Beginning this month, there will be some major changes to how we do Applications and Activity Check. We will be moving to an every-other-month cycle, as has been suggested to us.

How Does It Work?

Both Activity Checks and Applications will occur every other month. So, AC will occur this month as scheduled on Monday, and in August apps will open as scheduled on Friday, August 3rd. However, in August, there will be no Activity Check. In September, there will be no Application cycle, and Activity Check will occur on the first Friday of the month, September 7. The full schedule of Activity Checks and Application Cycles will be updated here shortly. September AC will accept activity dating back from the scheduled processing of the July warned list (July 30). In the future, you will be able to determine in advance the cut off date for activity by looking at when the most recent scheduled processing date was.

There will be other AC and App changes as well!

Starting in August, applications will be capped at 50. This means that applications will be open for a week as usual, but if we receive 50 applications before the week ends, we will close apps early. We may reduce this number over the course of the coming months but you will have advance notice.

Starting this month, the requirements for AC will change. Instead of the previous confusing standard, we will now require:

- 15 comments from your character
- A post counts as 5 comments (not including comments you make on that post)
- Your 15 comments must involve threads with at least two different characters

Beyond that, what form your AC takes (two long threads, one post where you commented ten times, fifteen threads where you only commented once, etc.) is up to you.

However, for this month only, we will accept the previous AC standard (three threads where you commented four or more times with three different characters, or five threads getting close to four or more comments) if you would prefer, since this was short notice about the change.

Why all these sudden changes?

Well, this has been needed for a while. However, we also have a much bigger announcement to make. This is something we've been discussing for a while now, but we've decided that it's now the time to announce and get started.

MAYFIELD IS GOING INTO END GAME!

Mayfield is now entering the end of its plot. While we prefer to let things develop organically and therefore cannot give a completely firm end date, our plan is for Mayfield to wrap up early next year, most likely in late January. So there is quite a bit of Mayfield left to go, but we wanted to let you know our plans.

Why now?

The mods all came to Mayfield with a long term plot in mind, and that this would be a game where that plot would be resolved. We've always admired games where the mods knew it was the game's time, but made sure things went out on a bang rather than a whimper.

That's our feel too. Our ability to mod has been dwindling, but more importantly, we've noticed the size of the playerbase and overall activity has been dwindling. While we could replace ourselves as mods and keep the game going for a long time until it gradually winds down, we would much rather resolve hanging plot threads and give Mayfield an exciting "series finale". This isn't a case of no one else gets to play with our toys, but rather that all of us are very, very committed to seeing this game through because of how much we care about the game.

What's going to happen?

From now until endgame, we will be having quite a few big, plotty events that will have consequences that don't just vanish. Some things may change very suddenly! There will be down time to just RP as well, but it will be hard to ignore what's happening.

However, this also will make possible something players have wanted for a long time: the chance for characters to have a real impact on the plot. The decisions made, the clues found, the resistances formed and the player plots you run all may have a lasting impact on what happens in the game.

Why should I care?

This is the problem plagued by many games that are ending: people know it's ending so they don't invest in making CR, they find new games, they let their interest die. We know some of that is inevitable but we hope we can avoid it here.

We are committed to making endgame exciting and fun, with plots at the level you expect from Mayfield. But we can only give back what you put into it. If players remain engaged and have their characters engage in the plot going ons, it will be a better experience for everyone.

On that note, we will be making other changes.

We will be closing the Player Plot Page as is

Since the game will be very busy with mod plot, we aren't going to be allowing any more player plots in the vein of 'my regained flesh eating bacteria is on the loose!'

However, we will be reopening that page shortly in a different form; it will become a place to request NPC action and exploration. Organized resistance groups can give us their plans and we can comments and plot with them; anyone who wants to explore a particular area can request mod involvement. Please keep in mind that especially right before or during events, it may not be possible for us to respond quickly or do anything that requires heavy mod involvement because of time constraints.

We are putting out an immediate call for helpers!

We will need additional help to do everything needed to get us through end game. While we're calling this position helper, it will be a little different than previously. We'll see what you're interested in doing and what your time looks like, and then will give you responsibilities based on that. Helpers now, unlike previously, will be very involved in plot and NPCing. If you don't want endgame spoilers we'll keep that in mind with what we assign you to do.

This is a big commitment, but it is also one that will only last through January. If interested, please sign up here.


Thank you so much for being with us through the years, and we hope, even if you're sad to see us go, you're excited to see what's coming! Any comments or questions are very welcome.