[Arakawa Kaida]

Hello all. I wanted to bring forward a potential suggestion for the NPC Mod position. Currently being an NPC mod is very demanding and with very little reward. While a few of our NPC mods are very active and do it for the sake of others I as a player who has benefitted from their time and efforts think that they should see a little kickback for being as awesome as they are. Likewise I firmly believe that should there be some minor incentive we would see more folks willing to NPC mod for others and some of our more skilled writers inclined to volunteer for the position. With the added benefit of having further active NPC mods meaning our Gmods do not have to dedicate as much time to NPC'ing and can focus more on their own duties and have more free time. Which gives the added benefit of likewise freeing up Admins. 

After a bit of discussion in regards to how the backend of the server works in xp distribution I would like to suggest the NPC mods be allowed to gain xp for their posts and be able to transfer it to a character of their choice upon request. Below I've laid out a few suggested xp schemes for staff perusal. 

• 1:1 Same xp scheme as player characters with 5xp per 1 post. This is the highest xp payout of the lot, but also I feel the simplest to implement and has the best chance of encouraging activity.
  
• 2:1 This Scheme requires a NPC mod to post 2 posts per 5xp earned. Double what a player character must post to earn xp.
  
• 10:50 Stipend. This method requires a NPC mod to post 10 posts to earn 50xp. This maths out the same as the 1:1, but rather then get the xp per post it's rewarded out for every 10 posts completed.
  

Given that NPC mods unlike players cannot turn in missions or trainings for additional xp rewards the player xp earned versus what an NPC mod would earn still weighs heavily in favor of the Player, but does give NPC mods something for their hard work as thanks. Which I feel as a player is very important given NPC mods actively contribute to the story of those around them and help bring a lot of joy and life to the server. 

Thank you staff for taking the time to look over this suggestion and I hope it is something you will consider.

[Toff E]

Hi Keen! Thanks for the consideration, this is a super nice suggestion! However, I generally don't think this is necessary.

Other than tradition, or updating the site's overview of any given role this is a very large change, and retro-actively looking at it: a nightmare to put in practice. Many who have been NPC mods including some of our staff changed positions, and that can change the amount of xp they may have had or do have on their accounts. Secondly, as someone who has a more objective look, I don't think incentivizing people to afk grow a character without having to play them is all that smart in practice. I could never post on an academy student for months and then suddenly have 3k saved up on the character? Thats an almost unfair advantage, and in the very old and active NPC mods cases that could practically double a character's wealth in XP, which I generally don't think is a smart idea for anyone to follow.

[Arakawa Kaida]

How this would effect accounts and the back-end of things was one of my concerns and why I sat down with Yoritomo to inquire about how XP is distributed using the server's xp code. While I do not believe back-pay should be a thing I feel that NPC mods going forward should be rewarded for their work. They are facilitating other people having fun and giving their time to others that they could be spending instead on their own characters. With the reward scheme's offered they still would get less xp then had they instead ignored their work as an NPC mod to focus on their own personal plots. NPC mods also have dedicated NPC accounts. If the concern is in regards to the accounts themselves and the change over should they become staff it's not that difficult with Proboards to set up a dedicated staff account separate from their NPC one and retire the NPC account should they be promoted.

Given we currently have multiple NPC mods holding the position without actually doing the work in order to focus on improving their own characters I feel that those people appear to need more incentivizing. As there must be some reason we have multiple NPC mods with no posts or less then twenty-five posts on their NPC mod accounts.

[Yoshiko]

I'll bring this up in staff for discussion.

We'll try to have a detailed reply by the 30th.

Thank you!

-Yoshiko