This is both a specific thread for our game and also a general discussion, because your views do interest us even if we ultimately decide to be nepotic tyrants.
That said, when we started talking about the population of the game and what we hoped versus what we feared, it came up that all of us were pretty gung-ho that we wanted sphere caps. It's especially true when it comes to myself and @Eerie regarding Demon: The Descent. Demon is a very ST-intensive game, which translates to very STAFF-intensive on a MU.
As such we've decided we will be instituting sphere caps on Eldritch. This doesn't mean that we will decide on a number and then that number will never, ever change. That's not it at all. The number will likely and probably grow, but we want to be able to say 'this is the limit for now'. We want manageable sizes when it comes to spheres, especially supernatural ones (i.e. Demon, Vampire, Werewolf).
Anyway, we thought up a few ideas on how to handle waiting lists, but these also came with problems:
- Just let people pile up.
This comes with the issue that eventually you're #45 on the wait list and that's pretty much practically a 'no' within any practical timeframe. This could be mitigated slightly by capping the wait list, too, one supposes, but that seems extra redundant. - Those on the waitlist get put in a lottery.
This comes with the issue that someone may have been waiting for a year (which seems really weird to me as I'd never do that, but hey, people are determined) but the lottery goes to someone who's only been waiting a week. Letting this be a possibility seems kind of shitty to us. - A hybrid system of the two.
This hybrid system, which is what we're leaning towards pretty heavily, is basically a waitlist. If a slot (or more) open up, a lottery is held between people who have been waiting the longest within a certain time frame (i.e. months; so those who've been waiting 8-9 months would get their own lottery, and if there are still slots open and no one has been waiting 9 months, then it gets rolled for those who've been waiting 7-8, etc). If someone has been waiting long enough that they have their own category (maybe they've been waiting 10 months and everyone else has been waiting maximum 7) they automatically get the slot. If no one has been waiting a month, the timeframe is in weeks. This was @Thenomain's idea, after having discussed the other two for a bit.
We want to be receptive to opinions and mostly just give you guys a chance to poke some holes in these, discuss some stuff, and help us when it comes to considering which way to go. The decision is, of course, ultimately ours, but we want input from the people who'll have to be beholden to the system.
And like I said before, it's also just a good idea to have this sort of constructive discussions up and available for people to offer input and opinions.