I personally think Rheinland is just unattractive. It's ships are meh-looking and the systems are dull. It's borders look like they've been pumped full of smog.
Also, Rheinland is at war with Liberty, and people tend to choose Liberty over Rheinland because they know the environment better and German-tongue is hard to learn. I've had a lot of Rheinland indies and I've noticed multiple times that what players that remain in Rheinland often either trade for profit or invade Liberty for lolz.
New leadership is needed and we need some players to donate some time in Rheinland to save the server.
Edit: I also believe we should see if things pick back up during summer vacation before making any changes, it might just be because school is ending and students are spending more time studying and getting ready for exams.
(05-10-2013, 12:36 AM)VerbalArtist Wrote: Edit: I also believe we should see if things pick back up during summer vacation before making any changes, it might just be because school is ending and students are spending more time studying and getting ready for exams.
I'd like to believe that, but I never noticed this before. Activity might decrease slightly, but there was always someone ready to fill that empty slot.
Players leave, which makes things less fun for their friends, who in turn leave. Now the server feels emptier, less rp interactions are happening, less pew pew for teh lulz, less fun in general.
More people leave. It tends to be cyclical. I'm not saying disco is dead by any means, but I will say it does feel "different" at the least.
(05-10-2013, 12:13 AM)Bootsiuv Wrote: I think that's the problem.
This community is shrinking. Most of the old people I started playing with have left in the past year. At the same time, something tells me that the amount of new players entering the community is the lowest it's ever been.
The problem isn't with Rheinland I fear, it's with Discovery in general. It's based on a video game that is now 12 years old.
Unfortunately, this is also very much true. But, with all the OORP grudges that rule this game, wrong management, no management, you name it, it doesn't help either, for in this case, Rheinland.
(05-10-2013, 12:19 AM)Hone Wrote: I have to say, I dont really care about Rhienland.
And could you perhaps atleast enlighten us WHY you don't care for Rheinland?
(05-10-2013, 12:21 AM)Rodnas Wrote: Hm- Rheinlands factions are the major problem, at least from my point of view:
Not all. I personally believe.
(05-10-2013, 12:21 AM)Rodnas Wrote: -ALG is not cool enough for the hip kids. Who wants to play space-wastemover? thought so.
I do. And 16 other members do, alongside with another ALG company who also flies somewhat actively. Heck, they're even building a base. And I do see indies with ALG ID's, yet most of them just pick it out of "diplomacy" reasons, a very bad idea, in my opinion.
(05-10-2013, 12:21 AM)Rodnas Wrote: -The lawfulls are pictured way way waaaay to space-nazi like for me in a way that i have to be actively forced to interact with them and sad but true many of the players flashing these IDs just give me the creeps in a oorp way.
I ment no offense to the people playing ALG, sorry if it came off that way, what i ment with my post- and i want to extend that over to the other mentioned factions- is that if i were a new player it would't be the first logical step to me to jump onto the wastemoving-train (as i can do the exact same thing on other id s if and even more!) - that is a problem all niche factions havem though...ironically the freelancer/Freelancer pirate ID are killing off the other factions...
(05-10-2013, 12:57 AM)Rodnas Wrote: I ment no offense to the people playing ALG, sorry if it came off that way, what i ment with my post- and i want to extend that over to the other mentioned factions- is that if i were a new player it would't be the first logical step to me to jump onto the wastemoving-train (as i can do the exact same thing on other id s if and even more!) - that is a problem all niche factions havem though...ironically the freelancer/Freelancer pirate ID are killing off the other factions...
No worries, no offence taken. I get a lot of flak when flying my Golem. But the I have for that thing... I'd dare to say I love it more than my girl, or food. Almost then. Almost.
(Off-topic: same month joined, and you have 7 posts more. The race is on.)
I joined RepEx- a few months before it ceased to be, so now I've got a spare character/Behemoth that I occasionally fly about, should any Rheinland faction be looking for time. A problem that I see with some of these factions is not decay, but ineffective/unattractive recruitment. Most people who are looking for a faction don't check the activity logs, but instead go by what they know, who they know, or who they meet in-game. Perhaps the Angels should do more stuff along these lines, but that's up to them.
"You see what your knowledge tells you you're seeing. ... how, what you think the universe is, and how you react to that in everything you do, depends on what you know. And when that knowledge changes, for you, the universe changes. And that is as true for the whole of society as that is for the individual. We all are what we know, today. What we knew yesterday, was different; and so were we."
- James Burke, The Day the Universe Changed (1985)
... Rheinland is dying.
... Kusari is dead.
... Gallia never lived.
So Liberty and Bretonia is where the action is then? Somehow I think people are exhagerrating a tad.
Wide awake in a world that sleeps, enduring thoughts, enduring scenes. The knowledge of what is yet to come.
From a time when all seems lost, from a dead man to a world, without restraint, unafraid and free.
Mostly retired Discovery member. May still visit from time to time.
Blodo, the easiest fix that can be applied is to have the house PLAYER base have to talk to one another. Quite frankly, the segregation of skype chats between lawful and unlawful has only led to an "US and THEM" mentality - and I can quite honestly say that in the absence of the other, each side of the house playerbase has become irrationally defensive about their own side, and increasingly bitter about the other.
As a recent addition to the small number that has the ability to observe the Rheinland Lawful leadership side - I must admit that I've heard quite a bit of first hand things concerning the various players vested in the Unlawful side that, if true, makes a certain degree of bitterness almost seem justified. A lot of these things are he-said-she-said type things, or things that could be potentially discussed, contextualized, and fixed to allow for the possibility of mending the rather strained relationship between unlawful and lawful players. I'm sure that you, as a player with a heavy vested interest in the unlawful hessian playerbase, have a similar experience with regards to the lawful players.
Though it's best not to point fingers, the only way to improve is to acknowledge that both sides are being incredibly silly.
That being said, with factions that are dependent on others for activity, communication and coordination is key - and it's something that all of us seem to lack.
Also, a particular issue that has made the Rheinland Lawful leadership quite disenchanted with playing as Rheinland seems to be the circulation of quite a few disturbing rumors about the future of the house. We've seen quite a few monkey paw scenarios where several points of plot changes motivated by the actions of the Rheinland Lawfuls in the hopes of improving lawful conditions have only ended in worst case scenarios. For instance, the blowing of the Jumpgates between Hamburg and Hudson/Bering was supposed to be a POTENTIAL plan enacted in the event of Liberty fielding a large offensive into Hamburg, and not a plan to just surrender the two systems with neither a fight nor a reason. It's also quite discouraging to hear rumors of devs advocating having Hessians magically take over entire populated planets in the core systems with little or no justificiation, but that's neither here nor there. The feeling of not having control over one's own faction (regardless of whether or not the feeling is actually justified or not) also contributes to the the discouragement to expend any more effort - at least from what I've seen.
TLDNR: The players are the cast of Rheinland the Musical; the characters are separate and may be at war, but the actors need to pull together to make the production work.
Then let me debuff that rumor. Dresden is virtually mined out, so there's no reason for the Rheinland corporations and Rheinland government to spend tons of resources to hang on to what's basically a desolate system without anything other then sentimental value. The Hessians are NOT getting any Rheinland planets. Not sure who started those rumors, but that's both false and silly.
Wide awake in a world that sleeps, enduring thoughts, enduring scenes. The knowledge of what is yet to come.
From a time when all seems lost, from a dead man to a world, without restraint, unafraid and free.
Mostly retired Discovery member. May still visit from time to time.
I blame pretty much the Rheinland antagonizing way they treated foreign trading factions for the last 2 years.
I can name more than just a few corporations that got banned out of Rheinland for silly reasons, and many others who simply stopped trading there because they are being constantly harassed. Heck, 2 weeks ago Dino was ordered on his GMG| whale to drop all the cargo since it was illegal to move it to Hamburg for him, apparently, by RFP| cruiser.
People simply decide to go elsewhere, where the lawfuls aren't semi-pirates and actually protects them.
I also see complaints about Rheinland getting smacked. They banned the largest financial body in Sirius then when the repercussion came they complain. It's not Rheinland getting nerfed it's Rheinland getting emptied out by their own fault.
Also, the whole Hessian that and Hessian that mentality is bad. If there are so many Hessian that annoy you - gather numbers and go smack them up! I do that with my Corsair and my RM Indie, can't you do the same? Crying about OP equipment is childish and, well, simply wrong. If I have no problem to take on Hessians with my ships the other side shouldn't have either.
However, I do have a lot of kudos toward [ALG] and DHC-. Great factions with activity and generally awesome attitude. Perhaps Rheinland activity will rise up from them.
To give anther remark on DHC- : Several times I was asked by them to come have a little pew-fest and so I did whenever I could. They fight fair, fierce, and most important the only PM you get from them after a fight is "Good fight, hope to see you again soon!" regardless of who won - this should be the attitude of ALL sides involved in Rheinland - lawful and unlawful official factions. It's a game, nothing happens when you die or lose a fight.