Shops require ongoing support and we need to work on getting them going again (especially in the sewers & slums)
We've been working very hard to use events to steer the story in the direction we want. As I said months ago, this wasn't necessarily an issue with the playerbase being 'bad' or whatever, just that they had little direction. The creative team, radx, and admins have been working very hard these last couple of weeks to craft events that help with steering the rebs into doing what we want. I think its working and that people are happy.
The main shift was in using important factions (like the CCA) to tell the narrative. To have important characters intentionally make bad decisions in order to be a villain to both civs and CPs.
This was a gamble, but it had a great effect on the CPs and civs both. It's a lot more interesting than assuming that typical antagonizing CPs will do all the heavy lifting in telling the story. Now we know that this method works and we have to keep going. However, we can't push things too hard or else it will seem forced.
It is clear now to most of the staff team that there is no autopilot, we have to keep flying the plane. I've said this a number of times over the years but, now that we're in a good place because of their work, I think that folks have learned how important the staff team is and what they're capable of influencing ICly.
We're nothing without a healthy playerbase, but a playerbase will stagnate without support of the staff. Its not that one is more important than the other, its that they are both vital organs in a larger body.
