Viceroy Odantis wrote:What went right:
I generally considered temple pretty self-interested. That is, you guys have a lot of RP, but i don't see much happen with it outside of Temple.
I think, even though i really wasn't, this is the first time I felt "involved" in a temple RP session. Just seing you guys randomly when i travelled (and i did get to delay mercs and lay a taste of pwn on their group of 5) was really nice.
LOL.. I think the same thing about you.
TTF just sits there in Dohrian waxing rhapsodic about how cool they are.
But seriously, one of the major points of emphasis put on my guild is to make an effort to RP with other entities. Easier said than done, I know. But, people who try find that it works. None of our guilds will thrive in a vacuum. This is why I have a very "community" approach to my goals.
We are very open to RP with anyone and everyone who wants to RP.
For example, Inquisitor Nyvveck showed up at the end of a Temple Ceremony. We had an RP session after that. Now there is a relationship there, and a conversation that we can resume at some point in the future. The Inquisitor wants to know everything, and the Kiva wants to make sure she is on the good side of the inquisition. Whatever other goals the Inquisitor has are, as he says, his own.
IC I had a choice here: 1) keep my distance because I know he is an imperial, or 2) engage in friendly banter. #1 makes more sense, honestly.. but #2 is certainly plausible, and for the sake of fun and RP potential, I choose #2.
Ekade and Zo have known eachother for a long time now. There is no reason why they can't talk. Did you take my number off speed dial?
You can ask my guildies, I blow them off to RP with other people all the time.
Cliquishness, or the perception of it, is the last thing any of us wants. It just takes breaking down some barriers and making more if an effort to RP with more people. It is easier to RP with people you have more of a history with, and we all tend to fall into these patterns, just as we do in RL.
It is everyone's job to RP with eachother. When you walk up to a door, should you open it.. or should it upen for you? If you refuse to open it, then you apparently don't want it open that badly. But don't complain about the door being shut. It is not locked, and it opens rather easily.
PVP-RP: Seems like you reinforced the ideals of this system, though ran into a simple flaw of game mechanics... Temple is simply outgunned, outmanned, etc.
There were times where I know Kirt took measures to make sure the sides were numerically even. In other cases, I really only needed 1 or 2 more people to make things competetive.
The problem is not so much the numbers as it was the consequences of losing. We dicovered that capturing the fallen enemy every single time just got tired, for both the winners and the losers. RP-wise, it was a re-run. Game mechanic-wise once your side started losing numbers due to capture, you basically lost any hope of advancing towards your goals. I was forced to hide and could not work on "the mystery" when all my people were captured. Hence, we got stuck.
In this sort of PvP, it is very easy to lose. You can load into a starport and find yourself in a world of hurt.
The challenge is applying the proper consequences to the losing side, balancing fun and realism. I'm inclined to say that certain people should be tagged as objectives, and of they are defeated, the other side gets something that puts them closer to their goal. This keeps the focus on the goals, and not so much on killing and capturing every single enemy. There is no challenge in ganking an outnumbered enemy. The fun is in the chase, the manuvering, and all ther good stuff.
One thing I used to hate...I'm supposed to be running TTF. Now its a trade federation, not some small company, its supposed to police all of talus space trade. Sometimes we get into periods of time (kinda like now) that we have only a handful of very active members...this makes it real hard to "feel" large.
I understand. It is hard to RP a proper "large force" without said "large force". You'll probably have to send in strike teams to deal with certain concerns.
You can always send in squads of NPC's to make it seem like you have legions of troops.
I wanted to write myself in, anyway possible, to help temple with numbers..but as I said before its just a hardsell on my alien hating toon. I helped the one time posing as a random Stormtrooper which i then acted like was just a temple supporter or rebel in disguise...delaying the Mercs team for a good while and finally dropping them all with a grenade/concussion combo
I appreciate the sentiment. It's my job to find allies and I am working on it. The MERCS just have a more consistent "online" force most nights. My own guild and likely allies play sporadically. The balance problems were amplified by the fact that what people I did have were usually captured.
What works to our advantage here is that I think people are getting interested and want to join in.