus ride was good for getting into character. The only thing I'm a bit disappointed about is that after we got into character, there was no other time to sit down and talk about things.

Other stuff.

Lack of Murder: This is somewhat the fault of the players, but I also feel like players were expecting the traitor team to do this for them. Also partly my fault for my internet breaking just when I was going to murder, and Sova's fault for picking a character who didn't want to murder. Mostly I feel that the fast progression of the plot, all the players being gathered in the new areas all the time, and the traitor team also being a plot team made murdering really, really unfavorable. As in, murdering didn't even feel like an objective in this game, which is also something I feel happens in all games at one point or another, but it was definitely more prominent in this game.

Puppets: If everyone in the game was bloodthirsty, the puppets would have been much more emphasized. Sadly this was not the case and puppets were mostly ignored.

Chick Flicks: Does anyone know why this keeps happening in your games? Anyone?

Plot Progression: The plot felt really linear for some reason. Which isn't essentially a bad thing, but I was expecting a bit more variety. Like, a way to contact the outside for help, some sort of device to turn the mastermind back to normal (probably canonically impossible), etc. Having all end goals lead to the same place just made it feel like there wasn't anything else to aim for.

[Satori]

My feedback on Emerald Enlightenment starting with the requested feedback~

Super Short Documents: I didn't really have an issue with this and it was pretty nice and simple for those who aren't fond of walls of text.

Super Detail Documents: These were pretty neat and they added style and context to some of the plot docs.

Shifting Map/Earthquakes: Like what Sova and Sea stated. The earthquakes didn't have much of an impact in the game since very few people have ever been directly affected by them and most rooms that were affected didn't hinder our progress much. I think it would have been better if the earthquakes affected 2 rooms at the same time to increase tension and the chance of someone getting caught in them but then again it would probably just make it even more of an annoyance than it was intended to be.

Pregame Bus ride: The bus ride was really nice and gave us a chance to chill with the players before all hell breaks loose and it also kept the hype of the game up while waiting for the actual game to start.

Now for my general feedback~

I SERVE DA BOSS! (The Traitor Team): This was obviously my favorite part in the entire game and what kept me really hyped for Emerald. I mean its not everyday your given an opportunity to play a special role in these games and it also gave me a sense of purpose and made me feel more involved with the game which is something I tend to lack in some games. While I'm a bit biased on this since I was part of the winning team but I will admit though that the traitors had sort of an unfair advantage over the regular players since we knew more specific info than most others (Like I only knew that remote found in Experimental Control was one of the master controls since I contacted Pebble who obviously knew about them so I was able to unlock the Emerald Quarter and gave us a first look at it before the others started sweeping through them which really contributed to our success) and that we were working together as a unit. Still it was really fun being part of the traitor team and helped me achieve one of my greatest accomplishments in the games so far.

Plot: The plot was really intriguing and I actually took some time to read them more closely (Since I tend to skim through most of them in other games especially those that are walls of text and also since finding plot would aid us in completing our traitor objective). Also knowing extra plot info as a traitor was a plus.

Puppets: While the puppets didn't play much of a role in the game. They were still really cool to have around. I possessed one of the strongest puppets in the game along with another puppet which made me feel a lot more secure and acts as a great deterrent against those who dare try to mess with me but at the same time it also discourages murder since you'd have to deal with both the puppet and the one controlling them.

Lack of Murder: Like what Sea and Sova stated. There was a distinct lack of murder or any form of violence for that matter. Not that I didn't have much of a problem with it since it actually made my job easier (if not completely pointless XD) but yeah.

Activity: Activity was decent at best although it was partially due to the mastermind's limited hosting which can't be helped since he has a life. I think a new game system is needed to cater players and masterminds who don't have the luxury of time.

Puzzles/Riddles: Although I didn't do much of the puzzles/riddles here but I could say they were nice and clever and they added a layer of difficulty to our progress.

Overall: I really loved the game and was certainly one of the best games I've played so far and I feel so accomplished for actually winning a season (This was the 2nd time I've won a season but it was also the 2nd Eclipse game I've won so perhaps I have better luck in Eclipse's seasons? XD) and my role as a traitor really contributed a lot to the experience although it would have been a lot better if the mastermind had more hosting time to cater with most of the players (Which again can't be helped) and if at least a few players were violent and actually committed murder...*Stares creepily at Sova...*

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Just to let you guys know how I was thinking when I made some of my decisions(such as the traitor team), I am going to say here what I planned to be in the way of the Traitors in their overall goal.

With a few exceptions most Traitor roles carried a unique device into the mine, which would notify them of the time to evacuate. A few other roles would have additional items to assist. Head among those is The Bomber, the lead role. They had to carry five 2 weight bombs into the mine(only possible with the bomber's ability) and plant one in each quarter and then locate the target. Again, I expected at least SOME violence so I suspected that during a murder or investigation one of these items would be discovered or a bomb found. Since the Bomber would be obviously screwed if they were found carrying them. Makoto was supposed to have to juggle the safety of carrying the bombs or hiding them. However since no one was even remotely violent even up until the end, this threat never really came to light.

That was why a Guardian existed, to try and throw suspicion off the others if such an item was discovered. However, since there was never any real chance of finding these items (since Makoto carried them with him 95% of the game) it resulted in the 30 minute bomb countdown being triggered without anyone but the traitors having any idea what was going on. In fact if there hadn't been an Eclipse Time session to alert to you all something big was going down, they probably would have killed everyone and just walked out. I intended for word to spread about the traitors so they would have a tougher time, and a power or two was tossed in to help spot them. Sadly the perception powers never really were on in the right places or the player in possession of the power was simply afk.


The other point I wanted to describe how I felt about was the Mystery Ending. For this game it wasn't just a solve the mystery insta-win. I didn't make it that way since the mastermind, Marakata, had no reason to stop even after you all had figured it out. I wanted the players to not only recognize what happened, but be willing to attack the mastermind with that knowledge, with the intent to stop the madness and get the way out. It felt kind of.... meh if I just had the mastermind let you out for solving it. This game was never intended to have a true "Final Trial" with an execution when you solved it, it was more a Final Debate where you had to crush the mastermind's will. Perhaps that story was a little overkill on my part and made it more difficult than it needed to be.

It kind of backfired on the traitor side, since mystery team can't really beat them unless they stumble on an item planted, however that was unlikely as many people were afk at the end.

I agree with most of the feedback as well. From my perspective, Earthquakes were kinda a just "Oh look tunnels" or just ended with me telling someone how long it would take to clear it. Puppets fell under the "nifty" category but were kinda pointless.

I am going to blame the whole "Chick Flick" scenarios on my own hosting style. I make, almost, all of my games with the intent in mind for the Player/s to win. Ideally the ending where everybody dies kind of annoys me. I kind of feel like everybody's time is wasted. I made a game for people to have fun and in the end WIN. It just feels like a **** move on my part to be "screw you guys, everyone dies." Hence why I gave hints to every single riddle in the game. I am incredibly tough on murderers and I did warn probably 4 people during inital prep to murder that they were making mistakes and needed to reconsider the situation though, so perhaps if I had let those fly(and watch them get caught cause they forgot to check the hiding places in the room and they had a first hand witness to the crime) the game would have gotten more violent, at least after the first murder/trial.

I believe its my hosting style that prefers my stories, but I don't necessarily dislike it. I will probably try to amp up the reward for murder in correspondence with the difficulty. Perhaps more side benefits in future seasons or Eclipse Chieves in addition to winning and the regular Trophy.