I talked myself out of getting raped by Phantoms...it is possibly only if you have RP that of a muster seed will you move mountains and cast out lulwuts!
' Wrote:I think RP stopped mattering the minute 50% of disco players converted their characters to half-naked 12 year old girls with cat ears.
So much true. So much win. Probably RP equals naked squared.
Still, this topic is not about just pirates and their usual lack of roleplay and adaptability to situation. Generally, little roleplay can be found. Good roleplay.
Aside from cat eared bunny rabbit LSF admirals, hey they not that special!:D, most people just type what characters would, cause otherwise its oorp sanction. Bigger part of players do not take previous actions / decisions in mind, they just act to pump as much out of situation as possible.
Does not have to be textwall, but at least some sense behind your character. Have one, play it properly, then have dozen more.
Worst must be battleship pilots. You cant have insane, silly or similar guy as captain of warbeast ship. Get in line, follow orders, shoot enemies. What kind of RP would you expect here? Military officer, many years in service, wont go around talking. He´ll go around shooting stuff. His job, thats why he got this up. Your faction and ID should be relevant to your character as well. Some are limiting alot, like LN, RM or such. Some allow for big variety, honest smuggler? Why not?
Think bout it.
again disclaimer : im just pointing the obvious. I mostly never done any of above. I know and I admit it. Will try to improve. Set examples people, not just whine, when somebody points at you indirectly for lack of ingame behaviour, masked behind truly weak RP.
' Wrote:I think RP stopped mattering the minute 50% of disco players converted their characters to half-naked 12 year old girls with cat ears.
How old is your Order Admiral? If she's under 30 (and she certainly looks like it), Im going to go out on a limb and ask you to practice what you preach.
I find it also quite eh, weird to have talking dogs, cat mutants and downright (lesbian hentai) 14 year old sluts (Robinson excluded) command battleships. or even exist in the FL universe.
Then we have the 12 year old super human thingies. and some crap from comics and movies. and other completely non-sense making oorp rp based on something that doesnt even exist in the FL universe.
is it -that- hard to come up with something fresh? Which isn`t out of place, I mean.
' Wrote:How old is your Order Admiral? If she's under 30 (and she certainly looks like it), Im going to go out on a limb and ask you to practice what you preach.
' Wrote:Full Name:Kaylee Lione Staite Birthplace:Planet Toledo, Omicron Minor System Date of Birth:07-03-799 A.S. Current Age:19 Standard Years Officer Rank:Field Commander Genetic Profile:50% Libertonian, 50% Bretonian Years of Service:Membership: 19 Years - Active Duty: 4 Years Current Assignment:Order Assault Carrier Bastet Specialization:Combat Strategy and Nonhuman Study
Just to throw that out there. If only to skyline the broad range of narrow views in what's good to go and what's flipping nuts.
' Wrote:I find it also quite eh, weird to have talking dogs, cat mutants and downright (lesbian hentai) 14 year old sluts (Robinson excluded) command battleships. or even exist in the FL universe.
Then we have the 12 year old super human thingies. and some crap from comics and movies. and other completely non-sense making oorp rp based on something that doesnt even exist in the FL universe.
is it -that- hard to come up with something fresh? Which isn`t out of place, I mean.
I was replying to every single post, but I think that everything mushed together, so Ima be concise.
Being a pirate is all about being a jerk. That's what the role is. You're stealing stuff from people. I've said it before: you can play a jerky character, but it doesn't mean that you as a player have to be a jerk. What it means is that you have to stick to your role.
There are two really important reasons to charging high prices as a pirate. Neither of them are really that big of an RP choice, but they connect deeply into RP.
1. It facilitates choice.
So you're trading one day in your favorite Behemoth (3,000 cargo) through Stuttgart (Luxury Food to Planet New London for 3159000 profit). You run into a pirate. He demands 500,000 credits. This is 1/6 of your profit. It's hardly anything. Does it cross anyone's mind that this is a bad deal? Is the choice here at all hard? Give him the money and go on your merry way.
Later you see the same pirate. He demands from you three million credits. This is the vast majority of your profit . This is a sticky situation. Now you have to think about what to do. Do I run? Do I talk to him? Are there Navy around? What ship is he flying? What ship am I flying? Do I have the right guns to attack him? Is the time I've spent coming here worth that much to me? Is Bretonia a safer haven than Stuttgart? Can I run something from Bretonia and avoid this person? These are the things your character thinks about. Within his personality, he can make one of those choices. I'd rather be a jerk and have a deep Roleplay involving choices than be everyone's friend and have bland Roleplay.
2. It enables escorting to be viable.
Let me ask a question here: who actually uses escorts? I don't. Why would I?
The chance of paying an escort is 100%. If that escort charges as much as a pirate (1, 2 million?), then anyone with any grasp on simple probability can tell you that they will never be used. The chance of seeing a pirate is always less than 100%. Sometimes there just won't be pirates. If the cost of both is the same, clearly braving the pirates is the better choice.
This is where pirates should be meaner. If the antagonist is actually antagonizing, then there becomes a chance for the escort to actually become something valuable instead of an accessory.
Numero Uno is really more important. Roleplay can be something deep and interesting outside of the written page. It can be awesome, but for some reason we'd rather remove all challenge from the game and then tell Cannon that we're bored and want 4.86.
Also Ryoken was right and I misread that post. My bad. I'm sorry.
[8:32:45 PM] Dusty Lens: Oh no, let me get that. Hello? Oh it's my grandma. She says to be roleplay.
[12:49:19 AM] Elgatodiablo: You know its nice that you have all that proof and all, Bacon... but I just don't believe you.
Posts: 8,737
Threads: 744
Joined: Aug 2008
Staff roles: Moderator
I've been browsing this thread and it seems to have gone from RP mattering to piracy. We have more threads about piracy than we really need. Fact is, piracy is part of this game and it's only part of the overall RP.
Some say this is a PVP server. That's partially true. All PVP is REQUIRED to include RP. As an Admin, I see the sanction reports about pirates saying "pay or die," not even giving time for a trader to begin the transaction. THAT is bad RP. I've actually had pirates who got more from me than they asked for. There are a couple of reasons for it but I will use the story from when I got pirated by a Unioner once.
He stopped me at the Hamburg gate heading to Bering. He began it by asking me what I thought of Republican shipping. He continued on about how Republican put him out of work as did the Rheinland government, that he couldn't feed his family and such. He never threatened me but his RP was outstanding. Instead of the 2 million he was asking, I gave him 5 million. So, Pirates, remember that if you stop me. We even moved off the trade lanes a bit so that he wouldn't get shot by them. The better your RP, the more you may get!:)
I've even had pirates want some of my cargo instead. A bottle of wine, some "cigarettes," (tobacco) some engine components or whatever but they've done it with good RP. In short, some aren't after the credits, but something else. They may even spin a deal with you to get something.....who knows.
But as I said, this IS also an RP server. Negotiating, treaties, ship deals, etc. For those of us who lack PVP skills *raises hand* we count on our RP.
' Wrote:There are two really important reasons to charging high prices as a pirate. Neither of them are really that big of an RP choice, but they connect deeply into RP.
1. It facilitates choice.
So you're trading one day in your favorite Behemoth (3,000 cargo) through Stuttgart (Luxury Food to Planet New London for 3159000 profit). You run into a pirate. He demands 500,000 credits. This is 1/6 of your profit. It's hardly anything. Does it cross anyone's mind that this is a bad deal? Is the choice here at all hard? Give him the money and go on your merry way.
Later you see the same pirate. He demands from you three million credits. This is the vast majority of your profit . This is a sticky situation. Now you have to think about what to do. Do I run? Do I talk to him? Are there Navy around? What ship is he flying? What ship am I flying? Do I have the right guns to attack him? Is the time I've spent coming here worth that much to me? Is Bretonia a safer haven than Stuttgart? Can I run something from Bretonia and avoid this person? These are the things your character thinks about. Within his personality, he can make one of those choices. I'd rather be a jerk and have a deep Roleplay involving choices than be everyone's friend and have bland Roleplay.
Well said, and this is true--but only up to a certain point, and it depends if the trader actually has a choice, or merely the illusion thereof.
If you demand, for example, all of the profit from a run or more, the trader doesn't actually have a choice--unless he gets away, he's going to be making zilch for that run whether he pays or you kill him. If he pays, he needs to finish the leg at a zero profit, and runs the risk of running into more pirates which would result in a whole lot of wasted time for him. On the other hand, if he dies, he has only wasted the time of the leg up to the point that he met the pirate, and he can immediately start another (profit-making) leg. He still "lost," he just lost less than he would've had he paid.
It's basically the "just kill me it's faster" problem, which is almost entirely the pirate's fault. If you as a pirate put someone into a position where (OORP, obviously) they're better off dying to your guns than paying you, then you are being an OORP jerk and are pretty much just fishing for blue messages.
This is even more of a problem if the pirate is equipped (or in a group) such that the trader doesn't actually stand a chance of getting away. The trader is essentially placed into a no-win situation, where all options suck, and that's not even remotely fun.