Plot: I'd rather not continue with the previous plot, as it got sort of tangled up, but I'll probably get burnt to death by certain people, so I'll point out the option is there. Or we could restart the previous story so it flows more smoothly from the beginning, or start a new story (which I have carved out right now).
Starting a new plot/restarting the old one gives an opportunity for newer players to get familiarized with system and allows PCs to take different paths. If you feel starting a new story/hitting the 'reset button' would be better for you, go ahead.
Voting and Schedule: I want to scrap the poll system and make all decisions posting-based to encourage posting activity. I think more thread activity instead of silent voting would be best for the continuity of the game. How long should most rounds be?
You'll probably have to experiment with round length, depending on the activity of particpants. Otherwise, I agree with more thread activity and scrapping the poll system - people will more likely act in a thread with a lot of posts going on.
Statistics: I'd like to implement more statistics, perhaps elemental stats loosely guided by the ones planned to be used in Nerora's Rising. I already talked with Zblader about this and he's on board with the concept. If we do this, how should be implement them? Should one be based on the friendship formula I never really used?
For reference:
Suggestion - Unless you're going to make companions/summons a central part of the part, keep the friendship aspect simple - I would make it a visible stat for NPCs (allies or not) that determines their mood towards you.
Character Template: I'd like to phase out the Anime Maker and give us greater control over her appearance. Playing Realm recently and starting to play FATE again today has given me a really cool way to do this. Beyond that, how do we de-clutter the item sections? Should the synopses be shorter, longer, or are they good in general?
I'm not sure what you're planning to do here, but if we do go back to avatar making we could always use
The Gaia Avatar Creator instead (which works a lot better than ACM for our purposes since Nele constantly changes her appearance and Gaia allows you to edit your already existing avatars rather than being forced to recreate the whole thing.)
For decluttering the item system, I'm not really sure - you pretty much have it as compact as you possibly could get IMHO with {desc} tags to inform newer players. I think having each item correspond to an icon (and just putting the whole description in the {desc} tag instead) could shrink it a bit, but otherwise I don't have any better idea ATM.
The synopses seem fine.
Characters: I really like the idea of everyone being a part of our character's mind, but indivdual characters controlled by different people but working as group (much like we would in real life) could greatly increase activity. Or it could decrease it. i'm honestly not sure how to expect that.
Multiple characters within her mind could indicate Nelevitas has Schizophrenia. I'm not sure how effective that would be in terms of roleplaying - I would limit the amount of 'mental' allies to a small number, and have any other interested RPers join up as separate allies with their own motives.
Rotating Hosts: I brought this up in the last thread but it wasn't well-recieved. Real-life versions I've played usually rotate hosts to allow for more creativity. If I scrap the poll system, this becomes very possible with decent organization.
Again, activity dependent. If you feel certain players have become especially active in this thread, you could try recruiting them as GMs.
World Map: This delayed it a lot before, as I was reluctant to continue without one. Should I use one already existing or take another stab at creating my own? Do we even need one?
We should have a world map to determine where events occur and where Nele should head next. A sandbox needs boundaries, otherwise it'll just be a pile of sand.
Pick one of the already existing maps and stick with it. That way we bypass the whole issue of drawing one in the first place.
