Sorry it's taken me a while to get back to this post; event set up and catching up with wider duties and more practice of course and...
So to answer your question about length, it's partly that there has to be some minimum limit to just stop people submitting nonsense and then rules-lawyering to try and gum up the entire system. For instance they could just submit "So and so sucks". "His friend sucks" "they all suck" and claim 3 different stories. 500 words was the limit for recent Mythic competition submissions and isn't that much individually; your own post itself is 532 words according to Open Office! 3 posts like that a week would get you to near the System cap within a year then. I've not been too strict on that for the submissions so far, because I know every story needs to be a long one, but the final decision has to remain mine to protect the entire enterprise.
I added more lenient points values for visual media like YouTube videos and webcomics because those are the best ways to advertise the game at the moment, and after all not everyone is good at roleplay or is interested in it, and they can take a bit more work to make.
The scale is a direct clone of the Royal Investigator system; remember it's not supposed to be easily achieved because the sashes are both individually named and uniquely labelled. Every Royal Investigator sash is a genuine rare, the equivalent or better in limited availability of many rare drops from a monster during an Event, but there will also be more "Name Rank 1" globally than "Rank 2", and the corresponding worth of the item will thus be much, much more as you progress up the ranks. It's a way to reward those who can't compete in combat events against the over-geared etc, but who still take part; but you do have to take part in
something. If you were getting Sashes every week, it would mean people who posted were more rewarded over time than those who actually attended the events, as well as destroying a chunk of the rares market. It's a fine balancing act, and I'll be watching the expansion of it closely; Europa is the trail blazer for the Archivist system, and if we can prove it creates a lot of great content, and new interest in the game, we'll have succeeded in the main goal.
Regarding the joke titles, some liked the Tea Boy, some seemed to not like the Book Monkey. I can possibly change the latter then, but the Archivist titles don't have any meaning in game lore; the Investigator ones do for roleplay reasons, because you are official agents of the Crown. Outside of how much you recognise EM driven lore though, it has no standing with the players and, at major events, the King isn't going to put someone with a poncy sash ahead of anyone else. Again, it's just a way to support those who want to be more creative with the game world and don't want too, or accidentally missed the EM driven Investigator events.
But yes, I can only award sashes I'm afraid. Again, they are uniquely labelled sashes and thus true rares. Ones you can wear and show off at events... or not. But they have your name on them, so in years to come people will remember what you did as well as the item's rarity.
I cannot give unique titles outside of a system that is available to all people I'm afraid, as that would be favouritism. Who am I to judge the best Miner? However you can all submit stories and thus someone on 100 Archivist points has submitted as much lore for the game as anyone else with 100 points. Likewise the Investigator system.
Once you are taking part though, I can use your submissions to improve my own stories and engage you more. Using the Trinsic Beacon this weekend for instance proved a useful hook for an event I was working on in the background. I can't promise that will always be the case (some fights you have to win/lose for the global story to make sense) but if someone sees your poncy sash and fancies writing too because they could get one, the chances of me making a much more natural, dynamic story from the actual players adventures on Europa increases. Thus, don't get too hung up on the mechanics of the system, simply use it to try and improve our shared world... which is why it's really there
