Thank you for taking your concerns to us; I'll try to clear up as much of this as I can for everybody.
1. We will fully admit that when we originally planned this ongoing plot, we intended to wrap it up quite a lot sooner than it has gone on for. However, due to various circumstances (namely, the Zompania draft and temple exploration threads taking some time to play out, and four out of five mods being gone for half of August or more, thus rendering it a pretty useless month of collaboration) the timeframe has gotten away from us. For this reason, we did not see any need to warn the players exactly how long the time shifts and dream shifts would continue for back in the original announcement, since we did not anticipate that it would become this drawn out. For this, we sincerely apologize. Being left in the dark for long gaps of time is understandably frustrating. But that's why we're really pushing to get the ball rolling faster and move into the final phase of this plot. We also apologize for not posting reminders of this plot detail at the conclusion of each app cycle in order to notify new players - this is definitely something we overlooked.
2. I'm not sure if I understand why lacking a timeline for the dream shifts is preventing anyone from plotting with them or exploiting this plot point to its potential. The residual dreams are a natural effect of the world, and are therefore unpredictable - they're not going to follow a logical timeline. We've left this up to players' discretion so as not to push anybody out of their comfort zone as far as inflicting Not Very Nice things on their characters goes, yes, but also to allow for some creativity with it. If you want the nightmares to become more frequent/severe for your character over time and then level out at a horrifying fortissimo of trauma, go for it. If you want the nightmares to fade in and out of intensity, you can do that too. If you want them to happen only every once in a while, that's perfectly fine. To be honest, this is not something we should need to hold players' hands for. Run wild with it. There is literally no "wrong" way to do it, so don't be afraid of overstepping boundaries that do not exist.
3. In regards to the tunnel doors, we first ask that you have some patience with us. That segment of the plot was handled by Masa, so it has, understandably and unfortunately, fallen to the wayside since he left the game. We can only juggle so many things at once. Since getting the new mod team together and taking a few months to get our feet back underneath us with some "warm up" events, our primary plot focus has been on the time shift plot that is currently running (including the Zompania draft and subsequent missions, which tie into that). While we've been laying the groundwork for that, we have not had time to revisit older plotlines. When the current plot comes to a head, I think it will become clearer why we have put older plots on the backburner in favor of rolling this one out. Think of it as a way for us to reorganize ourselves as a game.
Second, the reason the tunnels exist is so that characters might take the initiative to explore them and make progress in that regard. The code is still running on the doors, after all, if characters go check on it. We understand that Masa was a lot more upfront about the tunnels, but please understand that we are not Masa. We're trying to find a happy medium between doling out all of the necessary information (and as a result dictating precisely how the plot will unfold before it happens) and thrusting the full weight of responsibility on the players with careless abandon (thus leaving you all to wander in the dark, which probably does little in the way of plot progression). If players are interested in carrying out further plot with the exploration of the tunnels, we ask that they approach us. In recent memory, only a few players have come to any of us with this interest. Understand that this plotline is available to anyone and we will of course provide the details of what any new rooms contain, but it is on you, the players, to bring it to life. (However, I will repeat that for the time-being this plot will be on hold, as we do not have the time to wedge it in with the current plot. We also have a lot of sorting out to do in regards to the tunnels and what was unfolding there, so that will take time. Again, we ask that everybody please be patient.)
Moving onto the temple exploration plot, the players involved were told what their characters would see as the log was happening. Those characters are free to share with others what they discovered. It seems redundant for us to OOCly make an announcement regarding what was found, prefacing an IC post about the very same subject. For the record, and I direct this at a general audience: because there seems to be some confusion on the matter, the results of the temple exploration were not intended to be game-changing. I'm not sure how that impression was formed, or what we as mods might have said that was misconstrued in order to infer that, because that was not our intention. Rather, the purpose was to add a bit of world-building with some fun tidbits.
Aside from the dreams - and correct me if you have an example to the contrary in mind - I am unable to think of any plot point that we've left entirely in the dark, and the dreams themselves are only a minor plot point, not a major overarching event. To be honest, we find ourselves baffled by how much this has become a point of contention, when it is something that players can do whatever they wish with. With the upcoming event, we've tried to hint at what it will entail without revealing the meat of the plot, because we want everyone to be aware that something big will be happening.
no subject
1. We will fully admit that when we originally planned this ongoing plot, we intended to wrap it up quite a lot sooner than it has gone on for. However, due to various circumstances (namely, the Zompania draft and temple exploration threads taking some time to play out, and four out of five mods being gone for half of August or more, thus rendering it a pretty useless month of collaboration) the timeframe has gotten away from us. For this reason, we did not see any need to warn the players exactly how long the time shifts and dream shifts would continue for back in the original announcement, since we did not anticipate that it would become this drawn out. For this, we sincerely apologize. Being left in the dark for long gaps of time is understandably frustrating. But that's why we're really pushing to get the ball rolling faster and move into the final phase of this plot. We also apologize for not posting reminders of this plot detail at the conclusion of each app cycle in order to notify new players - this is definitely something we overlooked.
2. I'm not sure if I understand why lacking a timeline for the dream shifts is preventing anyone from plotting with them or exploiting this plot point to its potential. The residual dreams are a natural effect of the world, and are therefore unpredictable - they're not going to follow a logical timeline. We've left this up to players' discretion so as not to push anybody out of their comfort zone as far as inflicting Not Very Nice things on their characters goes, yes, but also to allow for some creativity with it. If you want the nightmares to become more frequent/severe for your character over time and then level out at a horrifying fortissimo of trauma, go for it. If you want the nightmares to fade in and out of intensity, you can do that too. If you want them to happen only every once in a while, that's perfectly fine. To be honest, this is not something we should need to hold players' hands for. Run wild with it. There is literally no "wrong" way to do it, so don't be afraid of overstepping boundaries that do not exist.
3. In regards to the tunnel doors, we first ask that you have some patience with us. That segment of the plot was handled by Masa, so it has, understandably and unfortunately, fallen to the wayside since he left the game. We can only juggle so many things at once. Since getting the new mod team together and taking a few months to get our feet back underneath us with some "warm up" events, our primary plot focus has been on the time shift plot that is currently running (including the Zompania draft and subsequent missions, which tie into that). While we've been laying the groundwork for that, we have not had time to revisit older plotlines. When the current plot comes to a head, I think it will become clearer why we have put older plots on the backburner in favor of rolling this one out. Think of it as a way for us to reorganize ourselves as a game.
Second, the reason the tunnels exist is so that characters might take the initiative to explore them and make progress in that regard. The code is still running on the doors, after all, if characters go check on it. We understand that Masa was a lot more upfront about the tunnels, but please understand that we are not Masa. We're trying to find a happy medium between doling out all of the necessary information (and as a result dictating precisely how the plot will unfold before it happens) and thrusting the full weight of responsibility on the players with careless abandon (thus leaving you all to wander in the dark, which probably does little in the way of plot progression). If players are interested in carrying out further plot with the exploration of the tunnels, we ask that they approach us. In recent memory, only a few players have come to any of us with this interest. Understand that this plotline is available to anyone and we will of course provide the details of what any new rooms contain, but it is on you, the players, to bring it to life. (However, I will repeat that for the time-being this plot will be on hold, as we do not have the time to wedge it in with the current plot. We also have a lot of sorting out to do in regards to the tunnels and what was unfolding there, so that will take time. Again, we ask that everybody please be patient.)
Moving onto the temple exploration plot, the players involved were told what their characters would see as the log was happening. Those characters are free to share with others what they discovered. It seems redundant for us to OOCly make an announcement regarding what was found, prefacing an IC post about the very same subject. For the record, and I direct this at a general audience: because there seems to be some confusion on the matter, the results of the temple exploration were not intended to be game-changing. I'm not sure how that impression was formed, or what we as mods might have said that was misconstrued in order to infer that, because that was not our intention. Rather, the purpose was to add a bit of world-building with some fun tidbits.
Aside from the dreams - and correct me if you have an example to the contrary in mind - I am unable to think of any plot point that we've left entirely in the dark, and the dreams themselves are only a minor plot point, not a major overarching event. To be honest, we find ourselves baffled by how much this has become a point of contention, when it is something that players can do whatever they wish with. With the upcoming event, we've tried to hint at what it will entail without revealing the meat of the plot, because we want everyone to be aware that something big will be happening.