Sadly with this server activity numbers logging somewhere out of Liberty and growing beard till you meet someone to interact with is not fun. People do work, or go to school uni etc- none wants to log and wait 30-40min till he interacts with someone else.
The simple solutions help- cut systems.
Add bonuses for the officials, make possible for indies and smaller groups to be integrated in the Loop. If you act gay like you acted with Project Dragoon don't expect that anyone would like to play together with you.
Just FYI yesterday the "dead" Rheinland indies from above made 10+ ( 0 RM officials) ships ride in NY and were repulsed by 15+( 2 LN officials) LN ships- fun times-it is not like someone cares about RM or something..
Also second more huge problem is that PvP nowadays is dull- you meet PvP whores or total noobs only- no more causal players around so since I does not have time to train in Conn 10 hours weekly I need to limp dodge and dock to the nearest station or just to play with one hand killing nubs.
You got kinda 2 layers of players- the old players that are not willing to change in their ways and the new players that does not care at all for the old players and their ways, both groups have 0 traction. I also wont mention the balance problems concerning Hessian and RM stuff against their enemies if we does not count RM vs RHA. The IMG problem and rheinland corps were discussed up quite nicely.
(10-09-2013, 10:51 AM)Knjaz Wrote: Official faction players that are often accused of elitism, never deploy them and have those weird, immersion killing "fair fight/dueling" suicidal hobbies. (yes, i've seen enough of those lolduels, where house military with overwhelming force on the field willingly loses a pilot in a duel. ffs.)
I know this isn't a lot to say but I concur with everything above. And the metagaming, oh the metagaming has infected everything east of Texas and north of Cassini.
Well probably the best answer is to axe most of Reinland's preriphery systems and chop the house down to vanilla dimensions. That means removing Koln (srry misspelling) and some of the Omegas, forcing interactions. Something should be done about Omega 11, probably making the system smaller and removing some of the more pirate favourable jumpholes (of which there are many) and the hessian base in that system.
But now for an idea that goes beyond that...
Why don't the admins, RN and LN organise a series of absolutely collossal pre-planned, anyone can drop in RP fights on the Lib/R boarder region just for the hell of it? Get all the community doing something similar and not trying to sabotage each other's agendas for a change.
Also the Orange House's problem is also representative of another Sirius-wide issue; arrogance between unofficial and established groups, not to mention freelancers and established groups. I've tried to RP as an independent freelance trader flying a vaguely gallic freighter and been told to "wait for a customs official" for 15 mins before a battleship came and shot me without any RP. That's what we in the real world call an extreme abscence of Fun...
Oh yeah, lack of rp before enguagement. Hate that one, but that one is pretty universal everywhere.
Again, as said before ALG is reflective of the best sides of the house. Srry if my opinions grate with anyone.
(05-10-2013, 08:50 AM)belarusich Wrote: But it has good number of indies which like to raid liberty and win.
Yes but do they sit and stay in Rheinland ever guarding trader patrol and the work nope and most other time they all MND and BDM And all in texas or around liberty which is the only activity they do now (on terms of Lawful military Faction's speaking)
(05-10-2013, 10:35 AM)DitaraAlpha Wrote: I know this isn't a lot to say but I concur with everything above. And the metagaming, oh the metagaming has infected everything east of Texas and north of Cassini.
Metagaming has always been here. It's a not a new issue, nor is it the cause of the decay of certain houses.
(05-10-2013, 10:35 AM)DitaraAlpha Wrote: Well probably the best answer is to axe most of Reinland's preriphery systems and chop the house down to vanilla dimensions. That means removing Koln (srry misspelling) and some of the Omegas, forcing interactions. Something should be done about Omega 11, probably making the system smaller and removing some of the more pirate favourable jumpholes (of which there are many) and the hessian base in that system.
Don't you dare to touch my beloved Koeln. I'm so happy that besides BGS another base sells cheetah thrusters. Oh, the other points have some valid arguments.
(05-10-2013, 10:35 AM)DitaraAlpha Wrote: Oh yeah, lack of rp before enguagement. Hate that one, but that one is pretty universal everywhere.
Or very minimal RP.
(05-10-2013, 10:35 AM)DitaraAlpha Wrote: Again, as said before ALG is reflective of the best sides of the house. Srry if my opinions grate with anyone.
Thanks. The love [ALG] receives is overwhelming guys. I know I keep saying it, yet it makes us very happy .
I actually think Koeln is one of the more usefull systems. Give it a tradelane, make it a bit smaller, connect it to more stuff to the north (maybe slap a tradelane between Vierlande and Alster...) etc. The main problem is that Rheinland systems are pretty much designed to be "big" because they are only used to 30-50% (Frankfurt - West, Stuttgart - North, Hamburg - East, Koeln - South, Munich - small path through the system)... The same problem also exists in other systems, Texas for example. It's hard to fix though, without making everything too clustered and such.
I'm quite sure the main problem lies with attitude of the people who "shaped" Rheinland lately though. Because many other systems are flawed too and still work alright. Also, somehow no-one trades anymore, and only few people really mine. Either no-one needs money anymore, which would be horrible, since that means there are no new players around pretty much, or people have other ways of making money. Too many other ways. Too many ways of making money, causing people to spread out too much. Looking at the activity ... draw your own conclussion. I saw a little more indi activity in Gallia though when I peeked at it lately. Maybe it was just a rare event, maybe not.
rheinland itself is not based on bad lore - although sometimes twisted by player(factions)
they seem to think that rheinland is like space nazis with draconic and condescending speeches and all.
but as far as vanilla is concerned - it is more based on a mixture of the imperial days along with a rather powerless parliament. - but it is not and was never meant to be a 3rd reich re-inactment. - digital anvil was quite clear about that.
this part of history is quite interesting - and a great soil for complex political games far from simple pvp. Bismarck diplomacy - an adored but not too competent emperor an elected parliament of many parties and extreme visions and ideologies from the far left to the far right wing, workers unions vs. bourgeoisie and upper class. anarchistic terrorists and patriotic terrorists.
rheinland offers a lot. - plus a very nice diesel punk feeling.
compare it to Zoners
Zoners have rather little lore, most of it inconclusive or outright poor. They have traderoutes that are rather poor ( at least if you stick to the little bit of lore that is there - and just supply freeports with as little contact to the house as possible ) - they have ships that are no real competition.
yet that rather lame faction has attracted so many players over the course of many years with very little - if ever - fear of being called "dead".
why is that so?
imo - look at the successful factions and figure out whats different....
edit:
personally i would never play rheinland, cause i have seen too many players displaying questionable behaviour bordering on nazism - and / or displaying symbols associated more with ww2 than the era that rheinland is actual based on. i wouldn t want to play with such players that glorify or accept the 3rd reich.
had the players shaped rheinland according to vanilla - it would have been more accessible. ( and yes, it is doublestandards. - when its rheinland its nazism - when its liberty, it is patriotism. but it is just what one associates with it )
edit2:
i should clarify - i am not accusing any faction or so to associate intently with nazism. as a matter of fact, i believe the official factions and the more prominent unofficial factions have ususally tried not to display too much ww2. - rather making fun of it than seriously RPing it.
but i do feel that they have picked the wrong era of german history to roleplay. - especially when the weimar and imperial days are so much more interesting than anything afterwards.
I agree with jinx, nobody calles liberty the u.s of 1800 when slavery was practiced and endorsed therefore no body should even think about Nazi germany.
Well, actually the nomad-invaded Rheinland came a bit closer to Nazi-Germany than it'd be good.
Freelancers post-Nomad-War Rheinland is somewhere along the lines of the Weimarer Republik without the Nazis. With only leftists fighting "in the streets". It's really hard to put in such categories though.
Overall Rheinland is pretty much lead by a Kanzler who has most of the power with a "[Bundes/Reichs]-tag" below him which can't do too much. Now...I can understand people thinking wrong things about that.
I still would prefer a Kaiser-led Rheinland. That'd at least push the house away from that piece of history. At least a bit.
And who knows, maybe even though the Hessians have big support, most of Rheinland's people are actually FOR Rheinland's gov? It always sounds like "everyone hates it", but, maybe that's not even true? Or maybe most people there are even for a Kaiser (Emperor, btw) again?
Anyway, going off topic here. Just saying, as much as I hate seeing the Nazi-comparision, I kinda understand it.
Also: being nationalistic ("My country/house above all!" (also called "Patriotism" in specific other countries)) does NOT mean you are automatically a Nazi. People seriously need to understand that.
(05-10-2013, 07:42 AM)Pancakes Wrote: 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.
Could you or the one who flew that GMG transport give me screens of that incident, so I can yell at the responsible person. I already told some people in RFP| that this is poor behaviour and I don`t want to see our cruiser logged that often.
@back to topic:
I have not long ago taken over leadership of RFP|, still doing mistakes, which I try to solve afterwards and afterall I was able to get RFP| activity up again. The current activity might be due to people getting away from the computers and go. If none of you remember: It will be Summer soon.
Rheinland itself is in a difficult situation both inRP and oorp. OORP, lawful side has rather been demotivated with all the rumors and information that was given to us about changes in .87. Especially blowing up the two gates in Hamburg to Bering and Hudson will cut of most if not all interaction with Liberty in my opinion. So, I don`t really know if Devs ever thought about this consequence.
And the others have already stated it, the player base on both lawful and unlawful side has grudges against each other which I witnessed a few times in skype channel. Though I try my best to at least decrease this within RFP|, I still find this hard to work against a hate, which has grown steadily over years. Yes, years.
Inrp, Rheinland being seen as becoming next space-nazi realm is something I don`t like myself. It should show a bit more "democracy", which is influences by the still living nobles who sit in the highest positions of Rheinland`s companies.
Perhaps I should adress this point to some other people on the lawful side. If done properly, it could - I say: could - make Rheinland a bit more attractive.
I personally have tried to boost the RFP activity with my char but one player
can't do it by himself. As for Rheinland being nazis, I can understand why people think this I mean just look at RM reports, some people go from slightly edited pictures to putting up pics of actual Nazi officers. I am not sure but I think there was even one with an SS officer with the skeleton head, meaning he is from the death divison. Now I personally have nothing against Nazism, but I understand why other people do, and for the sake of the community, the RM leadership should really have a chat with their members and put a stop to it.