Favorite Things About SoA

So! Obviously this is alpha (big hype!) so we're all busy reporting things that are broken or need tweaking or talking about ideas we have for ways to improve current systems or add in new systems. So there's a lot of talk about what's "wrong" with the game at the moment (which is great! That's what we're here for). But I thought it might be fun to have a place to gush about the things that we really like about the game at present as there's no 'squee' command (probably for the best. I'd end up flooding our poor devs with squee reports).

So here's my list! (This is absolutely an incomplete list).

• The WEATHER. It's so pretty. I love just vibing in rooms sometimes even when I'm by myself to catch all the ambience/weather echoes.
• The color scheme. It's so chill and nice.
• Pretty much any time Mistsparrow posts on the forums. I love a good lore dump. It doesn't even matter if it's something I'm supremely uninterested in, I'll read it anyway. Mistsparrow could talk about Sirdabi beetle migratory patterns and I'd read that shit.
• THIS ONE NPC IN PARTICULAR who shall go unnamed but YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. They're my fave. I want to carry them around with me everywhere I go.
• The ability to attach an emote to a command either through ( ) or being like gobble fish emote goes ham on /fish. Just fun times.
• The sheer amount of detail that went into the 'throw <keyword> at <keyword>' command. I wouldn't suggest testing this on the ship unless you want to be the crazy person lobbing gruel around but it's so much fun.
• Thinks/feels/remembers. I'm sorry for spamming the devs. But I'm also not sorry. I hope you enjoy the commentary when you catch it.
• All the cultural flavor. Like I didn't touch any of my starting clothing (except the headscarf) because I loved the detail that went into it already. I didn't feel like I could improve it at all.
• The story system! Super cool. I love being able to keep track of my character's progress without having to do my usual (adding everything to a monster Google doc until I end up with some insane 100-page document that is just... a nightmare to navigate).
• The cutscene system. I wasn't sure how it'd feel at first while in use? But I officially love it now. It's great. I love that you can leave an impression for your scene partner after you get to 10 posts. And I love that it auto-logs for you.
• I love people who aren't afraid to vomit all over themselves and make a fool of their character. (You know who you are. Loved it).
• Tells. All the tells. I love sprinkling tells through (almost) every emote. I've been having too much fun with it, really. Probably. Is there such a thing?

Aw. Thank you!   Really happy you're loving it so far.

Other people can sound off on their favorite things, too, if they'd like so I'm not the only weirdo over here gushing about the weather 

I think Avaria is pretty close to many things I've liked about many Muds. It seems to have many things in common with some of my fave Muds and MUSHes without repeating the mistakes.

Arx

• Free form storytelling with episodes and mechanics around plots
• Relationship stuff and impressions
• Niche mechanics for a lot of stuff!

LabMUD

• The medical system.
• Code oriented emergent gameplay!
• An objective world where you can interact with almost every object, stand by them, lean by them, have a scent on them!

Personally I thought LabMUD was likely the closest I've ever been to the perfect game. I like when a codebases provides opportunities of emergent gameplay and systems interlocking. An example is weather, tracks, scents. Pilgrim likely hasn't thought of the ways scent will take part in plots in the future; these things happen due to the flexible nature of the system. Maybe it is used to solve a crime! I just love when a game is a storytelling sandbox.

I'm going to be here and give it a fair shot. So far it has a lot of promise.

For me another thing is player expression and customizing your pc and this game gives you so many tools. Can change scent, voice, etc.

I'm hoping that housing works like this because I love my pcs having their own place to call their own, but it sounded like you could build stuff, so really it sounds like the vision is there maybe!

I also forgot a bunch of stuff. Dreams are great. Tells are great. Vicinity stuff is awesome. So much good stuff!

• Without sounding like a suckup, both staff and players have seemed high-caliber to me.
• The combat code, while currently being tweaked, has a lot of flexibility for players to input their own style. I adore the pause-for-emote system.
• The weather-emotes are beautifully written.
• I am a huge lore junkie, and I spend a lot of time just clicking 'random page' on the wiki to absorb more of this setting's lore. Down the road, this may be one of the only places I really want to play a magic-user, because the system feels so real and organic to me.
• I adore this Alpha setting because it reminds me of another Alpha I took part in.
• I love the story-arc system.

The quality and dedication of the RP are top-notch. Staff are a crazy combination of attentive, responsive, kind, and able to stick to their guns. The story arc system slaps. Excellent choice both in setting inspiration and follow-through. The approach towards engagement (rewarding play on a manageable schedule) is so refreshing -- I really feel like I can log on for a half hour to hour every evening, and feel like I'm advancing in plot and relationships.

I love absolutely this game. SOA is vast with just the ship even. Weather, i sit there sometimes and just take in the ambience. Staff, you are kind and considderate and really want a game that is equally immersive to both those who use and don't use screen readers. The patience and help the staff give especially when I throw bugs at Pilgrim, ha. Seriously though. The mechanics of crafts. Its neat that combat and crafts are getting the same detail so that crafters and combat enthusiasts both get a thrill out of the game. Feels, thinks, remembers, recognizing. It helps me to feel more immersed into the game. Its probably going to be my favorite mud. And it hasn't even been a week since launch. 

I don't know much about how the system works, but the fact you can --------------------------------------------.

Edit: Edited for spoilers. >.> *pilgrim*

I agree Halima~ [Redacted] is a very cool addition!

I also love the Story Arc system. I feel like I'm kind of not 'doing it right' but I'm still enjoying it!