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+--- Thread: Missed Opportunities - Forced Story Is Bad (/showthread.php?tid=168636)
Missed Opportunities - Forced Story Is Bad - Lythrilux - 03-12-2019
Quote:- Storyline: Rheinland has launched an offensive against Kusari in Sigma-21 and Honshu.
- Storyline: Ageira had initiated construction of a jump gate to Sigma-21 in the Honshu system prior to Rheinland's offensive.
- Storyline: Bretonia's Battleship Gwent has been destroyed by the Hessian Battleship Kassel in Omega-3. However, the Kassel has been heavily damaged by the unexpected presence of the Norfolk's battlegroup, which had entered the system a few days prior.
- Storyline: Battleship Fes has arrived in Omega-47 while en route to Omega-49.
Changed: The first part of EFL's new trade lane in Frankfurt is now operational.
- Changed: EFL Trade lane foundations have been laid down in Sigma-15
The above are massive changes in the story and even amount to considerable political shifts. Yet none of them have been represented by events, roleplay or any kind of activity to signify that they actually took place. I may be wrong about one or two of them, but the point remains the same for the rest.
It's actually kind of funny to see some of the comms post-patch where characters and factions are frantically scrambling to catch up to these major changes, as if they happened over night. The tea-spitting reaction of the BAF admiralty must have been priceless. The lines between oorp and inrp get blurred, and the characters are just as surprised as we are.
Jokes aside, why push things so artificially? The Rheinland-Kusari war is dead, and yet again another major plot development has been written in whilst their military playerbases are largely uninterested and activity is stagnant; and that's a consequence of forcing plot advancements without involving the players in any level of the roleplay at all.
The Omega stuff recently, whilst it did stem from artificial RP initially, has/was taken over by the players and lead to lots of organic roleplay and activity. The best and most active points of Disco history have directly come from organic roleplay.
So it really sucks to see a ton of new plot points forced into an emerging player story with pre-determined outcomes. This is how you kill activity and interest. What if there was an official storyline event between BAF and the Hessians in Omega-3, with a player-determined outcome, that decided the fates of the Kessel and the Gwent? What if there was a lengthy chain of supply RP, to help arm the Norfolk battlegroup before it moved into Omega-3? What if the Coalition or Core had the chance to intercept the Fes and ground it in Omega-47? Imagine if we had activity creating events for all those updates in the story notes.
The list of potential examples goes on and on, and I just don't get why time and time again these opportunities to get the playerbase invested in the mod and story are seemingly deliberately missed in favour of forced storylines people aren't interested in. This won't raise the player count, only kill it.
RE: Missed Opportunities - Forced Story Is Bad - DarkTails - 03-12-2019
He's right. Beyond the first short while no one cares about the Sigma war. Its a failed attempt to entice activity and quite frankly isnt interesting. It just isnt. Forcing players to respond to stupidity really doesnt work. Its not driven by really anyone but Devs. Its beating a dead horse at this point and a waste of time and resources to continue.
RE: Missed Opportunities - Forced Story Is Bad - Enkidu - 03-12-2019
As somebody who regularly sees the interactions between 1ics and devs first hand, these developments are 100% not forced and came together as the result of conversations. Leastwise, the ones I was in chats for were not foisted upon anyone.
People seem to have this misconception because they don't witness what the process has been like since the handover.
You also need ebb and flow. Player factions tend to all-or-nothing round up on one side or the other. Which results in activity loss.
RE: Missed Opportunities - Forced Story Is Bad - Wesker - 03-12-2019
If RHA had it's storyline affected by player determined events we'd have toppled Rhein gov by now.
That's why.
RE: Missed Opportunities - Forced Story Is Bad - Kaze - 03-12-2019
And Zoners would be a House.
<3
<3
RE: Missed Opportunities - Forced Story Is Bad - Couden - 03-12-2019
(03-12-2019, 04:37 PM)DarkTails Wrote: He's right. Beyond the first short while no one cares about the Sigma war. Its a failed attempt to entice activity and quite frankly isnt interesting. It just isnt. Forcing players to respond to stupidity really doesnt work. Its not driven by really anyone but Devs. Its beating a dead horse at this point and a waste of time and resources to continu
Sigma conflict was a mistake.
RE: Missed Opportunities - Forced Story Is Bad - JonasHudson - 03-12-2019
(03-12-2019, 04:52 PM)Wesker Wrote: If RHA had it's storyline affected by player determined events we'd have toppled Rhein gov by now.
That's why.
Sure but if people knew things could go like that, it would make it quite interesting.
Because when your side knows its losing, players don't wanna log.
When players know their side is winning, they don't do anything extra, and also don't have to log to get their victory.
Not knowing, and having it actually be open means you choose based on many factors. Like if you want to help either side, you pick and choose.
Everyone here is always so obcessed with balance, but in warfare, the actual goal is imbalance. To try to keep the balance of numbers in your favor is the challenge, and make sure you use the advantage well, it can still fall through for the larger side.
*coughs* Anyone for some Sirius Wars yet?
I agree with OP, battle events solve everything. We should be having story battle events every sunday!
RE: Missed Opportunities - Forced Story Is Bad - Kaze - 03-12-2019
(03-12-2019, 05:21 PM)JonasHudson Wrote: I agree with OP, battle events solve everything. We should be having story battle events every sunday!
And then by now, ZA would be our zoner overlords.
<3
<3
RE: Missed Opportunities - Forced Story Is Bad - Emperor Tekagi - 03-12-2019
(03-12-2019, 04:46 PM)Riehl Wrote: As somebody who regularly sees the interactions between 1ics and devs first hand, these developments are 100% not forced and came together as the result of conversations. Leastwise, the ones I was in chats for were not foisted upon anyone.
People seem to have this misconception because they don't witness what the process has been like since the handover.
You also need ebb and flow. Player factions tend to all-or-nothing round up on one side or the other. Which results in activity loss.
This was one sided. It was literally asking Felipe what he wants, zero info spread to Kusari nor were we even told there is the oppurtunity of free fleet movements like this. This is forced. In one way or another. We will react accordingly to this, trust me, because this is not just gameplay wise "let's just ignore them and fuck them over to some point" but also dev wise.
What they try is to force stuff upon two playerbases who quickly lost interest in a conflict and you know what, I think I should ask the Rheinland people if they really still want this stuff or not.
But even then, KuGov and people around will present the devs a plan, one which was presented and ignored by devs almost a year ago when I brought it up, to react to this sudden one sided development.
RE: Missed Opportunities - Forced Story Is Bad - Durandal - 03-12-2019
I have made this statement before: by acknowledging player events and waiting for these story threads to be concluded by players, you stretch update cycles out to upwards of six months or more. It isn't realistic. To do so also requires players, or at least faction leaders, to know the future. As writers we generally want people to read from the beginning to the end of the book, not skip forward a few pages - or to the end - to see what happens first.
If you want more player driven roleplay that people actually play out before it enters the game world, your best bet is always going to be to proactive by coming to the story team first, asking "hey, can we make this idea work?", and then working with us to get it done.
Re: KuGov. Nobody is entitled to know what their enemies are doing before it happens. Imagine the excitement that would've come with the release of 4.91 if we had told everyone in advance that Bretonia would have six Valors sitting in it; there wouldn't have been any.