IF anyone rped in WoW they'd know what i mean, the rp there died drastically once people started running around making stories that had nothing to do with anything given in the warcraft storyline. People being half Elf half water serpent and transforming between the two, or more powerful then the games given main source of evil at the time Illidian. That stuff killed it, even with a well thought up backstory, give me ANY idea and ill give you a good backstory within an hour. Could someone say "but their story added more possibilities for RP"? Yes. Did it cut down the scale of rp by creating SO many side factions and non-story related characters? Yes. In the long run did rp turn into something where no faction had a recognizable player size or powerful faction, even for a game like WoW with the highest active account base at the moment...Yes.
For being a private server with the admins and mod gods talking to the players regularly, the game story could go the way the players drive it better than any other game ive rped in i believe. However the players dont drive the story that gives me a sad face =[ <<<see. The LNS is basically the same deal as the LPI, just two different faction names that seperate the player base slightly more, the corsairs and outcasts have a ton of inside factions between the two. If a single player was the head of each major house faction, and there were no side player made groups, their would be highly seen strength of each faction, and the personality and goals of that faction wouldnt be so hard to understand. Okay here is an example of what i mean.
Say Rheinland and Liberty were each propelled by a single person as their "president" basically. Those two could work out within reason RP events that would further the story of their House factions, and have the player base to make it large scale + recognized throughout their entire faction that the story has moved in a certain direction, I.E Libert forces just fortified themself outside the Hamburg Jumpgate, have an RP event with balanced forces of Rheinland trying to push them back through the Jump Gate. Say rheinland fails so Liberty pushes forward to Hamburg. Of course keep it within reason we cant have Rheinland wiped out within a week. Or say Liberty Fails and Rheinland decides to move on through Bering and the Texas Jump Gate, or maybe after substaining heavy loses they call a cease fire, who knows. But just say Hamburg was taken by Liberty, in the next update the mods could make Hamburg be under Liberty Control.
That is just an EXAMPLE, im not saying they should go to war, its an example of how the story itself could be driven forward by the players, and the face of the map changed accordingly by the mods who would respect the direction of the rp within reason. I actually believe the admins and mods would go with this as it would take work of admins, since players themself would probably be reprimanded heavily by their own faction if they were playing outside the rules.
The game is no doubt fun currently, i just think it could improve if we saturated factions rather then split them up into inside mini factions within a faction, with more probably in thought or coming monthly.
"Everyone wants to be super ninja cyborg mutant telepathic alien pirate assassins, nobody wants to be Liberty Naval patrol gamma-6 or Synth Foods Convoy Alpha-1"
Most of my characters are fairly 'normal', some have specialized training (like my hogosha) or are very keen when it comes to scamming people (my junker), or are very quick learners and knowledgable tacticians (my order character), but none of them have superpowers.
I don't think we really have the super-power disease here, though. Most of the stories on the forums, currently, are about "average joes," so to speak. We don't really have all that many AI ninja smugglers, or something of that sort, though, I wish there were less AI running about.
Onto the thought of side factions, who is who to say that there are enough factions per player faction? Who has the right to do that? It's not any one person's, or group of people's, place to say that someone can't play something that they want to play (Unless they're disruptive, that's the admin's job). It's one of those things that just reminds us that it's a game.
With players driving storylines, it's very difficult to organize such things, nor is it easy to control what happens once it is organized. Fairplay is the term that comes to mind, and a lot of people, both in Liberty and Rheinland, are kind of loathing the prospect of a war because they predict utter chaos because such things simply cannot be organized or controlled. At least, that's what I've seen. It's simply much too difficult to organize, and so, it's the player's discretion to do what they'd like to do, within the reasonable bounds of roleplay and fairplay.
[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.
Well yes, as Tenacity said, everyone wants to be the guy in charge. Although I like being in a position of power, I do not mind at all being the lower ranked guy and taking orders, I even take comfort in that.
And yes, I have always been pro-faction to call it that, not against anything like indies and their freedoms and such(Having quite a good number of indies myself), but I always wanted better strength in factions.
However, to take the example of say the SOB, 101st and RoS, those factions are all needed, there is no way that only one could exist.
The key thing though, is that they act like one, because after all they are in RP the same NPC faction. Just like I took that example, the one of Benitez/OPG/Whatever else there is could be made.
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<span style="color:#000000">All morons hate it when you call them a moron.
My Order character is an elite operative/spook (note exactly an elite pilot, though), but none of my characters are at all superhuman... Hackworth developed experimental cybernetics which allow him to neurally control ships and other computer systems, but he has to be physically 'jacked in' or be using specialized remote drones.
Psionic ability is canon in Freelancer... Though it seems rather limited. Telepathic communication on the part of nomads, and that one human precog, but it's apparently pretty mythical as far as most people are concerned, and with no examples of more 'extreme' abilities, such as powerful psychokinesis or mind control (other than nomads possessing people, of course). That's not to say that there isn't opportunity for strange abilities depending on good RP, as long as those abilities don't try and force others into things. Player characters are by definition pretty exceptional, after all.
Aside from the character I placed in charge of the Congress (who IS the cyborg ninja pirate), all my characters are normal. But he's far from all-powerful, basically he's a faulty prototype who needs constant maintenance and replacement parts. He's got snazzy superhuman capacities like control-override hardwired to his nervous system, but it comes at the price of his ability to identify with normal flesh-and-blood people.
My Bretonian Junker is discharged from the Armed Forces and did time in Newgate.
My two others are a scam artist and a war profiteering trade magnate.
My bounty hunter is a former Hessian and a coldhearted bastard.
I do agree that more should aspire to be just 'average bob' rather than being of "special origins". There's a lot of potential in the FL canon for great RP.
Okay less emphasis on the character types and more on the faction strength in my post.
My point is sort of this, in the story where it currently is what is Liberty's goal? How many players are rping towards that goal? Or all they all in New York playing police even if they are LNS? What is Kusari's goal? Do enough people even play Kusari forces to rp towards that goal? What is the Outcasts and Corsairs goal? Does every side faction within them spend more of their time focused on pirating in sigma 13 and fighting for pirating space rather then focusing on the rather escalated war according to the story between them? I dont even see the allies that have joined each side participating along that part of the story, or recognizing it for that matter. The farthest it goes is "I can fly this ship cause last update they became our allies" or "now they wont attack me and i can land at their base since we are allies." When things that would create enormous amounts of interesting RP would be these allied factions strengthing their ties through RP events.
Yeah i know i cant say "You cant play it this way." No one can but admins as they lay down the rules. What my point is, there IS a story to this game. Is Bretonia's story being played out or is every Bretonian force playing police? Is Liberty's story being played out or is every Liberty force playing police? Is Rheinland's story being played out or is every Rheinland force playing police? Are any of the unlawfuls stories being played out or does every single unlawful faction and its side factions focus on pirating?
Im saying i see a game with mods and admins talking to the players like crazy. It has the best potential to have its story driven by the players, and the news at bars could be updated constantly to keep all the players in the loop with "foreign affairs" or even "internal affairs". So no one would be exactly left in the dark on what each faction is moving towards.
Forgive me MLK day has inspired me. I HAVE A DREAM.
@ Swift.... Yeah sadly it would take a lot of work. When i lead a successful WoW guild, i basically had no life and HAD to be on a large amount of hours per day. In which i didnt really get to play other than raid time, i was more caught up in dealing with the guild "politics" if you will. Or going around researching boss fights to where i could tell you every aspect of the fight like i was reading an article on it. I would imagine leading each faction here and keeping it organized and goal oriented would be just as time consuming if not more. Which i dont have the time for myself anymore lol.
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