Discovery Gaming Community

Since, as you can see, I am a new forum member, I would like to qualify myself a little before starting a potentially contentious thread:

I picked up Freelancer when it first came out in '03 and played the hell out of it. With my crappy little machine running Windows XP I did 2 quick runs of SP before jumping online. Over the next few years I frequented RP servers like Frostworks RP, early Crossfire RP, and a very early build of Discovery. I also RPed at this time in games like Neverwinter Nights, text-based websites, and RL RP in the form of DnD. I only bring this up because I don't want to come across as some inexperienced upstart who's coming in to shit up a community I'm sure many of you love.

Anyway, feeling nostalgic and yearning to get back into RP (the last 3 years being consumed far too much by the real world to play many games) I decided to boot up an old favorite and jump into the last remaining bastion of player-base left on my beloved Freelancer. So far, the RP has been just fine. I've run into a few people who aren't that great/don't speak English well (hardly a serious fault) both understandable as I see there is a large international community as well as there being some people who don't RP that much.

What I wanted to address is the core, veteran players, the ones who otherwise make up the serious role-players on the server. I've been watching some videos put up by various users showing engagements between this and that faction using a variety of ships but what I saw left me disheartened. The commentary notwithstanding (it's not a part of the RP anyway) it seemed as though the characters they were playing were teenagers. As in; they acted like teenagers. The characters that were piloting capital ships in ostensibly structured organizations were broadcasting in-character boasts and shit-talking like they were teenagers playing Counter-Strike or Call of Duty. Aside from it being douchey (which can be justified because a character can be legitimately played as an asshole), it also COMPLETELY demolished immersion if only because of trying to imagine the captain of a large warship acting in such a churlish and juvenile manner towards his adversary in a life-or-death battle.

That being said, I must ask: is this a common theme within the PvP encounters on this server?

Edit: typos, clarity

Well, within a group chat, people tend to get pretty casual, especially when everyone knows everyone they're playing with, and against. For your own experience, you can certainly stipulate beforehand with players you group with that you want to keep group chat inrp, or that its ok to go oorp.

Most of the **** talking going on in the local and system chat, should be inrp. Even if it can get somewhat immature, they're supposed to keep it in character. When watching a video though, you wind up seeing everything the player sees, including the behind the scenes group chat that might not make much sense a lot of the time. In theory, to a neutral observer, all of the harsh words leading to engagements should all be inrp, even if its bad or cheesy.

Hullo Feral,

First up, welcome to the community! It's always great to have experienced RPers joining us.

Regarding your question, it's largely a matter of when and where you play. Some groups and individuals tend to play capital ship captains realistically; however, what you've encountered is, in my experience, the more common outcome. Often a capital ship represents an endgame type item to people - something to be traded for, essentially an upgrade over a strike-craft - and folks forget to adjust their RP to match. That's not to say everyone fails to, and there are some exceptionally well played capital ships out there; but they do tend to be a minority.

In a more general sense, you're quite likely to encounter the banter you've run in to again. I agree that it rarely fits the character of (often professional) pilots flying in to combat (Admirals don't exist to trash talk.), but it seems to be the norm nonetheless. Organised events between factions (there's an events roster here, though it has been inactive lately) are more likely to do away with a lot of the grandstanding and boasting, and I would advise looking there to minimize it in future.

Where were you flying? There some 'hotspots' for the less experienced RPers.

Sounds like you came across a spazzy video

What you were hearing was likely the TL;DR teamspeak, where that kind of "Counter-Strike"-esque talk is commonplace.

(10-15-2014, 04:27 AM)FeralCallsign Wrote: [ -> ]That being said, I must ask: is this a common theme within the PvP encounters on this server?

Yes, actually.

The majority of PvP encounters are basically just a peen waving contest.

Sucks, don't it.

This is also aggravated by the fact that you have to type, and, unless everyone is being fair and honest, while you are trying to engage in RP, the enemy may be trying to jockey to an advantageous position. Either that, or the one RPing is not advancing while EVERYONE else in his group is.

You'll especially find that sort of thing in the pirate crowd, they tend to abuse the RP rules by shooting a Cruise Disruptor from behind you, THEN talking. You have to take it because the CD is not an "Attack", even though Law Enforcement would call on you to stop first. Legal under the rules, but not realistic behavior outside a game.

(10-15-2014, 01:35 PM)Chrystoph Wrote: [ -> ]'ll cially find that sort of thing in the pirate crowd, they tend to abuse the RP rules by shooting a Cruise Disruptor from behind you, THEN talking. You have to take it because the CD is not an "Attack", even though Law Enforcement would call on you to stop first. Legal under the rules, but not realistic behavior outside a game.

its not an abuse of rp . Have you ever oirated before? No trader will kill their engine if you simply tell them to stop. A little encouragement is required.

(10-15-2014, 01:35 PM)Chrystoph Wrote: [ -> ]'ll cially find that sort of thing in the pirate crowd, they tend to abuse the RP rules by shooting a Cruise Disruptor from behind you, THEN talking. You have to take it because the CD is not an "Attack", even though Law Enforcement would call on you to stop first. Legal under the rules, but not realistic behavior outside a game.

I have never seen a trader who willingly stopped cruising on the sight of a pirate, even if it is a battletransport facing my pirate VHF (no, not even bomber). If you can point me some, I would be willing to stop wasting on my CD ammo. But well, that is not related here and I don't intend to start anything here.

On topic, welcome here (or welcome back). Disco could do a lot with people who are well versed with the topic of RP beforehand. Meet you in space

(10-15-2014, 01:47 PM)nOmnomnOm Wrote: [ -> ]

(10-15-2014, 01:35 PM)Chrystoph Wrote: [ -> ]'ll cially find that sort of thing in the pirate crowd, they tend to abuse the RP rules by shooting a Cruise Disruptor from behind you, THEN talking. You have to take it because the CD is not an "Attack", even though Law Enforcement would call on you to stop first. Legal under the rules, but not realistic behavior outside a game.

its not an abuse of rp . Have you ever oirated before? No trader will kill their engine if you simply tell them to stop. A little encouragement is required.

That is a rationalization. With the intention of encouraging RP, all you are really doing is giving the pirate an advantage by forcing the other player to have to RP before they can defend themselves. Given that most pirates' idea of RP is, Gimme, it is a feeble argument at best.