[OOC] 𝕲𝖗𝖎𝖒 𝕽𝖊𝖆𝖕𝖊𝖗'𝖘 𝕲𝖆𝖒𝖇𝖎𝖙

[Snagglepuss89]

Everybody just commits suicide in their first post.

@Shoryu Magami screams.

[Aewin]

Everybody just commits suicide in their first post.

@Snagglepuss89

There we have it guys, we found the actual True Ending.

[tsukune]

Everybody just commits suicide in their first post.

@Shoryu Magami screams.

@Snagglepuss89

There we have it guys, we found the actual True Ending.

@Aewin

Reminds me of Suicide Circle.

Only this time it's the happy version.

-----

On a serious note, I'm not sure when we can start writing in the IC?

[Snagglepuss89]

I think right now, we can start doing introductions and interacting until the roster is filled and the RP starts "For real"

[Shoryu Magami]

I disappear for like... ten minutes to have a shower, and come back to all this? Lol, well at least the OOC is alive -- that's a good thing.

Sho-kun left us a crumb of a clue! :ooo

Pudding

I'm curious as to what new clue I've tossed your way. I'm mostly avoiding 'gameplay spoilers' for the sake of not ruining the story for you guys, since I expect people not to mix IC/OOC knowledge, so I don't mind occasionally hinting at certain mechanics the role-play will work with. That being said, I'm wondering what I've put in your head, unless it's what the others are saying.

I propose something for the ghosts/dead people in that case: those that die get to romance other ghosts behind the scenes. Gruesome murder happening? Watch the awkward romance between two already dead characters as they phase through each other everytime they try to touch.

Truly revolutionary.

^{pls don't kill me Sho I just woke up and I'm in the mood to mess around}

Aewin

So, wait, we try to die first, and then the real RP gets to begin?

It's a genius design.

Snagglepuss89

From a Dating Sim, now I imagine this RP evolving into a Dumb Ways to Die game.

Aewin

Everybody just commits suicide in their first post.

Snagglepuss89

There we have it guys, we found the actual True Ending.

Aewin

Reminds me of Suicide Circle.

Only this time it's the happy version.

tsukune

Lol, madness. In all seriousness though... refer to the new status update, since part of this discussion is gonna be brought up legitimately.

~

@Aewin@Pudding@Melo@Ailyn Evensen@Snagglepuss89@tsukune

Status update:

• As stated in a previous status update, the IC is now 'unofficially open' meaning that anyone who has a character accepted is allowed to start introducing themselves/arriving in Paris and engaging in interaction with the other characters if they choose to. Cheers for answering tsukune for me, Snagglepuss89, but I figure this update'll give a more specific idea of what's available now to all of you.
  
  This first part of the story will basically take place in the events of Paris prior to the entire group who received a letter arriving (a.k.a. when we get all our members and the role-play changes from 'Apply' to 'Full'), and you're freely able to choose, either as individuals or as a group, to travel to Bonaparte's estate by map (while will obviously require my guidance) or to hang around in the city and wait for the time the escort will arrive. You can also freely choose to have arrived in the city prior to Leonard (your flights might have arrived earlier, for example, or for those who are residents of Paris -- not that we have one yet) if you wish, or to arrive after my post took place, and it's also up to you if you witnessed the first post with Leonard. Basically, just assume that the story opened upon his arrival.
  
  The language barrier exists between those who don't know each other's languages, so keep that in mind.

• The entry in the opening post called 'The Glossary' is now in the process of being created, but I'm sort of against the idea I initially considered of categorizing the information into sections like 'Personages', 'Organizations', 'Terms', et cetera, since I think certain entries (such as Bonaparte's 'The Methuselah of Paris' title) would count as multiple categories, so I'll probably simplify it -- potentially putting entries in alphabetical order. I'm open to suggestions or ideas involving how we format that section.

• The entry in the opening post called 'The Map' will remain empty until you reach Bonaparte's estate, as there's no map of Paris itself being presented in this role-play. In a video game version of this story, there likely would've been during the introduction phase, but I figure we can just use real life maps if we really want to be authentic about this, and putting up a map for a phase that'll be rather short is pointless. It's an alternate universe anyway, though for the most part it's mostly the same as the real world. Once you arrive, the map (which I've yet to have ready) will be presented alongside some information. With that brought up, does anyone have any preferences or specific ideas in mind for how the portrait icons which get placed on the map could look? I've yet to create them, just like the map (remember, this role-play's a very new project -- work on the project in general only started a day or so before I posted the interest check up), so I'm still open to ideas so long as they fit the aesthetic I've got in mind for the role-play. I plan to keep them pretty similar to each other.

• Regarding the shitposting involving ghosts previously, I'd like to make a point now that there's a couple of very specific reasons I decided to create an interest check for this role-play, despite the fact that I was fairly confident we had enough people interested anyway. The reason was all the discussion points, and the fact that how many people we had could have an impact on certain 'gameplay mechanics' that would be used -- such as the specifics of the elimination/voting/murder system. One of these was whether or not everyone liked the idea of characters being able to remain in play after death, which got positive reception as I expected.
  
  I actually wrote the basics of this storyline to be capable of adapting depending on whether or not people liked the idea, but my main (and preferred) idea involved us using this concept, so I planned to go with it unless including that idea resulted in the role-play having no interest at all (which I considered unlikely) -- in which case I would've needed to rewrite several plot and 'gameplay' concepts to adapt to the lack of dead players being able to contribute to the role-play still. I won't spoil the specifics for now in terms of storyline, and obviously I'll limit 'gameplay' information (though I expect no one to exploit it IC until their characters would know to anyway), but - yes - the player characters who die will actually have a potentially important role to play that the living characters potentially can't contribute, but will also have limitations put on them compared to living characters. Both types of characters will need to adapt to the situation.
  
  However, I'll basically point out that if a specific number of you die (I won't say how many for now), you'll get a 'bad ending'. So yeah, do me a favour and don't do a mass suicide, lest we end up getting the 'game over' screen in the first five minutes.

[Ailyn Evensen]

Jeez, I come back from a mind-numbing night of work with my idiotic co-workers and I'm met with these shenanigans? lol you people are insane. But to be honest, if I had the energy, I'd probably be in on it too :3

[Shoryu Magami]

@Aewin@Pudding@Melo@Ailyn Evensen@Snagglepuss89@tsukune

Status update:

• Some alterations have been made to the format of the opening IC post, mostly because it'll overall make things flow better later.

• Generally speaking, you should state your location and ideally your character's full name in each post. The latter is a result of the possibility of us having multiple characters, which is still in the 'maybe' phase and another update will discuss it in the near future. The former is just to make things less confusing. I'm probably going to be more specific about where Leonard is than just 'Paris', but I'm still deciding how to describe it. Also, unless showcasing a flashback (which is entirely allowed, and something I plan to make use of plenty of times), you should adhere to the rule of not specifying the time since the GM posts will control that. A few exceptions could occur, but consider this the default.

• After some discussion with tsukune, I'll be removing certain categories in 'The Glossary' and adding others, but for the time being it's still a work in progress. I'll explain all the details as they become relevant, and eventually it might require you guys to do things in the character tab as well. Some of it was already planned, while other thoughts were brought to my attention by his input.

[Shoryu Magami]

@Aewin@Pudding@Melo@Ailyn Evensen@Snagglepuss89@tsukune

Status update:

• Further discussion with tsukune confirmed that the format of the letter I manually wrote in the opening IC post wasn't coming up properly on his devices, so I've decided to use the image from the OOC, especially since I'd also decided on my own that it looks cooler that way. For the same reason (looking cool), I've also replaced the title of the series there too, and an additional sentence has been added to the '???' part of the post. For all intents and purposes, it's worth rereading the opening IC post due to all of this. The opening IC post has also now been split in order to segment 'Chapter 1' from the 'Prologue'.

• Assume that your characters received their letters from Bonaparte on New Year, so January 1, 2012. Also, the letters are written in the language the character is most comfortable with or the language that have a preference for; however, there's an exception to this rule. If there's a language in your character's backstory that should be a secret that other people don't know you can speak/read/write, it's written in that language instead. This will further make you feel like you need to take up the offer, because it showcases some of Bonaparte's seemingly omniscient knowledge of you. This is especially the case if it makes your character feel more obligated to come.

[Shoryu Magami]

@Aewin@Pudding@Melo@Ailyn Evensen@Snagglepuss89@tsukune

Status update:

• From this point on, if people have questions that they think apply to someone other than them (so anything that doesn't relate to spoilers) then I'd prefer you bring it up in the OOC instead of in a PM, simply because having to repeat similar information to various people can turn into a headache. Also, I sort of feel like we should discuss some of these things as a group so everyone can express how they feel before anything is settled on, especially when it's something I haven't set a strict code of conduct for. I'm not actually irritated with anyone, but I see a headache in the work if I don't make this call before it becomes an issue.

• Most of your are aware of how abysmally bad my PC is, and this is the primary reason I was unable to use a map of Paris to write a more specific opening IC post in terms of Leonard's location. If I can get access to a map that won't make me lose weeks of work (which will happen if my browser crashes, and even clicking on a Wikipedia entry can cause this) then I'll be slightly adding details to the opening post with Leonard to specify exact location.

• A few people've been asking me about formatting of things like headers and such for IC posts. I'd like to officially state for the record that the reason I've been using the current '~' format for all my posts is because I actually tried using the headers and neither me or Ailyn particularly liked the way my post (specifically the OOC's opening post) looked using them. If I can get over that, I might eventually change it to use those. With this said, I don't have a problem with you guys using it. As for other formatting, I'd like people's honest thoughts about the inclusion of our portrait images in the headers of each post. Either leave it up to each of us, or all of us do it, or all of us not do it.
  
  I'd like people's thoughts, because while I do like consistency I don't want to stifle people being stylish. I only didn't post Leonard's picture into my post because the quality of the current one is a little shit (working on that) and I assumed most of us probably wouldn't do it since some of our portraits are bigger than other people's. There's also the concern that NPCs (who do have portraits) would need to start having portraits appear. I do want our names and current location specified (I don't mind how you write the location so long as you're clear, nor do I mind if you use the fancy way you wrote your name in your CS or just use some regular text, though I'm doing the former and so is one other person from what I can tell), but I'd like people's opinions regarding portraits.

[Snagglepuss89]

Personally, in a roleplay I subscribe to the freedom>consistency mentality. Aside from things such as one writer using first person while everyone else is using 3rd person, I think stylistically everyone should be free to do their own thing.

Or in other words: Anything that doesn't muddle the narrative is fine with me.

[tsukune]

@Shoryu Magami
Ah, too bad about the Wikipedia part, but refer to my PM for the key points that I've already addressed. If you need more info I can screenshot or copy-pasta into the PM for you (after I have some sleep tho').

Regarding portraits, it's not a problem for me (resizing, even adding the stylized name and stuff) since I have Photoshop, but personally I want to avoid having to do such extra work. One, because as long as the character names are clearly stated in the header of each player's post, that's good enough. Sure, having portraits makes the posts prettier, but I feel that clarity and readability is more important than focusing too much on being stylish. Two, adding portrait pics to every post will actually put more loading strain on your computer, especially when the IC posts will get longer as it progresses (also, wasting more of my data plan when I'm on mobile, lel). Third, it's a hassle to do the coding, especially since I write on my phone sometimes when I'm unable to use my computer, such as when I'm traveling.

If the majority wishes to go for the portrait idea, I'll leave it to the GM to have the final say whether all players have to do it, or I'm free to be that odd one out not to use it because of the reasons stated above. I know it's a personal preference, but I prefer things to be kept minimal and simple even with all the stylizing and stuff, because the most important thing is making sure the content of the IC is easy for the eyes of everyone to read... and also cut down unnecessary loading time, yeah. (Which is why I turn off the avatar and sig on the forum.)

[Shoryu Magami]

@Snagglepuss89

Honestly, I don't have a problem with it either so long as people aren't particularly jarring. Naturally, in a novel you need some level of consistency or else it looks like a mess, but in a role-play it's fine so long as all of the important information (such as where you are, which could shift in the middle of a post sometimes technically) is available.

Even listing the location is something I only thought should be universal because we're allowed to move around separately, and while a map will eventually specify our locations we don't have such a thing for the first part of the role-play.

Anyway, I don't have an issue with either the format that you or @tsukune asked to use in PM, assuming we're all comfortable with not being inherently consistent. The main reason I'm bringing this up is so no one has to ask this question again over PM, since everyone should be seeing this discussion if they're following the OOC.

Admittedly I sort of prefer the idea of the portrait being present in a post, simply because it saves people having to look at the character tab to 'get a feel' for them again, but I won't force this on everyone and I might not do it myself due to the aforementioned problem of Leonard's picture being in fairly bad quality right now -- not to mention me introducing a lot of NPCs could make things really messy, depending on how it's done.

One possible idea I considered was that we'd use our specialized portraits (as in the ones that are going to appear on the map, which NPCs will also potentially have) for the headers, but I didn't want to force this on everyone so I never brought it up. The whole reason I'm mentioning all of this is so I know how everyone feels about it. My priority is for everyone to enjoy the role-play, both all of you as well as myself. With this in mind, I won't be obligating someone to do anything that's not inherently practical.

Edit: I didn't actually think about the whole 'pictures will make my PC screw up easier' thing (blame how sleep deprived I am -- should've been asleep about six or seven hours ago). How likely is this going to be a problem? I ask because browser crashes are a very real and very serious problem for me.

[tsukune]

I didn't actually think about the whole 'pictures will make my PC screw up easier' thing. How likely is this going to be a problem? I ask because browser crashes are a very real and very serious problem for me.

Shoryu

If I turn on the avatar and sig, even my computer screws up at times when I try to access the ICs in the other RPs I'm in because of the sheer amount of images and words it has to load up. Btw my computer is a friggin' Windows 10, all updated to the latest patch and the shiets. Admittedly, I use the college or public wifi to get online on the computer, because I don't have internet at home (which is why I use data on mobile at times).

So, if it's a problem for me, I don't see how your current machine can handle that, lol.

[Snagglepuss89]

My computer's not nearly as fancy as all that, it probably has more to do with your ISP @tsukune? Although without knowing more details about the wifi you use I have no idea.

Regardless: How easily you can load the CS tab should be a decent test, since I think Images still load in Hiders at the same time. @Shoryu Magami

EDIT: Regardless, the image I use for his portrait is only 100kb, so it will hardly be a problem for anyone. Perhaps implementing a size limit would be a happy compromise?

[tsukune]

@Snagglepuss89
It might possibly be due to the shitty public/school wifi (because a lot of people are using the hotspot, so it might affect the internet speed). Using the CS tab as a gauge is a good idea, but it's not a very good gauge because text is generally sparse - it's mainly the general info for the public eyes to see, not the meat of their private secrets. In the IC, there will be a lot of text as the plot thickens, so if everyone is using huge, HD portraits on top of walls of text, not to mention having to load every one of our avatars and sigs... even if my computer might be able to handle it with better internet, but my mobile? No way.

Again, as I've said, it's a personal problem thing, so if you guys want to use portraits and Sho allows everyone to do their own layout freely without compromising readability, go ahead while I'll stick to my own minimalist style. If the majority wins and I'll have to make one for my character for consistency sake, I don't mind doing since Photoshop is my best friend. Though, I'd appreciate if the portraits can be kept at a reasonable size, maybe 200 or 300 px and below? And seriously no gifs, please.

_{I'm just trying to be kind to my mobile, y'know. XD}

[Snagglepuss89]

@tsukuneI think if you check my edit we have fairly similar ideas. I don't know how pixel size affects it compared to file size (None, I would imagine, except creating wonky formatting in an absurdly large image on phones) but it's a similar idea.

[Shoryu Magami]

@tsukune@Snagglepuss89

Cheers for making a point about how putting things in hiders won't prevent the loading from being bad, but I knew about that actually.

Anyway, the reason I more or less had to put my foot down on changing how we implemented music for the role-play is due to the fact that only having two or three YouTube videos linked to the character tab was enough to pretty much kill my PC each time I clicked on it. The current pictures though aren't causing me any problems at all, and frankly I plan to include a picture for each NPC as well. Also, unlike tsukune I actually do have avatars and signatures visible, and the only time this causes me issues is when they're gifs.

With this in mind, I'm not gonna deny people using portraits in the IC posts, but I'm also not gonna force people to. That should satisfy most of us, I think. Keep in mind that I've yet to actually settle on my own ideal formatting, especially since I'm somewhat new to forums that allow this much format creativity. I suspect my opening IC posts will receive at least one more edit each once I settle on this, alongside Leonard's post potentially receiving one extra to make his location clearer. I'd have liked to be more professional about it and not need to edit so many times, but my PC really does limit what I'm able to do efficiently.

As for tsukune's comment at the end involving the size of portraits -- I do agree that I don't want the portraits to be excessively large, but this is one of the reasons why I mentioned the possibility of us using the portraits we'd use for the map (obviously the map versions would be smaller than the IC ones), so people are free to comment on this idea (even if I'm not planning on forcing it).

[tsukune]

@Snagglepuss89
Pixel size (which is the canvas size in Photoshop) can affect file size, aside from the resolution of the image used - bigger images will have a larger file size than smaller images. Also, file type is also another factor (.jpg has a smaller file size than .png, but .jpg cannot save images with transparent background).

[Shoryu Magami]

@tsukune

Just for the record, your current avatar and signature happen to be gifs. I'm not complaining, but you're one of the people who causes my PC to strain slightly due to that. Thankfully it's not enough to make my browser crash most of the time.

Your user bio, on the other hand... xD

[Snagglepuss89]

@tsukuneWell yes, but what I meant was it's only the file size that matters for the purpose of loading (An absurdly large image with a small file size will load faster than a tiny image with an absurd file size(At least to my knowledge)).

At any rate, we have the same idea, I was just trying to clarify for the benefit of @Shoryu Magami