Hey, I need an honest opinion on Roleplay on the server

[Luke.]

The charm of ambiguity and characters with personalities certainly lacks compared to ye ol' days that some of us look back fondly upon. You're an older player yourself looking at your forum join date, I'm sure you know what I mean.

Standards have slipped for sure, but it's sort of a self-fulfilling cycle in that "worse" RP = people being demotivated = not bothering to RP themselves...and round we go. The ambience of the living universe has suffered greatly. I very much believe that if everyone put a bit more effort into RP on the whole whether on the forums or the game, that we'd get back some of that which has been lost over time. There are also some factors that are harder to control such as language barriers, and with the less fortunate not being drowned out by a bustling forum and/or game-server anymore, the disparities are more apparent. A lot of it comes down to simply having a quieter server, but the question will always be "why?"

This, to some extent has led to people simply logging to pew, hence the semi-regular PvP skirmishes and what-not. It's not good for the server, but saying that will have people down your throat in an instant because it's the "way they like to play" which was never meant to be the purpose, and yet it's what leads to our highest numbers too. Walls of /1 /2 are hardly RP in my books, but it's what the rules state is appropriate before opening fire. You might say "then change the rules!" but this is difficult when we also don't want to alienate those that are following the rules, but are more pvp-centric. I just don't subscribe to the theory that Discovery is balanced in such a way that PvP wins out over anything else though. Everyone has the choice to type more rather than less.

That said, PvP is part of RP. We have factions and lore pertaining to the hatred of one-another for various reasons. It's not reasonable to think you can avoid it 24/7. Sirius is not a safe place, after all. We frequently see this conversation appear when it comes to transports and piracy. That said, the onus is on the players to set the standard, and it's our job as staff to enforce that standard. Who's more at fault? Up to you, I suppose. I agree with you though. It's just hard to do when you don't want to screw over those that struggle more with English. We're hardly in a position to tell people they need to sound like chatGPT-but-human, and yet no standards at all lead to people being fed up and yet conversely higher playercounts.

The last problem is age. Discovery is old. Freelancer is old. Forums are old. Much harder to get a younger crowd into a 20-year old space-game, tell them they have to act as a character and use a forum rather than Discord or something.

Anyway, yes RP is alive and well. The more intricate OFs produce, in my opinion, exemplar RP and I'd very much recommend joining them. That's probably your best bet unless you play a faction that is for the most part neutral to people, meaning they more likely need an actual reason to shoot you. You will also find people that want to cool the jets even if you're red to them. Flying alone is difficult, I do that most of the time because I don't really want to join factions but you will in fact find those that share that same line of thinking. It's just harder these days. There's no set place to go, but good encounters do exist, that I promise you. I hope to cross paths with you in space someday.

Not sure what your point is regarding bans and warnings though. These are in place to preserve a community and its purpose, not to tear it apart. Would be interested to know what you're referring to here. Regardless, this is our biggest uphill battle and especially regarding ganks, it's hard for us to monitor and/or come up with an absolute line to draw. Ship class, skill level, context (event? Siege?) all factor and every case is different.

---