Slytherclaw's posts

Hey, Atti! I'm also a former Synner, from way back. I'm glad you found your way to us! I know the avatars are pretty different, sincew e're more chibi based, but I hope you like them. ^^

Yeah, I feel you. I think a large part of the problem is that it feels like it just sort of jumps in. I dunno.

I dunno, even the prettiest purple eye is going to be a problem if it's at my belly button. Does it feel and see like a normal eye? Will getting stuff in it hurt?

I feel like this is a themed hangout but I don't recognize the picture owo
What is the Nostromo?

We are all cats behind our screens, what are you talking about

So how did the move gooo? Are you still in the process?

Oh, geez. That sounds like the worst thing!

I'm allergic to vicodin, which is a painkiller. Makes me horrifically ill to my stomach. Found that out after I got my wisdom teeth out and spent a week suffering and thinking I was feeling sick because of the pain @_@

That's clearly because you are very cute. <3

Eleven children, oh my god. Was that an intentional choice, or did you get the 'have 3 sets of triplets' gene?


Welcome to Voltra, though! What made you pick up Mandarin? Did you learn it intending to teach it, or did the teaching come after?

I want to like Critical Role, since Mercer's voice gives me chills, but I just can't. I get so bored so fasssttt :C

Do I get to pick where the eye goes?

So I saw this when I woke up and made sure I took a step back to think about this for a bit before I chimed in, because I'm familiar with the history of avatar sites and their communities, and I think this is a very good question that's being asked. So I'm going to vomit words onto this page and afterwards you can tell me if it helped any, yeah?

I think, first off, that you shouldn't ignore the importance of the staff being interactive and responsive, largely because of how many really, really good sites I've seen fail because of a lack of that. Syndrone and Terrasus, Lunae, etc, ended up dying not because they were failing as sites, but because the people at the head of the project failed their users. They were non-responsive, they couldn't be trusted, they abused the site as a cash generator and not because they wanted the site to succeed, etc. That's at least one thing you can be sure isn't a problem with Voltra. Fozzy has been actively working on this project for literally years, and even when he and Baz aren't active on the site and public discords, I'm pretty sure they're working on Voltra in the staff channels more than they're sleeping! They've got a lot planned on the site and are always working to tweak things--which is super important in the context of asking 'what makes voltra special', 'what makes voltra important and worth my time' because them being responsive means that it's up to /you/. What would make Voltra important and special and worth your time? The benefit of joining a new site, the reward you get for the risk inherent in joining a new project that may or may not succeed, is that you get to help shape it. What would make you happy? We're listening. Several items and future projects are on our to-do and in-process lists explicitly because people have spoken up already. Please don't hesitate to add to that list.

But you want to know what we're already doing that makes us worth your time, right? So here's my rundown of some things that are future projects that you'll be seeing on Voltra over the coming beta. I can't promise that this list will fit your needs--it's very possible that Voltra isn't a project that /can/ woo you over, and that's okay and that's nobody's fault. But I hope these are things that will at least help alleviate your worries and give you something to look forward to.

Some in-progress projects to look forward to:
❥Interactive Events and Lore - Voltra actually has a pretty extensive background and lore that is going to be seen in future events, items, and features. Our upcoming mini-event is going to start this off with interactive NPCs, which is a trait we expect the site to continue having, where the NPCs will have their own special interactions on the forums. This is hard to write without giving away any of the secrets just yet, since we want to introduce this stuff in context, but you can expect the ability to talk to NPCs and lore characters, a thick, indepth lore that will influence events, factions that individuals will be offered a chance to join that will result in cool items, forums, and story, etc. This might not actually be something you care about, but uh, you know, I'm pretty biased over here about how awesome this is, haha. My background as a writer is largely tabletop and roleplay based--expect to see that influence in the projects I'm working on.
❥Unique Commons - One thing you may or may not care about is one of the item design principles so far discussed is that not all cool items should be cash barriered. When things get up and running, expect to see things like very simple, plain versions of cooler items in the common shops. A quick example is that, you know, even if you can't afford whatever special LI ends up giving megaawesomeangelwings, because every site has a special LI that does, you can probably get a tiny or plain version of wings somewhere in the common shops. These are details that are still being worked out, so I can't say much more, but definitely expect robust common options when things get rolling.
❥I've already hit on this, but expect a lot of user input. There are plans, and have been for quite a while, for things like design contests where users can make exactly the item they want and the artists will make it happen. We've already had one person make an item and have it added to our lists of items to add to the shops. Community is very important to us and that's something we want to focus on. Expect votes for major decisions, input on the future of the site, etc. Even the lore is based around the idea that bonds between people are what fuels Voltra. What you want matters, and we want to make it happen. There are some things that we can't always agree with or change, hard lines we have to set for the health of the site (sorry guys, LIs have to cost money lol) but we want to do what makes people happy.
❥Games - This may or may not be an interesting thing anymore, but our developer has quite a few projects in mind for stuff for users to do, starting with our Sewer system. I can't say much because I don't want Baz to hurt me, but our goal is to provide a series of interesting, changing things that users can do that will make you want to come back every day. Daily games, weekly contests, large scale site events, mini-events, etc. It's our hope that we'll eventually reach a point where there's something that makes you want to join up and be involved, even if it's just for a few minutes a day, you know?

I'm sure there's stuff I'm forgetting, and there's definitely stuff I can't talk about yet and more stuff still that's still being debated, so maybe I answered your question but also maybe I didn't. But what I want to impress the hardest is that our core design goal is to make the users happy. This isn't a cash grab or a power play or any of those other gross things that killed sites. This is a group of people who are very, very excited to be involved in a project like this, and who want user feedback and suggestions to make a community that is fully interactive, involved, friendly, etc. Hopefully we'll be successful.

This is definitely something that has been discussed! It's on our future list of projects, haha, we've just gotta make sure we get all our backlog of items in process uploaded first so yall can make cute avatars x3

@Artemis Red: Pierce did the Tortall books and the Circle of Magic books. Alanna the Lioness is a big name for her. If you haven't read her, I'm morally obligated by virtue of her being my favorite to recommend her to you! Alanna the Lioness is the first of the Tortall books, and it's a story of the first lady knight in her verse. Circle of Magic is a different series in a different setting about a quartlet of four young non-traditional mages--instead of normal magics, they're sewing, weather, plant, and metal mages. Circle is one of my favorites, but Tortall is pretty good, especially if you like genderbendy girl pretends to be a boy tropes.