Re: OOC: ninth symphony
@ Jacek
That would depend on how we're counting them; depending on the estimate, I have hit them already right now. I'll explain.
I have, currently, 4648 posts under the Shadow moniker. So, to reach 5000, I'd need 350 more posts before the end game; that's about a third of a thread. Considering I expect for it to there be another two more MAIN in game threads, and at least one more OOC thread, even if we believe I only make 1/10 of the posts in a thread under the Shadow moniker, it's quite likely I'll reach 5000 anyway.
However, a great deal of the posts I make, maybe about one-third, are under different monikers - usually Sun Fox and Silver Raven, but I do run all the others NPC as well. Here they are, in order of post number:
Sun Fox 370
Alyne/Dawn Sword 294
Shining Peacock 180
Vyctar 161
Silver Raven 147
Valador 90
Rasha 80
Sylon 71
Zahira 71
Rankhar of Blackshroud 66
Night Crow 63
Banedon 52
Blue Snake 52
Golden Sparrow 50
Wol-Dumar 40
Colin 34
White Mantis 33
Haxadrom 28
Red Dawn 27
Summer Wasp 27
Moon Shadow 25
Sun Nightingale 25
Starfire 20
Black Beaver 19
Storm Ash 18
Phantom Steed 14
Silent Mole 8
Green Rabbit 4
Prince Lenhar 4
Crimson Star 2
Fire Swan 2
Blazing Boar 1
Rain Deer 1
Spring Squirrell 1
So, let's make a count. The five character I use most (Sun Fox, Dawn Sword, Shining Peacock, Vyctar and Silver Raven) are all above 100 posts each, and together totalize 1152 posts. These ones are ALL guaranteed to get a good number of posts in the upcoming threads, so I would say that, however long the game goes, whatever portion of my total posts is currently under these monikers is the same amount you can expect me to make under their moniker in the game's remaining posts.
The second rung of characters (those above 40 but under 100 posts) include a number of character that were prominent for at least one full thread, or else appeared in two or more side threads with strong presence; this includes a great number of characters who died, so aren't going to be used again, but there's at least two on the list that I know are going to play a valid part in the remaining threads (Valador would be an example), so let's split and say one third of these still count as character who'll increase their post count. All together, they totalize 635 posts.
The third rung consituntes the characters above 10 posts but under 40, who are mostly those NPC who are an important part of one of the main characters (PC) backstory. I can't make a prevision for those, since which ones will show up more and which less will depend on the players who survive to the end. Even so, all these characters together totalize 270 post; hardly an high percentage of my total, so unlikely to figure significatively in my upcoming ones.
Then there are the very minor character, who got less then 10 post each, and all together make 23 posts. don't really matter for the count, since when we're talking of upcoming posts, skewing the single digits of that end number isn't really going to be very significative.
Anyway, total posts I've made since the game started, adding togethers both those as Shadow and those as NPC: 6728 (4648 + 2080).
Over our total number of posts, that's actually the 31% or so; which (unsurprisingly, I think) syas that one third of the total post count in the game are mine.
Thus, considering my assesment of us needing to go through two in-game threads and one (though more likely two) OOC threads, we can assume the game still has 3000 posts to go, of which I'll be making about 1000; the count above saive that 2/3 of my posts are made as Shadow, so that's easily 660 posts, Jacek.
Thus, after all this math, and considering that my projection above isn't counting any side thread likely to spring up, my answer to your question (will I make 350 more posts as Shadow and reach 5000 under that moniker) is as thus: I'm completely certain I indeed will, Jacek.
I hope that was an exhaustive answer! ^_^
@ Sun Snake:
Plenty! You've surprised me a lot, at a lot of times, with a lot of things. Making a complete list would take longer than it took me to make the count of all my posts in the game! :D
But I can put up some highlight, hopefully without spoiling too much things.
I was extremely surprised by how much time you sepnt with some minor character who were only just meant to have a small parts. Taolor in Toran springs to mind; he was just a messanger, with no importance whatsoever and (I can safely say it now) no ties to the main plot other than as a general impression of what kind of elitist mentality the Brotherhood was currently under - which, obviously was background establishing for Valador's later appearance.
In a similar vein, I introduced Rasha in the story only as somebody for Frost Ferret to talk with when he was running his own prologue thread; and yet, she gained enough narrative weight that she managed to be the only one in the game Dusk Rat (the character) bonded with, and Dusk Rat (the player) was even upset that she died - I wouldnt' have expected that of a one-shot mercenary that only got a name because Frost decided to spare her life after he beat her in battle.
You also did do a good job of taking turns I did not expected with the story as well; that said, I was careful to make the plot redundant, so you could hardly manage to do something unplanned for on a macro scale - but many of the micro-decision? I didn't see those coming. I mean, giving off the Sommerswerd? Murdering a Vakeros instead of taking him prisoner? Trying to infiltrate the Acolytes by pretending to be Helghast, twice? Completely ignoring any chance of investigating matters inside Toran to immediately head out to the forest where people had disappeared? Forgiving Sun Fox for murdering the bunch of teens she was training? None of those where things I expected, and yet they all happened - and they made the game all the more interesting for me.
Thus, Sun Snake, my answer to you is thus: yeah, you managed to surprise me quite a lot indeed, and I enjoyed it every time that happened. Keep doing it! It's awesome! ^_^
@ Water Hornet:
I was not prepared for that, but not was I particularly surprised - it was the natural thing for Dusk Rat's character to do, I merely expected the player to find a way to keep her character involved in the main plot instead of separating herself from it. Still, I hope she's having fun in her separate thread; I did gave her the chance to figure out a way to stay with the group and she preferred to play out her character's reaction, so I'm fine with that result. Her thread right now is allowing me to try things that wouldn't fit the tone for the main thread, so I'm happy she choose like that, anyway. :)
@ Swift Fox
Yes, it is. ;P
You sure you want that to be your question? There's nothing else you want to know more, Swift?
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:25, Tue 27 Jan 2015.