Story Railroading.

[TheDoctorXI]

Hello all, so I'm weighing in my two cents regarding the recent story development.

First of all, I'll mention that I'm the 2IC of 46th|.

I appreciate that having to contact the various faction leads regarding story developments might be an otherwise inefficient way for devs to actually develop the story, but it's the players that ultimately have to play it all out. There is no harm in asking opinions, taking ideas and maybe actually implementing those that are good, constructive and well thought out.

Sure, purely player driven story may not have worked in the past, but surely some community consultation, input or what have you can't hurt.

So, here we are. Bretonia has apparently sent assets in to Vespucci without Liberty knowing at all and 46th has been a few times to Vespucci and Kansas. There was no heads up from devs that they were going in, just after the fact. No coordination due to this between Liberty Navy and BAF which has lead to BAF apparently getting their tea slapped and only NOW Liberty and BAF are to seek their combined cooperation? Skipped a few steps in the planning process there and instead thrown both parties, frankly even IN| and indies in the deep end, tied up with a lead ball and telling them to float.

Why not could BAF and Liberty be approached before hand? Maybe something to the effect of, "Right, we're planning on eventually having BAF and Liberty Navy work together to tackle the Insurgency. Maybe look at pushing assets in and harassing, then in a few months time, we'll escalate it to a full blown war."

A story is made up of elements, mainly characters, setting, plot, conflict and resolution. Aside from 4.96 Patch 6:

Patch 6 Notes

"Liberty has sat dormant for many months, not getting involved in the Kusari-Gallia Conflict, and not starting its own issues. But Liberty remains a house beset with domestic issues, and rowdy neighbours cause many headaches in the halls of the Liberty Congress. Pennsylvania has seen an increase in smuggling as of late, and as ever the local law enforcement has failed to stem the flow of shipments of illegal goods, this is in spite of heavy bounties on Pirate Trains. Recently, a large shipment of highly dangerous weapons were halted south of Bethlehem, and the seriousness of the incident has demanded the Delaware make an unprecedented move to secure the site. What will the ship, now floating disabled near the Delaware reveal, and will this incident have far-reaching consequences?"

Okay, so a liner full of weapons two patches ago gets blown up. Smuggling is on the increase and law enforcement are failing to stop it. Okay, cool, some hinting but not specifically mentioning any particular group - and then, suddenly, INSURGENCY WAR. Two patches later, with no mention of anything in patch 7. So, where is the actual story? It's gone from a vague, lackluster initial plot straight in to conflict with what seems like very little development between the two.

Where are the characters? How the hell did Bretonia get involved? Do you not think that they might contact Liberty and ask for assistance? Do they not know that they, being Insurgency, are hostile to Liberty and that we would fully support their initial non-existent push in to their home system? What with Liberty being dormant and all. Liberty worked with Bretonia to fight the gauls in open conflict during their war, so why hasn't this been the case leading up to them moving in to Vespucci?

"This foray ended in disaster, however, as the ill-supported BAF flotilla encountered heavier than expected resistance." - This gave me a bit of a giggle, maybe it's just me, but it feels like an ill supported story. Had this been approached and executed properly, there could have been prior coordination between Bretonia and Liberty. An actual iRP encounter for them against Insurgency. The story actually conducted as a story, driven with forumlancing, in game battles, actual RP and outcomes - but instead, this has already happened because a story developer skipped all of that and we're left with the aftermath.

Things need to change, where A+B=C. Not A+B=Z. A story needs to be fluid and this could have been played out so much better had people been contacted, things slowed right down and it actually being thought out.

So, to summarise, we play on a roleplay server where in this particular instance, the only ones who get to RP is the story devs. We, as players, are indeed just along for their ride and there was a great opportunity to have this engage the community, other than to log in and right click.

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TheDoctorXI
Discord: thedoctorxi
Liberty Navy 46th Fleet