Discovery "RP" 24/7

[Erremnart]

I found the RP aspect of the server as the most interesting. That's what brought me here in the first place. The most problematic thing for playing fleshed-out characters is the sheer number of factions and irregularity of activity.

Unless you are playing faction with wide ZOI to begin with and interesting diplomacy, you are rarely going to have consistent "inputs" for your character to develop if that area is dead, becomes dead or encounters become dull. So, you create another character and play somewhere else. And then another and another. And then you find out, that you have so many characters you wanted to play and none of them gets properly developed.

And then we have the old RPG problem - how to involve your new, fleshed-out, character with others in a way that goes beyond formal greetings ingame.

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Captain Virginia Belle
Task Force Phoenix
Battlecruiser Roanoke
Feedback Thread

[JorgeRyan]

I think Haste has a bit of a point here, and I'd like to bring up something related. This thread has already mentioned the server & communities approach to pvp (see threat, ping alerts, log, fight, unlog), but I think theres another side of the problem to tackle: Power-Trading. Logging into the server with the intent to make credits, and minimize any interaction that harms their credits/second. I get that not everyone likes trading (I do), but this attitude sucks for RP, especially if you're a pirate or unlawful.

My suggestion, to make Discovery a better Roleplay Server would be to reduce, or even straight-up remove the credit cost from all equipment and ships. Except in a few very rare cases, we don't even earn the credits to buy new stuff In-rp. How often you you see Ensign John Doe of the Liberty Navy flying around trading to buy his next guardian, or a defiant etc etc. I know some factions (only LH~ off the top of my head) have closed economies, but everyone else? I'm pretty sure we all just log our fave corp 5ker, and start hitting up Pobs for ore. Theres no incentive to RP when power-trading, which affects the RP quality of the server. And I do think, grinding out hours of trading won't improve the quality of someones roleplay once they do buy that shiny new cap or ship or gun. If credits are made out-of-roleplay, why even have them? If the credits won't affect how soon you can buy that cap8 siege turret dreadnought, why not get pirated for a few mils?

The other option would be to enforce making all credits in-roleplay, having everyone on closed economies, and making every credit count. While I do think there could be an argument for this option, I think it would be better suited for a more hardcore-RP crowd than Discovery is atm.

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Feedback and comm bumping here

[LaWey]

Don't sure, will it be helpful for this puzzle solving, but i should note - i still have enjoyable RP encounters, but they happens more often on no-name, no-tag characters.

Oh, also that mentioned things with ZOI. In my eyes, problem not even in characters development, but rather interactions between same characters in same places. If said zone have not big pull of players, after really little amount of time everything good could turn farce. Logical way out of that - playing freindly enemies/worthy opponent tropes. But in same time, freelancer and disco going drama too hard, and make this options look extremely stupid. Kinda, if Tom would've kill Jerry's family and him raped Tom's one back, kinda hard to find any alternatives to mutual extermination here.

How real such big hate between some factions, considering their real lore, and not headcanons - that another question, though.

[CommodoreShawn]

I think Haste has a bit of a point here, and I'd like to bring up something related. This thread has already mentioned the server & communities approach to pvp (see threat, ping alerts, log, fight, unlog), but I think theres another side of the problem to tackle: Power-Trading. Logging into the server with the intent to make credits, and minimize any interaction that harms their credits/second. I get that not everyone likes trading (I do), but this attitude sucks for RP, especially if you're a pirate or unlawful.

My suggestion, to make Discovery a better Roleplay Server would be to reduce, or even straight-up remove the credit cost from all equipment and ships. Except in a few very rare cases, we don't even earn the credits to buy new stuff In-rp. How often you you see Ensign John Doe of the Liberty Navy flying around trading to buy his next guardian, or a defiant etc etc. I know some factions (only LH~ off the top of my head) have closed economies, but everyone else? I'm pretty sure we all just log our fave corp 5ker, and start hitting up Pobs for ore. Theres no incentive to RP when power-trading, which affects the RP quality of the server. And I do think, grinding out hours of trading won't improve the quality of someones roleplay once they do buy that shiny new cap or ship or gun. If credits are made out-of-roleplay, why even have them? If the credits won't affect how soon you can buy that cap8 siege turret dreadnought, why not get pirated for a few mils?

The other option would be to enforce making all credits in-roleplay, having everyone on closed economies, and making every credit count. While I do think there could be an argument for this option, I think it would be better suited for a more hardcore-RP crowd than Discovery is atm.

I don't think it's feasible, but the "remove credit cost" idea is very interesting.

Ages back, I played on a private freelancer server running a Halo inspired mod called Freelancer: Combat Evolved. The crux of it was the conflict between the UNSC and Coventant prior to the events of the first Halo game. Players technically money to buy ships, but grinding cash wasn't the limiting factor on ships. Instead each faction was limited by ships, and they apportioned them out within the faction. So for the Navy 3rd fleet, for example, there was a super carrier, 3 carriers, a handful of cruisers, and then everyone else got frigates.

This means that, effectively, RP was the limiting factor in how powerful of a ship you got to fly. Factions managed their own fleet composition as well, so there wasn't the equivalent of dreadnought spam, because there were a limited number of large capital ships. This system worked well for a small, tightly controlled server, but unfortunately I don't see how it could scale well to Discovery, without an inordinate amount of effort from the admins and devs.

I really think that you've struck close to the heart of the problem. The incentives for players are at cross purposes. RP players want to RP, power traders want to trade, and PVPrs want to PVP. RP isn't really rewarded, if you want the best equipment, you need a pile of money. RP interactions slow down your money gain. The system is fundamentally broken.

[Binski]

no, disco isn't dead because we haven't invested enough in POBs, and POBs will not create serious roleplay because the standard POB RP setup is as follows

1. post that you found POB
   
2. post that you want to attack POB
   
3. post attack declaration (skip here if POB is core 1)
   
4. attack POB
   

territory control does not inspire effort, territory control inspires people to min/max how to win, as the modern POB system helpfully demonstrates by being an efficient machine to print butthurt on both sides regardless of loss, because sieging is also just a massive timewaster where you sit on a battleship, hold down RMB, turn off your hud, alt+tab, and then go read sadpanda or something while you contemplate why you're busy idling a process for a game from 2003 in the background for some territory control bunkum

The entire situation is salvageable. I believe its siege mechanics that should change. For the most part, bases seem to need to be able to start out stronger, with more of everything. They could start out with maybe double the base storage capacity, make it easier to get a shield up and running, start out with much more HP, at least 200 million. Base turrets could be made BS cerbs so they start with basic defenses. In turn, the cost should go up so it might cost 50 million to drop a base.

And to counter, add a siege barge, as a trebuchet/artillery ship that moves slow but has a long range and high firepower. Maybe lower capital DPH in general so that only battleships really have the firepower to effect bases, and the siege barges. Then sieges will often become fleets moving in their siege ships and try to protect them while it does most of the work.

Blah blah blah yes I know but here pvp and rp are linked. Unless the suggestion is to end pvp so we all have no choice but to sit around and chat, it comes down to controlling activity right.

[diamond1]

Only reason i'm even here is because I don't want to be constantly at the mercy of people wanting to shoot first and ask questions later. That's why i like discovery because the RP gives me a ( Albiet very poorly in most cases ) chance to try and mitigate any possible of combat for a chance of good roleplay. I didn't Reeeeeaaaalllyy come here just to pew, I got other space games for that. I joined discovery because i came from other roleplay environments and I wanted to live out a "In-real-time" of what i kinda wanted as freelancer 2.0 If it were to suddenly change to fit like any other modded community then i doubt i'd return honestly.

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[Kauket]

Can you really blame people to mainly PvP on the last active bastion of a game that has pretty much been developed exclusivly for combat?

Discovery is not just the home of roleplay enthusiasts anymore, it hasnt been in a long time. There are plenty of people who play for the fights and not to develop their characters or to participate in a grand story, and that is fine. Those who want to roleplay will find encounters ingame or they can use the Forum.

This. You're not going to have another Freelancer server, they're all more or less dead and don't guarantee larger fights. This is still ultimately a combat game.

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[Enkidu]

I consistently RP a character. I killed off every character that felt like a self-insert. The thing which tilts me and gets under my skin is when a minority of people don't play by the same rules and try to Oorp and metagame using their characters to throw the other characters under the bus, as they have some sort of unspoken assumption that everyone is acting in bad faith. At that point, players are punishing other players for RPing. The punishment isn't PVP - PVP is a part of RP, but the punishent is using Oorp social engineering considerations to influence the RP as you desire.

It only takes a very small minority to have a very large spoiling influence.

Then everyone goes around saying it's a combat game to excuse this bad behaviour. Dungeons and Dragons is a combat game when you get down to it. The Combat and the RP do not exist in some kind of polar dichotomy anywhere else except Discovery.

New players, who are the flesh and bone of the server, do not have this problem or perceive these flawed perceptual dynamics in this way.

We need to find ways to ensure RP and PVP can both occur without compromise. A good start would be deleting the set message system from existence.

I think something that ties in a good example of both cases being put into play is the current active GC- faction. I hear a lot of people giving them criticism for being a "circlejerk" or "why are GC- going to iota?" who cares? A lot of them are new, they may not be the "best" players but they do their own thing and stick to their own narrative. I don't see them obsessing over story in their chat all the time. I see them all in vc flying around and interacting together and with others. THIS is how it should be for all factions, even our senior ones. From the characters played to the players themselves. The roleplay "talent" or "knowledge" ill say comes with time. A lot of people personify themselves into characters, I know I did. But over time I think people that care about their characters start to give them their own personality etc etc.

I don't think it's realistic to make the demands of everyone being on top of their game, that every character will be a "main" or "detailed" one. But I would like to see more real characters entering the game in general, and a larger investment into those characters.

Maybe my points sound like a bunch of gibberish but this is my opinion. Above all, I don't think discovery is too far gone. It took a lot of hits with drama and leadership changes over the years. But it's slowly starting to take steps back in the right direction, more threads like this, and more talks like this will help it heal I think.

I agree here.

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THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)

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[Chronicron]

We might be nearing the chaotic evil ending then.

But as an experienced roleplayer I also find it difficult to find good casual RP interactions, not to mention that these days role-playing on disco is considered as something to be ashamed of. Not because of the staff or anything, the issue lies within the community itself and there's no real way to change how people think. However, if the situation is as dire as it looks, it might be worth considering making roleplay a bit more rewarding than PvP for a good while.

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This is a feature as most Discovery players would not receive a response from women.

[Major.]

People talking about RP, but a good amount of people participate here with /l1 /l2.

Or their epic *sniff*, /l2 RP.

Anyway, RP'ing is cool and fun, but trying that on a unlawful character for example with a trader is almost impossible. Most of the time he will run away, and dock before you could even say hello.

Should my char listen to a Hessian that probably already shot down a few RM pilots, probably not.
Should my char listen to a Bundschuh that is currently on his scanner, maybe.

It's case by case and always depends on the char.

The RP quality dropped alot in a few houses. From broken English Ivan who just wants to fly his capital ship and shoots all the reds he can find, or a long ass post from Tanith which actually has RP quality. (Nothing against you Tanith, I just took you because of your transmission with 100000 words, but still has quality)

Is it fixable? Yes
Does it require effort from the Community? Yes

And I think there is the problem, it's not the game or the engine that limits us, it's actually us.

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